In the past, we have done many Book Reviews, thanks to the BlogAdda Book Review Program. Some of the past reviews are – Review : Best Seller she Wrote, Review : Business Sutra, Review : Shades of Life, Review: Ramayana – Game of Life and Review : Private India and we have thoroughly enjoyed reading those books 🙂 For readers who are not familiar with BlogAdda, it is a platform for bloggers to connect with each other, showcase their blogs and participate in interesting activities. The Adda has given writers various avenues to introduce their blogs to a large audience and interact with their readers [More here]. Today we review Six Degrees-Game of Blogs which is not a regular book but it is a piece of publishing history.
Six Degrees Game of Blogs : Collaboration meets Creativity
Six Degrees is a product of the first collaborative blogging effort in India. Yes, you read it right.. It is a novel that is co-authored by many writers [precisely bloggers :)] who are winners of the #CelebrateBlogging initiative by BlogAdda [that ran the first edition of Game Of Blogs in September 2014]. The objective was to write a fictional story revolving around five characters. Bloggers from across India came together as teams and after three rounds filled with it’s own set of twists & turns, three stories were adjudged winners by coveted panel of Judges.
Hence, Six Degrees is not an ordinary effort but the result of “Collaboration + Creativity” 🙂 The most fascinating thing about this book is that – Five characters are same and have the same characteristics in three stories narrated in the book.
Six Degrees Game of Blogs : Characters, Stories & more insights
As mentioned earlier, the book has three different stories with five characters (that remain same across stories). All the stories are set in Mumbai & Delhi. What we particularly liked about the book is that the language used in the stories is simple and authors (three teams of bloggers across India) have made a great effort to make the stories more engaging and keeping the readers hooked on to their seats !!
The Lead characters around which stories have been plotted are below:
- Shekhar Dutta – A freelance writer and also a stay at home father
- Tara Dutta – Wife of Shekhar and also a Media Professional
- Roohi Duta – Their nine year old daughter. All the three stay as a close-knit family in Mumbai
- Jennifer Joseph – Kochi based photographer
- Cyrus Daruwala – Law student staying in Delhi
Three Stories that have been written by three different teams are below:
The Awakening
Team of bloggers who have worked on ‘The Awakening’ are the following-
The Awakening – Backdrop
The Awakening is about Tara Dutta, Shekhar Dutta and their nine year old daughter Roohi. They are a close knit family who stay in Mumbai. It is a science fiction story with interesting twists and turns. Thy are leading a normal life until the arrival of a surprise guest – Jennifer [Cyrus and Shekhar’s friend] after which their lives become topsy-turvy. Every day, there are new revelations and incidents that threaten to tear the happy family apart.
Just like a Hollywood sci-fi flick, you can visualize the scenes and the good part about the story is that the scenes change at a very rapid pace. This keeps the readers glued to the story. The graphical representations of the aliens and the powers they possess adds more Masala to the entire story.
Would the ‘Once upon a time- Happy Family’ succeed to find out who are the strangers that have entered their lives ? What is the secret that holds the key to their happiness ? Would they be able to defeat the super-powers and save our earth ? These are the answers that lie in ‘The Awakening’, read it to believe it 🙂
Entangled Lives
Team of bloggers who have worked on ‘Entangled Lives’ are the following-
Entangled Lives – Backdrop
In Entangled Lives, a small seemingly happy family is thrown into turmoil with the arrival of strangers in the house. Tara and Shekhar Dutta have similar job profiles. Cyrus is an illegitimate child of Shekhar Dutta. She studies Law. Jennifer Joseph is an over-ambitious wild-life photographer. It is an intriguing story about an out of work writer, a power-hungry media head, a wild life photographer, 9 year old child and MURDER. The mystery that needs to be solved is who has murdered the maid of the Dutta household.
There is no direct evidence to link the murder to the crime though there is an eye-witness that will help in solving the mystery. For me, it was an edge of the seat thriller and a complete page-turner. Just like a Bollywood flick, this story has all the ingredients to make a great story – Relationships, Lies, Secrets, Betrayal and Revenge. We won’t be surprised if some Bollywood Director expresses interest in making a feature film on this story 🙂
Missing – A Journey within
Team of bloggers who have worked on ‘Missing’ are the following-
Missing – Backdrop
As the title rightly suggests, this story is about a Missing person. Roohi, daughter of Shekhar Dutta goes missing from school. Roohi was accidentally clicked by Jennifer [photographer] when she was clicking pictures to complete her assignments. She recognizes Roohi since her parents have circulated her pictures on Social Media. So, who was Roohi last seen with ?
Missing traces the journey of love, hope, care and affection right into hatred, ego, prejudice and negativity. It beautifully etches the pain that a family has to go through since there is a fear of loosing Roohi forever. Just when hope to find Roohi starts to dwindle, journey takes a fascinating turn.
Would the family manage to find Roohi or they would loose her forever, Missing holds all the answers !!!
Six Degrees Game of Blogs : Closing Thoughts
The overall effort put by the BlogAdda team to identify and shortlist writers is commendable. Coming to the book, the stories are very captivating, we particularly liked ‘Entangled Lives’ though opinions might differ based on reader’s interest.
The thing which we really liked about the book is that same characters were given to all the teams and they came out with well-knit stories. If you like to read about different perspectives in life, love drama, suspense; than Six Degrees is the book for you 🙂
Final Verdict – 4/5
Where to buy the book
The book is available on Amazon [Affiliate link below].
Six Degrees-Game of Blogs definitely proves the point that each blogger is different, their views are different and the way they visualize things are different !!! We highly recommend BlogAdda to come up or plan with the next edition of #Celebrate Blogging so that more bloggers can embark their journey to become authors.
This review is a part of the Book Reviews Program at BlogAdda.com. Participate now to get free books!