2.2 Stars

One Liner: Got good bones but lacks in execution (think of a vada fried on high heat- the outside looks nice and crispy, but the insides are raw) 

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet and simple life in the London Borough of Ealing after his wife’s death. He has a fixed routine, which includes worrying about his granddaughter Priya. 

Aleisha is a surly teen who works in a library for summer but with no particular love for the place or books. However, things start to change when she notices a reading list in the return book and decides to check out the books on the list. 

As the lonely old Mukesh and the teen Aleisha’s paths cross in the library, they find a chance to heal and hope again. 

The story comes in the third-person POV of Mukesh and Aleisha. It also has POVs of Aidan and a few other characters. 

What’s not to like when reading a book about books and a library? Well, quite a lot, as this book shows. The premise is heartwarming. We have a dysfunctional family. Grief, mourning, some mental illness, troubled relationships, etc. However, the book fails to bring everything together and create compelling characters. 

The 70+ Mukesh is probably the only one I could understand to an extent. I could see his struggling dynamics with the three daughters. They have busy lives, and he is an item on their checklist. Let’s say I’ve been seeing Mukesh’s daughters in real life, which made me empathize with his situation. His attempts to connect with his granddaughter Priya are worth mentioning. However, other aspects of Mukesh are disjointed and don’t make complete sense. 

I still can’t connect to Aleisha. Not because she is a teen, but because her storyline and family details are so vague and unclear, even after being told the same thing multiple times. What we have is loads of fluff and zero content in this track. What’s with the mom? What happened? Why? I won’t say more coz I am super annoyed with how this is handled. 

I did guess the twist or tragic event. There were signs to hint at it. But I don’t like what happened afterward. That’s not a way to fix everything under the sun and should never be a magical solution. Imagine saying you go off, and it’ll help others find solutions to their problems. Ugh! 

We get random POVs from other characters, which come together at the end. I could guess this, too, since there’s only one logical thread connecting everything. However, none of them are developed. TBH, removing them would make no difference to the plot. The same goes for Zac. 

The save library track is the weakest among the already weak stuff. All it needed was a sudden inspiration fueled by the twist. Distasteful, IMO. How is it that none working in the library, even the boss got that idea if they are desperate to save the place? It’s not like the solution is out of the box or incredible. 

While the book-based discussions seem nice, they aren’t inspiring or heartwarming. I’m not sure about that take on Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship. Lizzie being mean to attract the love interest? Huh… what? 

Finally, the pacing… oh, so slow. It took me 3.5 days to read a 380-page book. By the last day, I just wanted this to end so that I could move on to another read. 

To summarize, The Reading List could have been a heartwarming book, but ends up as something I had to finish for the sake of it (a BoTM read).