Books like Secretly Yours

The story is about a seventeen-year-old who lost both parents at birth. He seems to love music, reading, and a few other activities that are not as wholesome. Until this girl joins his school (I think) and turns his life around in more ways than one. In the backdrop, bizarre events are unfolding around him, including but not limited to people dropping like flies around him, procurement of mind-reading abilities after comas induced by freak accidents, and strange Twilight-like happenings.What I Liked: The variety of different elements in the plot; the book has scraped the surface of a couple of not-run-of-the-mill topics such as self-harm, rape, and the crappy justice system in India (among other things but I may end up spoiling the plot unnecessarily, so I’ll refrain). I really liked this bit: “The longer the book, the longer you spent in another world.”What I Did Not Like: 1) Plot Holes – Anya seems to join school but never seems to attend classes, except the music class that the protagonist teaches. The murders simply fade away once they have been explained to the protagonist. The very obvious lack of responsible adults in the story because, despite being in their late teens, most characters seem to be little more than children. Also, how can you gain mind-reading capabilities and be completely okay with that? Wouldn’t you do a little research to find out if you need to be in the psych ward? I know I would. There are also picnics to museums for Grade 12 students where they “chuck” school uniforms for “our favorite casual clothes” and ride ponies.2) Incomplete/ Bad Character Development – Grandma, the legal guardian and the adult in control simply shows up only to say terrible things about her younger grandson who, clearly, is going through some shit. Freak accident disposes off her character. How convenient. Sibling relationships that have undergone trauma and still remain indifferent are unacceptable; ideally, they either break off completely or become stronger than ever. The leads, both male and female, are just plain annoying in most of their actions and words (Example: You know how couples call each other jaan or baby or whatnot? The leads call each other “boyfriend” and “girlfriend”). 3) Terrible Editing and Language: The first few chapters end so abruptly I had to check if I'd missed a page by accident.I cannot for the life of me picture a six-foot seventeen-year-old giggling when his even taller brother ruffles his hair, can you? This is only one of the more believable places where he “giggles”. He also seems to have an unhealthy obsession with the girl’s hair (I counted six references in the first half of the book). There are obvious editing errors: two people “giggling among themselves”; the police “trying tooth and nail to nab the killer”; “another slinging match”; “lost so many closed ones”. And sentences like: “But apologies have an expiry date. If you wait long enough they lose their magic” – I don’t even know what that means – and “Did I awaken the man in you?” Good. Lord.The author clearly stopped trying when they were trying to come up with chapter names: “Rape”; “Who is Anya?”; “Birthday”; “Anya”; “Anya’s Home” apart from “First Murder”; “Second Murder”; “Third Murder” all the way up to “Eighth Murder”, I think. 4) Astounding Number of Clichés: Descriptions of everything from smoking to sunsets to suicides that fail to explore beyond the VERY obvious. I'll leave you to discover them yourself.Honestly, the latter part made me reminisce about Twilight – the similarities in the characters’ lives and related emotions (I’m trying SO HARD not to spoil the plot, so apologies if this is annoyingly vague :/) Also, thank God I have not yet been part of world where a man can truly love a woman and still refer to her as a bitch and a “snotty bitch” on several occasions, right to her face, and the woman being okay with that. I was also more than annoyed with the book’s treatment of issues such as self-harm and rape because they seem to be there more for the shock value than to create awareness - at a pivotal plot point, two characters are watching a short film/ play about rape and the protagonist actually thinks that despite being informative, it wasn’t entertaining enough for him and that he was bored of watching it. I was like WTF? :/All in all, the plot had potential but it disappears amidst a humongous pile of seemingly random events (for lack of a better word). Not the book for me, I’m afraid. You’d probably enjoy this if you like reading Chetan Bhagat, Rasleen Syal, Bhavna Arora, and the likes. Thank you, Writers’ Melon for sending me the book for an honest review.