The Bones of Grace: Pre-Reading Book Review

Hello again!
I'm feeling a little bored today so unfortunately, you're going to have to suffer through another dose of rambling (again). My apologies if I'm boring people's ears off.

A few minutes ago, while I was musing with my brain in the search for something fun to do, I came up with this fascinating new concept: reviewing a book with respect to only its first page, blurb, cover, praise, author's description, literally anything in the book except for the rest of its pages!

It's like judging a book by how well of a first impression it presents to readers.

Today, we shall be taking a look at a new release called 'The Bones Of Grace' written by renowned Bengali author, Tahmima Anam.

The cover

The first impression we get from The Bones of Grace is its unique and original cover. It features an old rustic ship gracefully setting sailing with gray stormy clouds mirroring the steely sea. You're first clue it's Bangladesh? The child and the man in the front give quite clear impressions of being Bengali. The writers cover choice immediately makes me sense that this is a deep book with a good well-planned story line. Being a person who's trying to bring some more mature novels in her life, this is the first green tick for me.

However despite it's mature attractiveness, gray and gold is strange color combination for a novel; it makes us readers feel uneasy that the novel may be boring. To decide whether I want to read it, I'll need some bigger clues.

'A superbly written, deeply moving modern love story' - Independent. On reading this line, little bursts of pleasure began blooming in my brain . A LOVE STORY! WITH A PLOT! I am a complete sucker for love stories with great plots! Putting that there was a definite positive.

Tahmima Anam

Next, let's talk a bit about the author. This is the first time I've heard of Tahmima Anam; after reading all the praise about her and the multitude of awards her work has accomplished, to be honest, I'm feeling a little ashamed of myself right now. She is from my country, and she is a genuinely amazing writer. Her achievements have begun to propel my interest in the novel.

Unlike most books, The Bones of Grace has a blurb in its inside cover and not at the back. The back is full of praises from renowned publications like the Guardian and The Spectator. When I first looked at this book, I didn't read all the praise. However, from the notable praises, I realized that the book has its fair share of fame.

The same can be said for the blurb (on the inside front cover) as well. The protagonist is a scientist. Something bad happens. She then marries her best friend. This doesn't work out and she moves, and meets a shipbreaker. Interesting, but the best friend part is the only thing that caught me. 

Blurb

After all this, these words were what made me really fall in love:

I saw you today, Elijah. You were crossing the road. There is...

On reading the first five words of the first page, I fell in love. I knew the tone was perfect for me and I knew that I'd love the book. Well done Miss Anam - with five words alone you've captured the heart of this reader. I am SO reading this book.

I hope you guys enjoyed my first attempt at writing a half decent pre-book review. It was fun for me to write and by doing this, I think I have a much better grasp of what I'm about to read. Until, next time folks!