Book Review: The First Trillionaire by Sapna Jha

The First Trillionaire

Author: Sapna Jha
Publisher: AuthorsUpFront
Rating: 3/5

Who doesn’t like the old school stories where a Godmother paves the way for a little girl’s success? ‘The First Trillionaire’ is a novella that offers a chance to relive those old days, for it is based on a character that helps the protagonist materialize her dreams without asking for anything in return. This might sound strange, but the plot has been woven with threads of conspiracy, affection, mystery and love and that adds to the flavour of the story.

Shail, the protagonist, loses her father when she is a child. Her mother, being a single mother, fights many odds to raise her daughter and she takes care not to burn her bridges as her daughter’s future is at stake. The story begins with Shail being held captive by the kidnappers – Bachcha Singh’s gang. The authoress has taken care to present the lady as innocent yet determined. Her quest to free herself from the clutches of the goons complements her prowess to get a government job. Just like all ordinary girls, she dreams of earning well and leading a satisfactory life. She, too, wants her mother to live the life that was meant for her. But the tables are turned when a woman named Olivia offers to transfer her assets worth billions to Shail. Her dreams change. Her desires become impractical (at least for the readers). This being the rising action of the plot, takes the story forward.

There is no doubt in the fact that the plot was refreshing. But yet again the use of Hindi as a medium of conveying the feelings of the characters acted as a turn off for me. The authoress has tried really hard to portray Shail’s hard-bitten past to arouse empathy for the lead character. But at times, the pieces of the jigsaw did not seem to fit in the puzzle properly. Some situations and the connecting responses were impractical like the one when Olivia, the stranger (in the beginning) offers the Shail an opportunity to fulfil her dreams.

The book failed to impress me by its looks; the cover seemed superficial. The lengthy monologues and the presence of so many characters hindered the comfortable reading. The editing is not finely tuned as one can encounter mistakes in the tenses time and again. The story is fast-paced but the page count could have been easily cut short. Irrelevant back stories could have been avoided.

Overall, I appreciate the storyline because it moves on a track other than love. Good effort by the authoress!

Buying Link: Amazon