Review of SCARLETT: LOST IN THE FIVE LANDS by Rajendra Sarilla

Ferrying us to an unknown land without a ticket fare could undoubtedly be possible only with a heartwarming and triggering fantasy book, which would lay stoic between our palms but would teleport us to the dimensions unknown. Fantasy as a genre has always fascinated, and put forth a newer world before the readers. With almost the same expectations, the book I picked was SCARLETT: LOST IN THE FIVE LANDS by Rajendra Sarilla. It felt as a seemingly pleasant read. 

Read further to dive into the detailed review of the book!

One-line review: 

'A fascinating story of a warrior girl, resilient to fate, and courageous to core. Lost yet found.'

Extended review: 

Plot synopsis (spoiler-free ):

The book takes off with princess Scarlett and her parents, King Xavier and Queen Adeline, reigning the Sky Kingdom. They are stuck in a battle with the dark forces. Scarlett shows unmatched courage in battling the forces, but gets lost in the five lands while trying to save herself. The story proceeds with the chronicles of events, faced by Scarlett, while she still tries to dig her memory back, which is  lost due to amnesia in the process of saving herself. 

Review:

The story line was quick in catching my attention. The skeleton of the story has a paramount scope in delving deep into it, while also keeping pace with the fantasy elements running, parallelly. Despite having a good story line to hook up with, I find the way of narrative grossly linear, with surmisable twists in the story line. Despite the book title compels us to believe that this story would be a character driven plot, the book fails to add weight to the characters surrounding the protagonist. 

Queen Callista was one such intriguing character, but despite many efforts by Rajendra to develop this character, we could not refrain from comparing her with 'Jadis the White Witch' from The Lion, Witch and the wardrobe by C.S.Lewis. Black Viper, on the other hand, is a heart warming character. And never fails in keeping up with the storyline. A delight to read and know more about.  

While fantasy books have a good taste of characters and plot, one cannot fail to be more imperative to the setting of the plot(which in this book was The Five Lands). But sparsely could I find a proper paragraph which could probably describe The Five Lands as whole(Which includes, the kingdoms, schools, battle arenas and also the residence of people). Many of these aspects were kept untouched. The plot paced fairly well, but with no additional attributes of either setting or the characters. As we speak of plot, I just cannot emphasize enough on the stunning pace of it. With each page it slips more smoothly, which directs to the fact that Sarilla could be a great storyteller. As the title suggests, the story is centric on Scarlett(typically ONLY on Scarlett- which baffles me!!), which erases any tiny trace of subplots being added to the story. Probably sloughing off subplots could have been a decisive move to reduce the plot length, which proved to be disastrous to fantasy lovers. Deep into the plot (about from page 50 ), you feel that the plot stays still, like a suspended kite, up in the sky. It hardly yields something worth remembering, and takes a chunk of time to take off again.

As potter heads are head over heels with Hogwarts, and Percy fans in love with camp half blood, this book too features a school (not named) and Zier valley (Where students from the five lands are trained in combat). The weapons select students based on their capability(yet again a reference to the house sorting cap) and they are differentiated according to their scion of birth. I loved this part of the book more than any other. 

Sarilla makes it possible to squeeze in a larger cloud of plot in mere words, but to the malady of readers, the magic seems to be lost. SCARLETT: LOST IN THE FIVE LANDS by Rajendra Sarilla did not hesitate to slowly slip into a monotonous story, lead by seemingly non relatable characters, which were developed crudely, just to handle the ongoing story line. 

Fantasy stories could be really decisive, and one diversion from the plot could cost heavy, but this book with its well edited script and clarity in the plot, seems to be a pretty interesting read for any NEW reader trying to enter into the world of fantasy. It would be a great delight for a beginner in the genre of fantasy. Cannot wait to get my hands on the next installment of the book, which probably could make the universe created by Sarilla more lively <3

Appreciable aspects of the book:

1. Fast paced plot

2. Portrayal of strong and ferocious female characters.

Repelling aspects of the book:

1. Too many loose ends in the storyline which lacked explanation.

2. Substandard navigation.

I generally don't gauge books, but.

Who doesn't like scores??

Well, I would give this book 2.5 out of 5 points.

Reviewed by:

Achyut Murari,2nd yr. MBBS ,

Osmania Medical College.

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