Starry Starry Night by Nandita Basu

Book Name : Starry Starry Night

Author : Nandita Basu

Genre : Graphic Novel

Language : English

Format : Paperback 

Book Length : 168 pages 

Price : ₹299/-

Publishing House : Duckbill

Publication Date : 27th November, 2023

ISBN : 978-0143462422

My Rating : 3/5

Blurb :

After Kunal’s mother dies, he is sent off to a boarding school in the hills. Till he has a hostel room, he stays with Tara, his father’s cousin, who teaches a special music programme in the school. Teaching music helped Tara after her best friend died―that, and perhaps the company of the enigmatic figure known as Death, whom she sees everywhere.

Review :

Starry Starry Night by Nandita Basu is a graphic novel which revolves around the themes of loss, friendship, death and music. Kunal’s mother passes away and he is being sent to a boarding school in the hills. His father’s cousin, Tara welcomes him to her place till he is able to stay in the hostel. Tara teaches a special music programme in the same school as Kunal’s. Tara and Kunal begin on a relatively awkward note.

Tara does not seem to be like the rest and that is because she is not. Tara sees an enigmatic figure everywhere, the figure commonly known as death. Surprising, isn’t it? Tara and Kunal both have things in common which are associated with their past.

My most favourite part of the book were the conversations between death and Tara. They were deep and made me pause over for a moment and wonder about life and our loved ones. The illustrations portrayed a sense of quietude about the characters which to me was how life in their heads was happening much faster and deeper than their actual lives. I liked the nonchalance between the characters in beginning of the novel. However, I found this graphic novel to be based on a pretty interesting topic but it lacked cohesiveness all together. I was not a fan of how the book was concluded as well. The theme had so much more potential to it. There were many distractions from the primary storyline which led me to partially feel disinterested in the book. Also, the dialogue boxes somehow seemed to mess with the conversations due to their positioning or perhaps crowding. In terms of illustrations, I couldn’t keep up with the past of the characters because they were majorly different in structure and appearance along with being black and white.

Irrespective of my experience, I would be eagerly willing to try more graphic novels by Nandita Basu.

Thanks to Penguinsters for providing me with the review copy in lieu of an honest review.