Toke by Jugal Mody | Book Review

The very first page of this book gets you wondering whether the author was high when he penned down this book. The author apparently writes to feel like dog sticking its head out of a car. If you are accustomed to Sir Isaac Asimov, or love J. K. Rowling's style of narration, you should stay from this book. However, if you want something for a flight (which I did) and your laptop doesn't have any more charge, then I suggest you go about reading it.

If you look at the summary written on the back, it has varied views- right from the concept of the Lord Vishnu to the fact that the whole book is about staying high but still doing your work- well that is pretty much what sums up the summary! Anyways, the last line introduces the narrator, Nikhil, and he says that he has a t-shirt to prove his story. Could I buy the t-shirt?

The summary made my expectations pretty high, but I must say that the book has fallen short of those!

From the word 'Go'- this book made me wonder what was the very point of writing it. Only after I managed to read into it a bit more that I realized what it was all about. It's about going on a secret mission under the guidance of the very Preserver in Hindu Mythology. It is about saving the world turning into zombies who try to convert others by putting maggots in their food. I feel that at times, the author has just dragged it on to increase the number of pages.

Although the protagonists are mostly stoned, it might make you remember the anti-hero style of J.D.Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. I wouldn't go as far as comparing Toke to such a classic, but you get the idea.

All in all, it's a good read, considering how considerate you are towards the author. As one of the other reviews that I read mentioned, it should not have been a paperback novel, but a comic strip or a graphic novel, considering the very graphic pictures that the author tries to paint.

Beware of the maggots in the pizza that you are gonna bite, though.