Book Review | Ranga Half-Pants by Suman Kumar

Hello everyone! Yes, you read the title right.. I’m reviewing a book today! I clearly remember that I had promised to do book reviews more often when I published my first ever book review (on which I received a lot of lovely comments from you all! Sadly, they’re gone now!) back in January.  I failed to do that because I got so much busy with my exams and in setting up this website. I’m finally free now and I’m planning to do at least one book review each month!

The book I’m reviewing today is called “Ranga Half-Pants” and it’s written by Suman Kumar. I won’t talk much about the plot in my review because it will spoil your reading experience. ? You can read its synopsis below to understand what the story is about. ☺

Ranga Half-Pants

How horribly wrong can a boy’s dream of owning a pair of full pants go? Set in 1986, in a small town in Andhra Pradesh, Ranga Half-Pants is a breathtaking, coming-of-age tale of love, courage, and friendship.

Ranganathan aka Ranga, 14, goes to school after Dasara holidays to discover that he is the only boy in his class still wearing half-pants. All the other boys have moved on to full trousers making Ranga the butt of cruel jokes and bullying. Things hit a real low when his arch-nemesis Joel becomes friends with Ranga’s best friend Kaivalya.

Prasad, 24, is a man forced to live by the sword. Now he wants to give it all up for the love of his life, Tabassum. His rivals, however, have other plans for him. The worlds of Ranga and Prasad clash on a fateful, violent night. Will Ranga get his full pants? Will Prasad outwit his foes?

 

Price –  Rs.288/- | Pages – 280 | Availability – Buy Kindle version here and paperback here | ISBN – 978-8184958256 | Writer – Suman Kumar | Published By – Jaico Publishing House | Fiction

About Author

Suman Kumar – a former IT employee – is a stay-at-home dad, movie writer and a stand-up comic. He lives in Bangalore with his gorgeous wife and beautiful six-year-old daughter (who threatened to throw him out of the house if he didn’t include them in his bio). His other interests include bird-watching (feathered ones), movies and books.

My Review

Ranga Half-Pants is a lovely young adult or coming-of-age type of book. I don’t think that I’ve ever read any book like this before. It’s a perfect blend of romance, comedy and drama. I’m a big fan of rom-com novels so I loved this one a lot. It’s actually a bit different from the typical rom-coms because it’s the story of a very young boy – Ranga. Prasad is another male protagonist in the book. Both, prasad and ranga’s stories are depicted parallel to each other.

Prasad’s story is an important element of the book, but the story mostly focuses upon Ranga, who returns to his school after dusshera holidays and finds out that he’s the only guy in the classroom who is still wearing half pants while all of his classmates (including his best friends!) have upgraded to full pants. He starts getting ridiculed by his sworn-enemy, Joel, for wearing half pants to school. Now Ranga’s only dream is to buy a pair of full pants so that Joel would stop making fun of him in front of the whole class, but his parents aren’t able to fulfill this dream of his due to the shortage of money. He also wants to grow some beard to impress his love of life, Kaivalya.

To know if Ranga will manage to get his full pants and make a move on his crush Kaivalya, you have to read the book. Prasad’s part of the story is also very well written, but I guess I liked Ranga’s part more.

Ranga Half-Pant’s story is set in 80s, so it shows you what was the daily life of people like back in those days and it’s quite interesting. You will find many Telugu/Tamil words in the book, like at least one or two in every other page. For their English translation, you can jump to the last pages of the book. Whole book is written in the boys’ (Ranga and Prasad) perspective so teenage boys are going to love it a lot because it might feel a bit relatable to them at certain points. But nope, this book isn’t gender specific or age group specific.

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I hope that all my readers out there enjoyed reading my review as much as I enjoyed reading this book! If you’re planning to read it or if you’ve read it already then please do let me about your opinion on this story. I’ll be back with another book review soon. Stay tuned and keep showing your love to my blog.