Book Review: Half Girlfriend

Book: Half Girlfriend

Author: Chetan Bhagat

Publisher: Rupa Publication

Price: 176 INR

ISBN: 9788129135728

Blurb: Once upon a time, there was a Bihari boy called Madhav. He fell in love with a rich girl from Delhi called Riya. Madhav didnt speak English well. Riya did. Madhav wanted a relationship. Riya didn't. Riya just wanted friendship. Madhav didn't. Riya suggested a compromise. She agreed to be his half-girlfriend.

From the author of the blockbuster novels Five Point Someone, One Night at the Call Center, The 3 Mistakes of My Life, 2 States and Revolution 2020 comes a simple and beautiful love story that will touch your heart and inspire you to chase your dreams.

My Rating: 2.75/5

My Review:

After you finish reading Half Girlfriend, you will feel that this book is written to be made into a movie. It is like a prepared script which is just on the waiting list to be made into a commercial Bollywood flick.

The book is divided into 3 acts: Delhi, Bihar and New York. In each of these three places, the lead protagonists, Madhav and Riya  meets, separates and meets again. The story begins with Madhav, a guy hailing from a rural place in Bihar who gets admitted to the high-class and posh St Stephen's College through the sports quota. He is a state level basketball player and apart from that, has no brownie points to earn from the ultra cool people of St-Stephens. He can barely speak English but finds himself falling head over heels for a girl called Riya Somani who also plays basketball at Stephens. 

As expected from the blurb, Madhav falls in love with Riya but Riya doesn't want anything more than friendship. On Madhav's push, she agrees to be his half girlfriend: someone who is more than a friend, can spend lots of time together and have affectionate hugs.A chain of incidents takes place from then, separating their roads and merging their paths and separating the half lovers again. 

The Act 3 of the book was totally predictable and dragged beyond limits. You can easily skip the pages in between and read the last few pages to match your prediction. The Act 1 was quite interesting and romantic. The scenes of Madhav and Riya had some immaculate charm. The Act 2 had some twists and turns but seemed quite unreasonable at places. 

It is a book that you can forget an hour after reading it. There is no freshness in the plot apart from the concept of half girlfriend. You can skip plenty of pages in between and yet catch up with the plot as it is so simple. And after finishing the book, you will surely be wondering which Bollywood actor and actress would be roped to play Madhav and Riya.

A one time quick read. Recommended for people who like light hearted fiction. If you are a literary geek, then give it a miss. You can check out Bhagat's other books in the meanwhile as I felt, all his other books are better than this one. 

You can purchase the book from here