Camel On An Ashtray by A.S. Anand is a novella on Amazon Kindle for only $1. I was asked to review this book in exchange for the author reviewing my book.
Camel On An Ashtray synopsis from Amazon
Sonell descends into a Mayfair nightclub filled with apprehension about his social company and himself. The next morning he is unable to remember much of the evening’s events.
And so begins a journey of reconciliation – with his friends, Delilah and his Indian heritage that will take him on a voyage from London to Goa.
Camel on an Ashtray is an elegantly written, semi-autobiographical novella that revels in exploring identity and friendship.
My opinion
I’m not actually sure the synopsis of this book does it justice. Sonell is an aspiring writer who is very easily distracted into partying and having fun with his friends instead of finally writing down that short story he’s got buzzing around his head. A situation most writers can easily relate to. I can safely say every writer I know has had similar moments in their lives.
While the plot to this book was not hugely impressive I’d actually say that was a good thing. The book very nicely meanders along and actually makes a nice lazy sunday afternoon read or summer’s day beach read for anyone that should really be writing but finds themselves enjoying the good weather instead.
My only real gripe with the book is the ending. I felt it ended a little prematurely but to be honest I can’t think of a better place to end it so it’s probably just that I wanted to know even more about Sonell than I was given. I do think it might benefit from another 5k words or so, but for the price it’s still most definitely a bargain read.
I honestly had a lot of trouble deciding my star rating for this book. While I really liked Sonell and felt I could completely relate to him I also felt that there needed to be a little something more, even though I couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
I think it gets a 4.75 stars from me. Almost a 5.
Disclaimer: I was in no way paid for this review or otherwise persuaded to give a favourable book review, this is entirely my own opinion.