Simple Plane Love is a Poorly Edited Disaster

I have read Priyanka Luthra before also in her blogs and I believe she is a fine writer of micro-fiction. As a debutant book author, I was expecting something better from Simple Plane Love after reading her short stories and considering that Indian English writing scene has become very competent in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, as I picked up this book it disappointed me on many levels. First of all, the book has a pathetic cover which is a let-down. I have never been a supporter of the saying that we should never judge a book by it’s cover. I am a complete believer of the fact that a good cover is half the battle won in the conquest of reader’s hearts. No matter how good your story is, your Book Sales Won‘t Soar Unless Your Cover is KILLER! Your cover needs to look, feel, and speak to the reader.

Simple Plane Love a fictional love story of Captain Meera Khanna and lot of it is inspired from Priyanka Luthra who is herself a commercial pilot. As the title suggests, Simple Plane Love is more of plane love than platonic love. It’s more like rambling, informal collection of memories, musings, and minutiae of her life as a commercial pilot. If you’re like me, you don’t have the patience to wade through all minutia of her professional life.

While the narrative was a drag throughout the book and it was very difficult for me to complete the book, towards the end the story ended in a haste almost abruptly and it felt the publishers were in a hurry to get it published in a date so as to coincide with some special date. The editors could have given some more time and attention towards their job of editing the book. It makes me doubtful if it is the first draft of the book that was being published. Lot of it was not not needed and lot of it could have been added. For example, the character of Adi who is supposed to be the love interest of the protagonist is not even half-baked. In fact, it strives to give the impression that the author was not at all interested in telling the reader about Adi. Perhaps, the author felt the protagonist was herself clueless about him and hence developing the character is not at all important.

I would suggest you to read this book if you have plenty of time to kill or you are highly underestimating your skills as a writer and not getting the courage to approach the publishers.

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