The Perks of Adolescence :Affection, Deviance, Confusion by Md. Shahid

Md. Shahid's book, The Perks of Adolescence: Affection, Deviance, Confusion sent me into a nostalgic phase of growing through childhood to adulthood where most of us were naive to understand what true love actually is and got confused between crush, infatuation and love of course. The story is short and compelling enough to make you read the whole novella at one go. There are many instances in the novella where I went down the memory lane and started cherishing some of my quite relatable instances of adolescence. On the surface level, the book has the smooth sailing love story of Almas, but on reading between the lines, the readers can understand that Shahid talks about a presiding issue among adolescence: Romantic relationships have become a part of life and when our dreams with our first love are shattered it brings a turmoil in the heart. But it is upto us how we deal with rejections and heartbreak in life and handle the critical situations in relationships. The author very artistically, in a very short part, also brings home the fact that people are most concerned about relationships rather anything in this world to count in. It showed me different instances of adolescence through all the characters. The Author has also brought to us the best colours of friendship, which was a plus point for the novella. The flow of the book, language and the story plot are quick, simple and easy to dive into which makes it a perfect yet non-emotionally draining read. For people looking for an easy escape from a reading slump this would be a kit-kat break book! I really enjoyed it.

—Sana.