The Ripple by Mahnoor Kareem

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Daastan, founded on the very notion of being able to tell your stories by putting one’s word out there in the world as a whole, becoming a part of this universe; materializes its principles through the journey of thousands of authors we have published. One such journey is that of Mahnoor Kareem, a teenager from Rawalpindi who grew up aspiring to be an exceptional author and chose to become one of them. From finishing a book in a single day to becoming the author of one, she is a treasured Daastan-published author. In an interview, she revealed that her father used to write short stories for social media platforms, so growing up she fantasized about the art of writing. Although her father used to constantly motivate her to publish her book, it wasn’t until COVID-19 hit that she mustered up the courage to do so. 

Thus, “The Ripple” came into being. Although the genre of the book is sci-fi, its characters are inspired by people Mahnoor has encountered throughout her life. It helps put things into perspective, for the art of storytelling is such that your narration of any event or person can be turned into anything you want it to be. One is truly able to find themselves when they create characters and an intricate web of stories from their own life.

Furthermore, mimicking our daily lives, the book is premised on the idea that chaos thrives in almost every environment. Chaos might need a catalyst. daily life. The book is premised on the idea that chaos thrives in almost every environment. Chaos might need a catalyst, but it makes any situation well-suited to its needs. So, ironically, as our universe is a finely sewn fabric of multiple such environments, which are intertwined, it sustains chaos too. 

The author leaves nothing to the imagination and makes the readers hooked from the very start, unable to leave the book. The very first chapter is titled “The Trigger,” followed by a catastrophe caused by an earthquake, grabbing our full attention—not an easy task. In addition to that, the description of Robert Hill in the second paragraph of the first page is such that it makes the character almost alive right in front of our eyes. The chemistry between the characters is such that we trace their interactions in our own lives too.

At the fulcrum of the plot lies a fatal accident, which opens up two entirely different versions of reality. The readers can sense the emotional force acting upon Robert when he is forced to decide between the two divergent forms of reality. The balance of the universe, hung by a thin thread, had fallen upon the shoulders of this one boy. The scene holds immense power. The author wrote that “balance was the one thing that the universe considered more serious than anything else”, so the immense authority given to balance makes the readers sympathize with Robert. 

A normal human struggle every day when deciding what he wants to eat, so we cannot even decipher the struggles of the characters, which ironically is the power of fiction. Although the book is science fiction, it broadened our horizons. Daastan’s promise of providing a book in every hand is sustained through such narratives. 

 

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