Book Review: Must Reads For Youth

Evil Eye by Madhuri Shekar (Ages 16+)

Madhuri Shekar’s unique and compelling series of phone calls and voicemails tell the story of Pallavi, an Americanised Indian aspiring writer living in Los Angeles as her mother, Usha, attempts to find her a husband.

However, this light-hearted family dramedy quickly morphs into Usha’s suspenseful struggle to “save” Pallavi from her supposedly perfect partner because of a shocking supernatural twist — she believes him to be her reincarnated wicked and abusive ex-lover from 30 years prior.

From the beginning of this mesmerising Audible Original, Usha uses many astrological readings of Pallavi’s potential partners to guide her decision-making in order to find the perfect match. Her belief in astrology as a determining factor in romance is emphasised by her constant worry that Pallavi was cursed with the evil eye before she was born. The evil eye is a malediction that swears to bring continuous misfortune to the victim, and Usha posits this as the reason her 29-year-old career-oriented daughter remains unmarried.

In time, however, Usha becomes almost obsessive over this matchmaking: a source of tension between herself and her only daughter. Usha’s astrologer claims Pallavi will find a match before her 30th birthday … cue Pallavi’s whirlwind romance with Sandeep, a rich Indian man studying in the graduate programme of the university at which she works. Chipper, understanding and willing to help Pallavi pursue her dreams in any way he can, Sandeep’s relationship with Pallavi quickly becomes serious.

Although Pallavi thinks that the relationship is everything Usha could have wanted (and more!), her mother is more anxious than pleased with this too-good-to-be-true match — perhaps because it was conceived without the help of her infamous meddling.

As such, Usha’s exceedingly paranoid and perturbed state is wholly unexpected, unearthing her deep-seated terrors and distress of her horrifying dead partner finding her again. Usha’s mental state quickly begins to deteriorate and her actions become unpredictable as she desperately tries to uncover Sandeep’s true identity. Is Sandeep a loving and charismatic future husband simply being demonised by Usha’s fragile mental state, or is he someone (or something…?) using this as a disguise for his true sinister motives, proving Usha’s intense suspicions not entirely unfounded?

Questions aside, I found Usha’s approach to reincarnation especially mesmerising. This idea asserts that those who were not supposed to die — for instance, by committing suicide or being killed in a way that was not supposed to happen as intended by a higher being — are reincarnated with the purpose they left unfinished in their past life as their primary objective. This concept is what Usha believes to have happened with her mysterious ex-partner, and her phone call with the astrologer on this topic is one of my favourite parts of this work (aside from Evil Eye’s epic climax, of course).

Award-winning emerging playwright Shekar seamlessly immerses the listener in the unexpected thriller with natural dialogue — whether over the phone or in a frantic voicemail — and endearingly personal characters that one can’t help but empathise with. The showdown near the end will surely leave you on the edge of your seat, and I encourage all to listen to this spellbinding audiobook and keep an eye out for new works of this innovative playwright!