The Moon in the Lining of her Skin (Kiran Manral)

A story about three women. Who glow from the light within. Scarred from abusive childhoods. Rejected by families. Struggling for acceptance for who they are. Who finally come together and save each other. What’s not to like?

And that is the sad part of this book. The premise is awesome and raises expectations. The execution falls flat with its nose grinding the events.

Noor is a fallen angel who has been walking the earth for millennia in human form. She cannot live in a place for long as her light will be recognised as not of this earth and she is chased by hell hounds who she needs to throw off her track. Only the love of a human and shelter given willingly protects her from danger, as she lives this nomadic life. Rani is an ethereally beautiful young girl – her conceit makes her hot headed - she incurs the wrath of an old witch and is cursed to live a life possessed by a jealous spirit. Gulab is a girl who has been abused in the worst possible manner by her own father and kills him one day. All three are on the run in their own ways, both physically and metaphorically. One chooses to get married to a man and ostensibly lead a stable life, but the marriage is only in name. The other shacks up with a man who gives her a semblance of protection and stability. Noor’s light has entered (literally) both Rani and Gulab and this intertwines their fates and exposes them to danger. Then there is Teja, a sexual partner to both Noor and Gulab, in different parts of his life and hence at the cusp of the plot.

While the characters and the plot seem rich and full of promise, the execution falls far short. The characters are unconvincing and their actions difficult to wrap your head around. Rani manages to capture the spirit that is haunting her in a bottle and is given instructions about how to dispose it off but for some reason, forgets this extremely important step in her salvation! Gulab is so traumatised by her childhood abuse (and rightly so, anyone would) that she forgets her name (Gulab is a name she gives herself) but she is ok to go back to the house she was abused in. Ghosts appear in the last part of the story when there has been no mention of this form of supernatural anywhere else so far. The spirit haunting Rani does a disappearing act. References to Gods and Goddesses come in without any context or relevance. The descriptions of places and locations are long winded without adding depth to the story. The same house and the rosed growing around it are described countless times.

At the end, it seemed to me that a great promising premise crumbled because of lack of imagination or due to timelines that had to be met. What could have been the gritty story of three women surviving against all odds fighting earthly and unearthly enemies, turned into a khichdi with two of them having a cat fight about the single male character at the end and the third landing up on the scene not sure what she was doing there in the first place.