This Can't be Happening! by Neha Singh is dedicated to Lavanya and all that is part of the life of the young girl, who is a bright and happy girl, living in an absolutely loving family environment and full of thoughtfulness and care with her parents, who are very present in all the events that characterize her life.
Like all girls of her age, Lavanya has a best friend Shreya, from whom she is inseparable, and many other friends that go with her on her path of discovery and knowledge of the most important aspects of life, beyond friendship, affection and family support, the Doctoral course in biotechnology, and of course, there is love as Shreya introduces Siddhartha to Lavanya, who will conquer her heart.
Still her strange journey begins with Sid, and until recently her world was made only of good things, fairy tales, fantastic dreams, and never thought what she shared with her friend would become reality. The novel makes its strength transparent, with the pristine purity made with the same colours of the rainbow, which occasionally breaks through the cold ice and unfriendliness of life, as the jealousy, betrayal, the battle for affirmation of self creeps in.
Family relationships are central, in which the protagonist has a very close relationship based on a boundless affection and respect. Nevertheless there are of course the escapades, with the parents remaining unaware of some of her choices and behaviours that will have its consequences.
Its a novel about the restless taste of coming into the world through the passing years and that day after day make us become great, of that romance still so full of itself, of splendour and perfume, of that melancholy and it makes us feel somewhere between tragedy and wonder.
The author's style is extremely simple, that reads like the pages of a diary, often written in a quick and concise manner with a slew of phrases for effect as if they were directly spoken by the protagonist. So the style is conversational, immediate, direct and suitable for a girl of that age, who lives the life with that naiveté, which of course is lost with time but for Lavanya, it is still all there to permeate her vision of existence, which is still so innocent and delicate.
This is a fresh colourful novel, with something that belongs to everyone and that inevitably takes you, with pleasure or pain, back in time, in comparison with a reality that you thought was gone but now look in a totally different way. Even falling in love, and the inordinate desire to experience pleasure, are all aspects that are part of that age that will always remain between a dream and its consequences.
The book is perfect for the youngsters, but also to those who are more adult like me, can have moments made of smiles and memory, confusion and awareness with the certainty that everything passes and that those years were so beautiful, or maybe not.
