How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness by Jessica Bell
Publication Date: 21st September 2021
Genre: Dystopian, Social Drama
3.7 Stars
*The review contains a few spoilers*
However, for people to move from First Life Phase to
Second Life Phase they need to find Happiness and a Letter that says they have
been successful in finding happiness. It’s a dystopian world with rules of its
own.
Icasia isn’t bothered much about her happiness. She
only cares for her son’s happiness and future. Being a single mother isn’t easy
either. She meets Selma, another woman who has been straddling the Rules.
Selma needs to find a way for Jerome to get his
Letter of happiness before his 40th birthday. If not, he’ll lose his life and
has no say in the matter. Nothing seems to be working, and Icasia promises to
help. This results in some vital questions and rule-defying answers that change
the way the Globe looks at happiness.
The title and the cover attracted my attention.
Dystopian isn’t my genre, but I’m glad I requested this one. The story starts
almost straight away and goes on to share details in bits and pieces. That
prevented information dump and kept me interested.
The narration jumps from the second person to the
third person to omnipresent. Luckily, the chapters are titled (Listen/ Watch/
Chronicles) to alert readers to this fact. The story walks a fine line between
dystopian and philosophical. Things are different yet the same.
The characters are flawed, but most of them don’t
appear silly or stupid. Leila, Selma's teenage daughter, was a typical teen,
which meant some of her actions don’t make sense unless there’s a proper
backstory and complete arc.
The theme of the book hinged on what happiness is
and how one should find it. As with the dystopian trope, the government has a
role to play in most decisions. It isn’t anything new, to be honest. The author
makes it interesting to a major extent by using the setting to her advantage.
However, I felt she hasn’t delved deep into the
concept. It could be because she didn’t want to risk being preachy. Lord knows
how hard it is to maintain balance. Still, the characters needed more
exploration. Some of the scenes feel disjointed, as if there’s a missing link.
This link doesn’t appear elsewhere to complete the connection. Nor do we find
answers to certain questions about why the Rules were established that way. (It
sounds vague because I’m trying to avoid spoilers).
The premise is excellent, and the use of the
bluebird is worth mentioning. The characters needed more effort. They are good,
but they had to be better to elevate the story. Some of the scenes felt too
distanced to feel for the characters. I don’t usually relate to most
characters, so that’s not an issue. But I do like to feel for them.
It would sound better to call the swastika a Hindu
symbol rather than a Sanskrit symbol. Sanskrit is our ancient language with a
script and symbols of its own. There is no difference per se, but it’s
important to us. It is a part of our culture; we like to not be disassociated
from the sacred symbol or our sacred language the way it is being done with
yoga.
That said, the presence of swastika adds no value to
the story. It was used more of a prop to show that the character knew the
difference between the Hindu swastika to the Nazi symbol and maybe to bring a
sort of inclusivity in the book. After that, there’s no mention of it again. It
doesn’t feature anywhere else in the book. I don’t think the book would be the
least affected if that scene mentioning the swastika tattoo was removed.
And Eve could have been the reader. In fact, I
preferred it that way. The last chapter could have been better without Eve
being a victim of a car accident or losing her memory.
Also, the ending wasn’t too great. It sort of
diminished the emotions evoked until then.
To sum up, How Icasia Bloom Touched Happiness is a
decent novel with multiple aspects to ponder about. The book is fast-paced and
worth a read.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Vine Leaves
Press.
#HowIcasiaBloomTouchedHappiness #NetGalley
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