Book: Can We Be Strangers Again?
Author: Shrijeet Shandilya
Genre: Romance / Contemporary Fiction
First Published: 2023
Pages: ~230
I don’t know what to call this story. Is it a love triangle? Is it a betrayal in a relationship? Or is it a conflict between infatuation and love? I really couldn’t judge it. More than a book, it felt like a common incident in everyone’s life. Those raw emotions, small fights, expectations in relationships, long night chats, and unexpressed feelings towards one another. It is also about the confusion between understanding infatuation and true love.
Can We Be Strangers Again? is the story of three college friends – Dev, Avantika, and Tanishka. The story takes us back to those pandemic days when everything was online. Classes, exams, love, hate, fights, and even breakups. It all started with a little “Hi” in a college group chat.
Dev is the protagonist of the novel. And the complete story is narrated from Dev’s POV — a college student who is stuck between Avantika and Tanishka. Dev fell for Avantika, for her beauty, just by looking at her WhatsApp profile picture. After the pandemic, once the classes shifted from online to usual offline classes, closeness grew between them. Dev thinks he should get into a relationship with Avantika.
On the other side of the story, there is Tankishka, who is Avantika’s close friend. And she knew every inch of Avantika. Dev is shown as closer to Tanishka mentally than Avantika. Dev and Tanishka are much like those best friends who share everything. So Tanishka was Dev’s go-to person for any matter. One day, Dev confesses to Tanishka about his feelings towards Avantika, and he wants to propose to her. But Tanishka says Dev to take a step back and think about his decision again. Not to rush into it.
Ignoring Tanishka’s suggestion, Dev proposes to Avantika, and they are in a relationship. But Avantika insists Dev not announce their relationship to anyone yet. Reading those conversations between these two never felt real. It looked more like a time-pass boyfriend-girlfriend story of college. And, as per the dipiction of Avantika’s character in the story, Avantika never seemed to be serious about Dev.
When Avantika and Dev slowly start drifting away from each other, Dev starts getting attracted to Tanishka. He is stuck in confusion between whether he likes Avantika or Tanishka. Because, it was always Tanishka who stood by Dev during his bad days. Tanishka was that sholder to cry upon. But Dev was behind Avantika, thinking he loves her, maybe just an attraction. In between Avantika is already seeing another boy, who was her college mate before. Dev slowly learns about Avantika’s changing behaviour towards him.
Following some incidents they both breakup. After their breakup, Dev and Tanishka becomes closer. Now, Dev wants to be with Tanishka and confess his feelings to her. But Tanishka has already moved on with another boy. Tanishka always wanted to be Dev’s priority person, even before Avantika. But she felt she was neglected when Dev was with Avantika. And Avantika was Dev’s first priority always.
At the end, as expected, they move on with their lives. On one side, there is Dev, who still feels for Tanishka and wants more than a friendship. On the other side is Tanishka, who doesn’t want to be in a relationship anytime soon, after her breakup. And Avatika? She is happy with the other boy, Mehul, already.
I didn’t find authenticity or honesty in any of the characters in this story. And, physical intimacy is portrayed as so common in youngsters. I mean, where is that ethics thing going away?
I agree it has some story, but more like a normal day in a college. The ending is very much predictable. It failed to give that deep reading connection because there is no depth in the story, nor in the characters. This book clearly shows how teenager’s time pass love stories look like. Without any seriousness, without any true affection.
I strongly feel it’s an AI-generated book, especially ChatGPT, with some personal story touch. If you are a regular user of ChatGPT, you would definitely identify the words, sentence flow, metaphors, and those em dashes. I have seen some people promoting like, “write a book using ChatGPT and earn passive income in a day.” Maybe this book is just the best example of that.
This book was never on my reading list. And I never really heard of this book before. But after watching some reels, I decided to give it a try. Above all, it is promoted as the best-selling book by some influencers. Like really? I don’t regret reading it, but I am not happy either.
When I finished reading Can We Be Strangers Again? I was left with a few common questions. Dev was really in love with Avantika, or was it just an attraction that he misunderstood as love? And if Dev had understood Tanishka’s value at the right time, would he still be searching for answers at the end?
Maybe this is why the story feels so familiar. Many people go through this phase in life. Like confusing attraction for love, realising someone’s worth only after losing them.
In the end, the title itself questions: Can we really become strangers again after knowing someone so closely? But one thing is true: some people simply remain in our memories as unfinished chapters of our lives.