Book Review: First Brush on the Canvas

The best thing about an anthology is that you can always move ahead to a different perspective, with a different expectation.

First Brush on the Canvas was a joint venture of Writers melon and Half Baked Beans.  Stories, mostly by new authors, came as a result of a nationwide contest, judged by authors like Ashwin Sanghi and Preeti Shenoy.

The book is a collection of 14 different stories edited by PriyankaRoy Banerjee.  Different because they are from different genre i.e. Romance, Comedy and Thriller. The book deals with interesting themes.  

An Adoption by Uttiya Ray is unique as it tells about a gay couple and their urge to adopt a child and complete their relationship. Coffee, Conversation and You by Shaily Bhargava is a sweet quirky tale and my favourite! 

Reborn by Rafa Dalvi leads you to a world between humans and supernatural of vampires. Very well written!  Lepidoptera by Stuti Chandra is a well crafted story, written in a diary form, and liked reading it. Again, there is The Murder by Arunav Choudhury is a modern and interesting take on Mahabharata. The first story The Pieces by Anwesha Ray was a nice read but I didn't get the conclusion. 

I liked those interesting quotations on writing by different writers just before starting a new story.

As the title of the book suggests, the book cover could have been a little vibrant. I would have like to know more about the authors, links to their blog or FB page. The introduction of the authors could have been placed in a different page, because being written just before the story made it look like a part of the story. There is a wrongly placed page that may confuse the reader.

Overall, it’s a nice little collection, and most importantly it covers varied genres that may attract wide range of readers.

I thank Writers Melon for a copy for an honest review.