Pieces Of Her That Nobody Saw: Behind every smile there is a story no one saw by Tania Gulati: Book Review

 3.25/5

This is book was sent to me by the author for review. This has not impacted the outcome of the review in any form. The opinions stated are mine and mine alone. 

Pieces of Her That Nobody Saw starts off with a good prologue that really does a good  job of setting the stage and tone of the book. Throughout the book Tania expertly grabs at your emotions and neart strings. You really feel for Zovia. Knowing that this is a combination of fiction and true events, makes the reader want change. I did struggle with some of the grammar and lack of translation is some of what was said. It is clearly a case of English as a second language and without the knowing what was said, connecting or understanding was hindered. The conversations being translated is truly a key part that was missed. The reader needs to know what was said, so that the emotion is not lost. On the same note, sentence structure made little sense. There were breaks and new paragraphs in the middel of a sentence, which is distracting and made it more challenging to follow.

I did like the letter to herself by Zovia. This was a nice touch and added to the characters emotion. Seeing the healing involved was also nice, though I wish that this had gone a bit farther. At times it read more as a search for pity, over a path to healing. The goal should be change through understanding, and that seemed to be faintly there, but not fully formulated. Part of this would be in the fact that the writing lacked depth, it just felt surface level, like brief journal entries, which left it feeling incomplete. As a reader you look for fully rounded out thoughts and events, but it didn't really have that. If this had been included, it would have felt more like a complete work. The conclusion was a final note to girls, which was a great way to end the book. 

Overall, I would recommend this to girls and women who have struggled with being held back or held down, simply because of their gender.