Helix Review by Megha Biloniya

Title : Helix


Authoress : Ishika Kumar







Book Blurb : Aditi and Radha are sisters. They have shifted to Mumbai along with their parents and rented the upper story of a house from an old man.

During summer vacations, the girls decide to help the old man in his cleaning and in lieu of it, they receive money from him. During the cleanup of the drawing room, the girls discover a basement room. They decide to morph it into their secret ‘Hangout Base’. They spot a trunk in there and venture to find its key.

They find out that it is a trunk full of gold with the year branded on the gold slabs. Radha and Aditi search the internet for this year and discover that a major bank robbery had taken place in the same year. Radha realizes that the picture of the robber attached is the same one she had found in a group photograph in the man’s room. Aditi falls sick. Radha searches the man’s room and finds that the old man is the robber himself and has undergone a facial surgery to hide his identity. Radha immediately calls the police while Aditi recovers and unaware of the happenings, tells the old man everything. The old man tries to kill her, but the police arrives and saves the girls. The guilty is taken into custody.


About the Authoress : Ishika Kumar is a student of eleventh standard, in the City Montessori School, Lucknow. She likes reading books especially the best sellers and well known series. Besides this, her hobbies include writing poems, stories, playing tennis and badminton. She has learnt classical dance for five years and is currently learning to play the guitar. She has got a story published on Kindle. Her poems and essays have also been published on websites of magazine “Robin Age”. Apart from this she has written many more poems as a hobby from childhood. She dreams to be a scientist one day to help the world to change for the better.


My View :

The book comprises of three stories named – Helix, 1986, and Mystery of Tanjore forest. The title of the book is simply the name of one of the story residing in the book. The confusing cover of the book is not apprising much about the tales which are whelming in the book.  So, talking about the stories one by one.


1.     Helix – It is a fantasy story. The story is about three friends named Aaron, Winston and Amelia who are known as Alites. Alites are the human beings who possess some unnatural powers. In the story Helix is depicted as a planet where the Alites dwell. Aaron is the protagonist of the whole story and initially he was unaware of the powers which he holds; but after sometime everything becomes crystal clear in front of his eyes. After then the three friends begin their journey to Helix; for this they took help of a diary belongs to Winston’s parents and the guidance of Aaron’s mother. From then the main part of the story inaugurates. The story becomes interesting to read after the 12th chapter. From there the story took so many ups and downs and ultimately travels the track to reach the end.


2.     1986 : Finally I got something to uncover which I was looking for. After reading the blurb I was trying to locate it in the book from the very beginning and then after some 80 pages or more I saw it. The story whose short description is given at the back cover. The insights of the story will be already clear to the reader’s mind just after reading the blurb. This story is different and yes it has tints of newness. Ishika has presented the story in an impressive way. I found myself latched to the story in no time. Authoress knows how to play with the events and how to connect them so as to make the reading journey fascinating. A nice read!


3.     Mystery of Tanjore forest – As soon as I read the title of the story I was zipped up with the excitement to locate the mystery in the story. The story commences with a basketball match. Tanya the protagonist of the story won the match. One day her best friend Anvita and she discovered something different in the woods. Soon the mystery upholds and the story has lot a more to discover. And after that the story whirls around the mysterious facts. This story is also awesome. Authoress has very nicely knitted the episodes in this story.



The writing style is very simple; I had completed reading the book forthwith. The narration of the stories are soothing and providing a smooth flow in the reading journey. If I see the age of the authoress, then I must say that she has done well in her book. Her imaginations are very good and I must she has the skills in expressing those imaginations in an effective way. All the three stories are clutching the readers along with it. Very rare writers have the art of expressing their feelings in such minor age through the words and I must say that - Ishika possess those skills. But the articulation of the sentences could be more soothing and better. I believe that by time her skills will be polished.


I had located a few errors in the book. On some pages the space is not maintained well between the words like on page no. 5 and page no. 12; the words are Aaronthe, Aaronwas, Aaronsensed etc. The book needs to be edited well. I also found a new name in the book while reading the very first story “Helix” which seems irrelevant. The name is Abhinav and it looks as if the name is mistakenly written by the authoress in place of Winston. I have a doubt regarding this name. On some pages like on page no. 20 and page no. 34 Abhinav name is mentioned unnecessarily and is popping out suddenly in the conversation which will definitely ignite confusion in the reader’s mind. I request the authoress to help me clearing my doubt; or Is it a mistake?


Altogether a book having variety of flavors for its readers. Wondrous read!


Rating : 4/5


Reviewer : Megha Biloniya



Comments