Radhika Sanghani Books

Thirteen-year-old Priya’s life is not an easy one: her parents argue every day; her younger sister has ADHD; her family has money problems; her beloved Grandma (Ba) died last year; and she hardly has any time to relax due to her intense gymnastics training schedule. Unfortunately, she can’t share her problems with any of her friends – her Indian family’s cultural beliefs mean that their ‘dirty laundry’ is never aired in public, and they all pretend that everything is fine to protect their privacy. Priya is always avoiding telling the truth.

Priya believes that everything started to go wrong when her Grandma died, but she has had no closure as her family won’t allow talking about Ba; the one thing that Priya has to remember her by is a gold bangle that Ba gave her just before she died. When she puts it on, Priya finds that she is incapable of lying and all that comes from her mouth is the blunt truth; the harder she tries to stop the words, the louder they come out. Then a great opportunity comes in the form of a gymnastics Nationals Competition and the teen Olympics coach is going to be attending. But everything has started to go wrong for Priya and she’s getting into a lot of trouble at home and school and breaking up with her friends. It will be hard to come through it all without hurting those she loves when the bangle insists upon brutal honesty.

This has themes that include family relationship problems, ADHD, bullying, cultural diversity, and friendship. The book contains some mature themes – one character ‘coming out’ and parental discord culminating in separation – and is best suited for older primary and younger secondary readers. I loved the interaction between Priya and her two friends – the humour was very clever and there were some surprises that I hadn’t foreseen. It was an entertaining read!