The Labyrinth of Clouds | Book Review | Criticpsace

The way some of the young poets are coming out, these days to express themselves with their well ‘Versed-Words’ is something really incredible and this playing a pivotal role in the revival of ‘Poetry’ as the focus is shifting back to Poetry once again! India has some of the best poets and the next generation is nurturing this passion.

Reviewing this Poetry-Collection book, “The Labyrinth of Clouds” has been a special experience to me since I too started my writing journey as a poet at a young age and very similarly the Author of this book, Nalini Dhiman who is just 16 and undoubtedly an inspiring poet, simply carries all the potential of reaching great heights in the coming days, as a Writer!  

About the Author: Nalini is currently a sixteen-year old student living in India. She delved into poetry when she was fourteen, in 2017. Poetry started out as a method to vent, then an additional hobby and finally her passion, a source of happiness for her. She discovered her interest in writing after creating her blog Soberly Drunk Poetry on blogspot in July 2018. Since then, her writing style has developed tremendously. She has written in free style, tried writing Shakespearian sonnets, researched about iambic pentameter and learnt about different kinds of poems. Her mission to write odes, epitaphs, elegies, pastorals and, maybe someday, Terza Rima poems. 

Apart from writing, Nalini is a big fan of reading poems. She prefers poetry from the 19th century, although there is no such partiality in the content she reads. As of today, her favourite poems are The Passionate Shepherd To His Love by Christopher Marlowe and The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh. Nalini is also an avid reader of books, preferring novels in Young Adult genre. Gaming is one of her favourite hobbies. PUBG, Call of Duty and good ol’ Mini Militia are some of her most liked games.

Nalini believes in redemption of one’s soul. She wants to dedicate the better part of her life helping others (animals & humans) grow and develop in the most beautiful way possible. She loves animals and animals love her. She has a way with dogs. Her best friend is her father. Nalini’s father believed in her many times even when she didn’t. Her mother has always been with her, supporting every decision and encouraging her in the right way. Therefore, writing this book and getting it published is a small step closer to what she wants to achieve.

Title: The title of this book, “The Labyrinth of Clouds” is certainly a catchy one and this is something which makes the book even more interesting, as the title itself compels you as a poetry-lover to pick up this book for a read. You would feel the urge to go inside the chapters and try to understand the Author’s expression of words and the words of this young-poetess will indeed justify the title. Also, I must mention that it’s a very apt title for this poetry-collection book and Nalini had been extremely wise to go for this title.

Theme/Concept: Poetry – There are a total of “69 Poems” in “9 Parts” into which this book is carefully divided. All these nine-parts are on nine different themes while the poems ranges from being Odes to imagery poetry, motivating to demotivating poetry and each of them depicting the deep-emotional experiences of the Author as she believes that, “reading the words is easy but what matters is reading between the lines because every poet hides meaning behind the words.”

Moreover, The Labyrinth of Clouds is a book that shows how confusing everything can be, but in the end, what matters is the appreciation of love in life and finding one’s purpose.

Some of my Favourite Poems are I am Grateful; The Universe in Your Eyes; Love is like a Plant; Constantly Changing; Friendship; Love and Beauty; No More; In Life and in Death; Sunflower; & Be a Human.

Readers Connect: The best thing about Nalini’s poetry is that there is a story attached to every poem of hers and as a human you can easily connect to the poet’s emotions. The author had beautifully expressed her feelings through her words and had given a Strong-Start to her poems, also you can see that most of these poems had retained their flow till the very end, which gives you an immense amount of satisfaction as a reader.

Verdict: A Book like “The Labyrinth of Clouds” is undoubtedly a Must-Read one and deserves a chance. The way author had penned down her emotions and feelings through her writings will make you go deep into her poems and find out the hidden meanings of the words, used in her poems. Nalini Dhiman is a promising young-author, who is very honest with her writings and this is just a beginning for her.