Mriyubhoomi from Antereep Publications is a graphic novel that tells the story of a family’s escape from Zombies in Kolkata. This book was originally written for the Bengali audience by Shamik Dasgupta and later published in English by Antereep Publications.
The zombie genre has recently been gaining traction in the Indian entertainment sector, with a few movies and now graphic novels like this. It’s a genre that has been done a lot in the West and has some really good content in the Far East as well, but wasn’t explored much in India until recently. So it’s really good to see Indian publishers and authors exploring this genre.
The book started really well; it brings you into this apocalyptic world slowly and drops you into a place of high stakes immediately. As a reader, I really wanted to know what was happening from page one. The main characters have been written very well, and you, as a reader, want to root for them to succeed.
After the brief introduction to the main characters, you are pushed into the larger world where the conflict between the undead and the few that are alive has escalated into chaos, turning the city of Kolkata into an undead wasteland.
I liked the writing overall. If I had to point out something that felt a little off, it would probably be the character of the Major who appears towards the start of the book. I felt the character was too shallow and didn’t really match the seriousness of the events around him. But apart from that, all the other characters throughout the book were really well written.
The escape from the city felt too easy given the world they are in, but I think it was okay to do so because spending more time there would have made the first book all about the escape. The story did need them to quickly exit and move outside the city to the safety of the final location they end up in.
The pacing was good, and the right amount of stakes was created to keep the characters moving from one place to another, finally finding their way to a safe location. Then, just like that, as they are settling down in and getting comfortable, the writer raises the stakes again to bring the story to an end, keeping you wanting to pick up the next book to see what happens after that ending of book 1.
If you like zombies, you cannot miss this book.