Heartbreaks are painful. When a relationship ends, you feel left helpless and alone, unable to even think of coping with the end. Your emotions are clouded in a mystic darkness, as if in a tunnel but with no light at the end. But gradually darkness gives way to the light of hope and we slowly learn to live with the one we lost. Not everyone reacts to a breakup in the same way, but their reactions can be categorised into 5 different emotions. Whenever a bond breaks, the people involved generally go through Denial, Anger, Bargain, Depression and finally Acceptance.
Our desi rom-com writers have captured the pain of separation beautifully. Not only have they captured the very essence of blooming love, but also brilliantly display the scatter of emotions when love shatters. Here we present to you 5 books that you should read to get yourself through the 5 different stages of a breakup:
1. Denial
Denial is the first of the five stages of a breakup. It doesn’t make sense when you realise that you and your partner aren’t together anymore. We go numb by repeatedly questioning ourselves over the worth of the years or months that went into the relationship. The perfect book that encaptures this phase is Durjoy Datta’s She Broke Up I Didn’t!…I Just Kissed Someone Else.
About the novel: The novel revolves around the story of Deb and Avantika, two management students, who are having the times of their lives and have been together for 3 years. But their perfect relationship hits the breaks when Deb becomes suspicious about Avantika when she works on a project with another guy whom Dev envies. The novel describes how strong an end’s inertia is as Deb goes falls into a nervous depression and Avantika is left devastated.
ALSO READ: If you don’t believe in online romances, read these 5 novels!
2. Anger
After it truly seeps in that the relationship has ended, anger sprouts from within. And anger is like an untamed bull, it goes wild. You may not realise but you won’t just be angry at yourself or your ex, but your anger may spill over to your friends and family as well. Every Time It Rains by Nikita Singh captures this phase perfectly.
About the novel: The book explores Laila’s character over time as she is yet to recover from the shatter of a dreamy and seemingly perfect love. Deeply hurt and absolutely distrustful, she encounters JD, a free spirited man who threatens to create ripples in her calm yet self-destructive life. He makes her feel the very things she wanted to forget.
3. Bargain
If a relationship ends, withered by time, then you are prone to the bargain of ‘if only’ and ‘what if’. We yearn for life to be restored the way it was before the upheaval took place and would bargain with ourselves or with God to turn things around so that you could negotiate your way out of love. This is exacted in Preeti Shenoy’s The One You Cannot Have.
About the novel: The novel is about Aman, who devastatingly moved abroad in hope of forgetting the love of his life, Shruti. He is back, though still haunted by the memories of his love. Though he tries to move on with his life with another woman, his past still has a strong grip on his life. The story describes the urban narrative of unrequited love, of complicated relationships and of ‘what ifs’.
4. Depression
From bargaining with our past, we move onto to becoming realistic about our present. We find ourselves clouded by empty feelings and at that point, it seems like the feeling would last forever. Shubham Arora’s One Last Time narrates how sadness enters our lives.
About the novel: The book tells the story of Ishaan and Tithi from the time they first met as toddlers to the day she calls him to inform him of her marriage. Ishaan believed that he had moved on but the phone call turns his beliefs upside down. The novel describes his journey from New York to California to meet her one more time and attain closure, and the painful memories that come back to him on his journey.
5. Acceptance
Acceptance is the final stage of grieving over the end of a relationship, however, not all of us manage to reach it. This is the phase when you accept the reality that the relationship has finally ended and your partner is gone. We may not like the new reality, but we accept it. Sanjeev Ranjan has quite appealingly written about this in his novel It’s No Longer A Dream.
About the novel: The story is about Akshat, who has everything in his life, right from luxurious cars, a palatial mansion to extravagant wealth. Troubled by his parents’ hostility and a dwindling love life, he embarks on an unknown journey to make peace with himself. It is then he meets a stranger who narrates the story of his life full of roller coasters that change Akshat and gives him a new perspective on love and life.
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