A Change of Seasons left me thoroughly confused about whether I loved it or found it incredibly dull. At points, I connected with it and it flowed incredibly well and then at others, I found myself wondering what on earth was happening.
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A Change of Seasons follows John Winters as he goes through and then recovers from a heart operation. It touches on his past, present, and what the future holds for him. It’s a story into the dark depths of a man’s mind who, essentially, loses the plot.
A Change of Seasons plot – 4/5
John Winters starts off A Change of Seasons going in for a heart operation. We’re told a little about his background and how he got to where he is today. Once he’s had the operation he starts to notice some changes in himself which he struggles to adapt to. With this struggle slowly comes torment and he needs to find a way to unleash this torment.
I’ll be honest, this is where I struggled the most with A Change of Seasons. The first half of the book was a massive drag for me. There were whole chapters on him killing a spider or a whole chapter where someone walked through a park. When I first started reading I felt like Elahi was just using a thesaurus and showing off his vocabulary and it wasn’t flowing well with me at all.
However, upon finishing A Change of Seasons, I realise now that Elahi’s intention was to write a sweeping, deep plot and storyline. It was to describe a man’s deep fall into a dark, lonely and depressive life. This isn’t a book that’s going to have you feeling tense, throwing major plot points at you. However, when you put it down you’re going to feel like, despite the aforementioned, you have been on a real journey with John.
It’s a book where you have to really pay attention. The writing, once you get used to it anyway, is almost poetic. Not only is Elahi over describing everything but as you keep reading, you start to feel like this may be because John is over-noticing more things. As his life slowly becomes lonelier and less and less interesting, the smaller details in life mean and become so much more to him.
A Change of Seasons characters – 4/5
I’ll start straight off: A Change of Seasons doesn’t feature anybody loveable, funny or worth rooting for. However, it does feature an incredibly deep look into the psyche and life of a man whose life very slowly goes down the pan.
John is a character who starts off quite light, thinking optimistically of people despite being divorced, alone and in poor health. After his operation, his health deteriorated which results in his life taking a quick negative turn which causes a lot more negative things to happen in his life.
Other characters feature, some more regularly than others. However, their presence isn’t necessarily the point of the story and their purpose is to add to John’s building character. You like some, you very much dislike others but none really stay around long enough or say enough to leave a lasting impact on you as the reader.
A Change of Seasons by Khurram Elahi overall score – 4/5
I don’t know if A Change of Seasons by Khurram Elahi is exactly my type of book. However, it is a book that in retrospect I can appreciate and respect what Elahi was trying to do. It’s a dark story about a man’s unfortunate and dark journey into a deep depression and loneliness that takes a man from his very best to his very worst. If you’re into almost poetic writing and reading stories about dark, psychiatric journeys, this could be the book for you.
Pick up a copy of A Change of Seasons by Khurram Elahi from Amazon.
