Navigating Grief with Verse – Fishbowl [Review]

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Title: Fishbowl
Author: Varsha Seshan
Publisher: Duckbill – An imprint of Penguin Random House
Type: Paperback
Length: 288 pages
Age group: 11 years+

Grief. Even as you say the word, it feels like there’s no air left in you. A short breath and the sound that escapes — unsettling. Perhaps it’s the survival instinct that makes everything around us feel alien, unreal, like it’s happening to someone else. It’s like a pause in time, where we know the world is still going around, and yet, you can’t seem to find the power or the strength or the motivation to do anything.

It’s crippling.

And then there will be one day that starts as a bright, sunny morning, and some silly thing will make you laugh. Some music will make you sing and dance. And you just enjoy it for those brief moments. But the voice inside your head goes — how dare you? Your loved one just died. Don’t you have any feelings? Are you a monster?

There’s so much guilt for being alive. And shame for having a normal day. And anger! At everything.

Or you could be in public with friends all around you, and it could just be an aroma or a word or a snatch of a song, and you’ll be transported right there, in the middle of a beautiful memory, and you crumble into a sobbing, blubbering fool.

It’s disabling.

This raw, complex experience of grief lies at the heart of Varsha Seshan’s “Fishbowl,” a novel that captures the intricate journey of teenage loss through the story of Mahee, a young girl struggling to navigate life after losing her parents. Written in verse, the book creates an intimate portrait of grief that feels both deeply personal and universally recognizable.

Seshan masterfully portrays Mahee’s experience through the metaphor of a fishbowl – she can see the world around her, but everything appears distorted, muffled, distant. Adopted by her uncle Deep and his wife Sanam, Mahee finds herself surrounded by gentle love and support, and yet struggles to connect through the glass walls of her grief. Her new home, new school, new everything feels simultaneously overwhelming and unreal, while memories of her parents color every moment with anger, deep sorrow, guilt and longing.

Sanam tries to bring in some normalcy, and puts her in a school where she meets Aditi. Their friendship begins with a shared bus seat in their school bus grows slowly and organically into a source of comfort and security. In contrast, the obsessive class representative Riddhima approaches Mahee as a “project” to be fixed through *research* and intervention, making things only more difficult for our protagonist.

Seshan’s choice to tell this story in verse is remarkably effective. The lyrical format creates both intensity and breathing space, mirroring the unpredictable waves of grief itself. Each poem builds upon the last, creating a rhythm that carries readers through Mahee’s journey from isolation to tentative connection.

My eleven-year-old with no context of grief loved it too and finished it in one sitting. She loved how her friendship with Aditi bloomed to help her through it all and how sensitive and enabling Sanam was.

Note: Fishbowl talks about counselling as the key to addressing grief. And there’s no shame in talking to someone about it. Different things work for different people. For some art heals. For some sports. For some quiet reflection.

Other books by Varsha Seshan can be found here.

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RELATED READING: We have curated a very detailed listicle of recommended heartwarming reads on dealing with grief and loss of a loved one here.

Disclaimer: Mandira and her daughter Kyra, are a part of the #kbcReviewerSquad and received this book as a review copy from the publisher via kbc. Mandira is the author of the award winning book Children of the Hidden Land. Her new release Muniya’s Quest for middle graders has been reviewed here with high praise and lots of love!