Book Review: 12 Years- My Messed Up Love Story by Chetan Bhagat
- Smita Das Jain
- Oct 25
- 3 min read
Writer Smita Das Jain reviews the book '12 Years: My Messed Up Love Story' by Chetan Bhagat.
As an ardent admirer of Chetan Bhagat's work, I approached 12 years with anticipation and curiosity, since the author was writing fiction after a decade. And found out that I liked his other works more.
You know from the very first chapter how this story will end. The plot is predictable, as are most romances, but what sets 12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story apart is Chetan Bhagat’s sincere attempt to infuse depth into a familiar narrative. The book explores layered aspects of modern love: relationship dynamics, social expectations, career pressures, and the relentless pace of the investment banking and startup worlds. That effort deserves credit.
The story follows Saket Khurana, a 33-year-old divorced man, and Payal Jain, a 21-year-old Stanford graduate working in an investment bank. Their love story unfolds across Mumbai and Dubai, spanning twelve years of tangled emotions and changing circumstances. Bhagat’s storytelling feels more mature here; he uses romance as a medium to explore ambition, disillusionment, and loneliness in contemporary urban life.
However, as someone married into a Jain family, I found the portrayal of the Jain household and Payal’s family dynamics a bit exaggerated. While authors are free to take creative liberties, Bhagat’s depiction veers toward caricature, relying on stereotypes that don’t do justice to the community. Given his influence and wide readership, I wish he had shown a bit more restraint and nuance here.
My biggest struggle as a reader was connecting with the romance itself. While Saket’s character felt authentic, flawed, reflective, and at times, genuinely funny, Payal’s portrayal didn’t land for me. Despite being highly educated and working in a high-pressure environment, she often comes across as immature and inconsistent. Her actions felt abrupt, her motives unclear, and by the time the explanation arrives (in the final 50-100 pages), it’s too late to salvage the chemistry. I never found myself rooting for the couple to unite, something that Bhagat managed beautifully in 2 States.
The age difference between Saket and Payal is a realistic and intriguing plot point. However, instead of enriching their relationship dynamics, it becomes the central, almost overemphasised, conflict of the story. The narrative circles back to it repeatedly, making it the book’s defining feature rather than one of its layers.
The first half of the book, while readable, feels somewhat mechanical and low on emotional energy, despite being romance-centric. The second half, when the setting shifts to Dubai, redeems it. The corporate chaos, startup culture, and psychological burnout are depicted with remarkable authenticity. Ironically, in a love story, it’s the male friendship between Saket and Mudit that truly shines. Their banter, loyalty, and emotional support bring warmth and credibility to the story. Every reader will wish for a friend like Mudit. The female friendship between Payal and Akanksha, in contrast, feels surface-level and forced.
Bhagat’s humour shines throughout the book. Saket’s witty observations as a stand-up comic often serve as the perfect break from the emotional tension. Some lines— funny, simple yet sharp — made me pause and think. Some of them are:
“Oh Instagram, the things you show.”
“More red flags than a Chinese Communist Party parade.”
“The best jokes come out of life and suffering.”
Moments like these showcase Bhagat’s ability to marry humour with introspection.
Overall, 12 Years: My Messed-Up Love Story is a sincere, if uneven, attempt to tell a modern love story with emotional maturity. It stumbles in parts, especially in character depth and romantic chemistry, but shines in its portrayal of male friendship and the realities of heartbreak and work-life burnout.
My rating for the book is a 3.9/5, including additional credit for the portrayal of male friendship. As a longtime Chetan Bhagat reader, I’ve connected more deeply with some of his previous works. Still, 12 Years has its moments. It's introspective, funny, and occasionally thought-provoking.
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