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Richard Osman's The Last Devil to Die Book Review

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 The Last Devil to Die  (Thursday Murder Club #4) By Richard Osman Published Year: 2023 Page Count: 417 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre : Mystery, Murders, Suspense, Heroin smuggling, Cozy Mystery, 2025-read.  Rating : 5/5 😇 Well, let's see. This book felt different. This is my first book with the author and the series. I remember starting book 1 in the series but not finishing it - due to some time constraints. Now that I have read this one and enjoyed it, I might give the full series a retry. There are many scenes where I would go over the sentence and come back to it in a blink like what the hell has just happened? There are multiple murders in the plot and some of them are revealed in regular chats and conversations.. like totally taking me by surprise. There are cops in the story but they are sidelined by NCA (National Crime Agency) looking into the murders and so these cops tag along with the members of a Thursday Murder Club. The Murder Club con...
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Haruki Murakami's The City and its Uncertain Walls

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 The City and its Uncertain Walls  By Haruki Murakami  Published Year: 2024 (English Translation) Page Count: 672 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre : Magical Realism, Alternate Worlds, Young Adult, 2025-read.  Rating : 4/5 This book has 70 chapters and until I reached 67, I was fully inclined to give it a 5 star rating. To say that Mr.Murakami botched the ending would be an understatement. He left many loose ends untied and unanswered. Some aspects of the novel left me totally combobulated and asking myself, what the hell is this logic? Where is this driving the narrative? I am fully sure that the author didn't come up with the plot framed fully in his mind before he started writing but went on building it up as his work progressed. Unlike his other books where I gave a similar low rating, it is not because of some cringy sex scenes or overwhelming smut that I am removing points here. I must be either stupid to look for logic in a magical realism sto...
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This Immortal by Roger Zelazny Book Review

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 This Immortal  By Roger Zelazny  Winner of Hugo Award 1966 Published Year: 1965 October  Page Count: 175 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre : Science Fiction, Fantasy, Vampires, Aliens, 2025-read.  Rating : 5/5 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗 Loved reading this. I picked this book with my eyes closed because the author is Roger Zelazny. I had read his Chronicles of Amber in the past and was truly inspired, thrilled and amazed. As expected, he didn't disappoint me. The world building and character development are unique. Though it has many Fantasy elements like vampires and other creatures, they are logically explained and couldn't be brushed aside as mere Fiction. This plot reminded me of a telugu movie (Indian Bollywood) Missamma (2003)which starred Bhumika Chawla and Shivaji. It is so near to that I felt removal of a surprise element. Still, this narration is infinitely superior and so giving it a solid 5 pointer! There were a few references to ancient Greece and ...
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Dying of the Light by George R. R. Martin Book Review

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 Dying of the Light  By George R. R. Martin  Published Year: 1977 Page Count: 300 pages  Medium Used : Kindle Scribe Genre : High Fantasy, Space Opera, Romance, Betrayal, 2025-read.  Rating :5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 This book is so so good. I have become a fan of Martin's writing with the Game of Thrones series and wanted to check out some of his previous works. This was written and published in 1977, way before he became famous. The number of ratings on goodreads (which i use as a benchmark to note a book's success/popularity) showed that it is not that well known/read. Alas,but this one is a true gem!! Character development is superb. The prose is gorgeous. There is love, betrayal, sorcery, dirges that drive their listeners mad, suicidal and wickedness, brutality in right dosage to keep me immersed, glued throughout. There are scenes where I could feel my breath's sharp intake and my heart skip a few beats. At the end, my feeling is that some of the characters got what ...
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Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan Mcguire Book Review

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 Every Heart a Doorway  (Wayward Children #1) By Seanan McGuire  Locus, Nebula, Hugo award winner. Published Year : 2016 Page Count: 170 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre : Fantasy, Mythical Beings, Magic, Sorcery, Multiverse, Murder Mystery, Crime, Thriller,  2025-read.  Rating : 5/5 😇😇😇😇🥰 This is my first book by the author. I am completely taken in by her imagination. Some of the scenes are filled with gore, some are so novel and full of humor that I was laughing out loud throughout.  So brilliant. The prose is amazing and by the time I neared the end, I was wondering if I might not underline every sentence in the book. The writing is not complex and narration has a visceral quality. Totally immersive and gripping! I went into the book blind .. with no idea about the story or the genre .. and it paid off. I am amazed at the talent of the author who could spin such a splendid tale in so short number of pages. Amazing, amazing, amazin...
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Caleb Carr's The Alienist Book Review

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 The Alienist  By Caleb Carr Published Year: 1994 Page Count: 614 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre : Historical Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Psychological, Psychiatrists, Suspense, 2025-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 I had to recheck that this is not a narration of real life events but, indeed, is a work of fiction several times. The inclusion of real life people/characters like Theodore Roosevelt and J.P.Morgan didn't help my case.  Brilliant! Fascinating!! Kept me on the edge till the very end. Even when I know its time for curtains to be pulled up, I was craving for more. A new perspective of looking at the mind and psyche of a serial killer. We read a lot about serial killers and how they carry on their terror reign until they are caught or killed but we don't stop a second to reflect on why they have become so and what actually triggers them about their victims. Even in this book, I didn't understand why the man is gravitated to immigrant children...
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The Mammoth Book of Time Travel by Mike Ashley

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 The Mammoth book of Time Travel  By Mike Ashley  Published Year: 2013 Page count : 544 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre : Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Time Travel, Multiverse, 2025-read.  Rating : 5/5 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃 Just sensational! Thought provoking. Mind bending. I am a huge fan of Science Fiction..especially the stories involving time travel and multiverse. This book contains 25 sensational stories that involve some version of time travel and occasional parallel worlds themes. Loved it very much. The organization of the stories is also such that as I progressed with the book,the stories got more nuanced and intricate. I read some of them with great love and interest. How the authors handled the paradoxes that arise with multiple versions of same person as a result of time travel was of major interest to me. Do check this out! 
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