Nagasravika's Book Reviews Blog

 The Naturals  (The Naturals #1) By Jennifer Lynn Barnes  Published Year: 2013 Page Count: 306 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Thriller, Young Adult, Suspense,  Murder Mystery, Detectives, FBI, Intuition, Solving Murders, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 I usually read up every genre that falls under the banner of Fiction and never have I come across such a simplified yet complex, thrilling story. It is just structured and constructed differently. I felt really invested in diving into the psyche of the serial killer that was disrupting everyone's peace of mind. The author deftly took me through the motivation, needs and cause-effects of victims and the psychopath that was brutalizing them. I was enjoying the read while also learning something about the world of investigators and criminology. How cool is that!! I had committed to my memory important terms like MO, Signature, Victimology among others. I finished this book earlier than I thought....

 The Wind - Up Bird Chronicle  By Haruki Murakami  Published Year: 1997 [ English Version] Page Count: 605 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Fantasy,  Magical Realism, Historical Fiction, World War II, Nomonhan incident, Romance, Multiverse, Weird Characters, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 Perhaps the first book of Murakami that I have given a 5 star rating. I have loved all his works but never found something that resonated deep with me. Like this one did. For once, I thought he set the smut and sexual stuff between main characters on a back seat. The main theme is to rid the world of a monstrous personality with some secret power and then win his wife back, rescued from the clutches of this dark person. There are a horde of very unusual and troubling characters( some are very weird) who share their pasts and stories with the narrator. Sometimes they make sense and sometimes they don't. Some explanations made me laugh out loud, some had me c...

 Hyperion  (Hyperion Cantos #1) By Dan Simmons  Hugo Award Winner  Published Year: 1989 Page Count: 500 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Time Travel, Time Tombs, Shrike, SFF, Historical Fiction, Anthology, 2026-read.  Rating : 4.65/5 😀😀😀😀🤑 The story runs at present time ( of the narrative ) where seven individuals from different walks of life are called to go on a pilgrimage to an isolated planet Hyperion. They have very little in common excepting that they are all acquainted with Shrike ( the immortal being of the planet Hyperion which is called the Lord of pain and God of redemption like a hindu Kalki avatar) and Hyperion in some way. Some have direct experience with it while others knew of someone who did. Through their stories we get to know of the various aspects of the planet and also the setup of the universe they inhabit in the 28th century. I felt that this is a very unique way of not only getting to kno...

 The Talisman  (The Talisman #1) By Stephen King, Peter Straub  Published Year: 1984 Page Count: 765 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Multiverse, Science Fiction,  Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Young Adult, Coming-of-age, Adventure,  Action, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😃😃😃😃🥳 I would say what a sensational book! The collaboration between two masters of horror and fantasy worked splendidly. I could easily discern the author by his writing style. The clonky book is broken into four parts - i think the 1st and 4th are written by Straub while the middle two are Mr. King's work. There isn't a book I haven't liked of King yet and this is my introduction to Straub. I liked the nuances and knowledge transfer that was happening from their minds into mine throughout the plot. Purely magical and addictive! I couldn't put down the book. Even if I was only managing to read about a hundred pages a day, the story lingered in my mind. I was churning through the e...

 An Acceptable Time  (Time Quintet #5, Kairos #8) By Madeline L'Engle  Published Year: 1989 Page Count: 295 pages  Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, SFF, Mythology, Time Travel, Primeval Time, Young Adult, Teenagers, Adventure, Healing, Childrens Fiction, Classics, 2026-read.  Rating: 5/5 😀 😀 😀😀😀 Absolutely thrilling. I always maintained that one doesn't have to study medicine in order to heal and this book dealing in healers from the ancient times proves me right. The world development of the ancient times  is immaculate - having read all the books in this Time Quintet series, i can attest that the author writes past better than the current times. She is also a critic on the past conditions of people and how the current world is not much different even though more civilized and evolved. I agree with her on that. We have come far technology wise but have much to improve spiritually and self analysis, correction. I liked how t...

 Many Waters  (Time Quintet #4, Kairos #4) By Madeline L'Engle  Published Year: 1986 Page Count: 300 pages  Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mythology, Mythical Creatures, Historical Fiction, Noah and the Ark, Classics, Childrens Fiction, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 Wow. What a book. What world development - very evocative, immersive and totally, totally legit. I have never read a book that took me back to the ancient times before the Noah and Ark setting. It is a beautiful concoction by the author - clubbing together the mythical creatures like dwarf mammoths, manticores, unicorns, griffins. She has also thrown into the mix angels who have volunteered to help humans in the form of Seraphims and those angels who have been tossed out of the heaven in the form of Nephilims. Even in those very early times of human evolution, there was fight between good and evil. Even with God sending the flood and Noah making the Ark and transpo...

 A Swiftly Tilting Planet  (Time Quintet #3, Kairos #3) By Madeline L'Engle  Published Year: 1978 Page Count: 236 pages Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre: Classics, Childrens Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, SFF, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Unicorns, Time Travel,Adventure, 2026-read.  Rating: 5/5 😍😍😍😍😍 What a brilliant book! This book is quite unexpected and quite a leap when compared to the two previous books in the series. It didn't read like childrens fiction. Because the plot is quite complex to grasp. And also the main characters are no longer kids. Charles Wallace is fifteen now. Meg Murry O'Keefe is pregnant with her first baby.There are many threads that come together and sew into a comprehensible plot when nearing the end but until then it is quite a jumble of repetitive character names and events. The idea of the book is novel and its execution kept me gripped from page one till the end. The author has masterfully blended themes of mythology, ti...

 A Wind in the Door  (The Time Quintet #2, Kairos #2) By Madeline L'Engle  Published Year: 1973 Page Count: 236 pages  Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre : Classics, Adventure, Childrens Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult, Speculative Fiction, 2026-read.  Rating : 3.5/5  Once again, Meg Murry is on an adventure to save her youngest brother, Charles Wallace. Like in the first book, she shows gumption and resolve, using intuition and some luck to get him out of death's snare. In this book, she fights and defeats Echthroi, masters of War and Destruction, seeking to destroy/annihilate/X the creation by destroying Charles Wallace. Farandolae within Mitochondria are fictitious creation by the author which the Echthroi target for destruction in Charles' body. The theory goes that if the Mitochondria die, our body cannot live, similarly, if the farandolae die, the Mitochondria cannot live. Death of all farandolae will eventually lead to the death of the ...

 A Wrinkle in Time  (The Time Quintet #1, Kairos #1) By Madeline L'Engle  Published Year: 1962 Page Count: 152 pages  Medium Used: Ipad air Genre: Classics, Childrens Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, SFF, High Fantasy, Action, Adventure. Aliens, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 This is a novella but gave me the satisfaction of reading a wholesome and non drawling book of fiction which superbly blended elements of multiple planets, alien creatures, magic and children becoming heroes. The world(s) building is amazing, the characters are super and not complex because they are either budding children or their loving elders. This story tells us the story of a young girl's efforts and journeys to other planets that are either consumed by Darkness(an evil entity that is subjugating all the minds of the world it infests to its control) or are fighting against its encroachment. She saves her father and then her brother, both of whom fall into the snare of the evil D...