Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

Notes on an Execution  By Danya Kukafka  Rating : 4.5/5  Genres : Execution, Murder Trial, Novel, 2022-read I am very impressed with the crisp and short handed writing style of the author. This happens to be her second work and it doesn't feel amateurish at all. The plot is well developed and presented from different perspectives/angles with the narrative flying back and forth in time and space. The question mainly addressed is about choices a soul/person makes - what if one has no control over them and the person who does bad things yearns for a different reality where he is good, his life was good and he didn't have to bear the guilt of his impulsive actions? We should ask ourselves if we really want to punish a child for the mistakes his parents did and his future actions/behavior/violence is a product of such abuse which happened to him when he had no say/control over it?  Told from the point of the murderer who desperately wants to escape execution and is willi

Norwegian Wood  By Haruki Murakami  Rating : 3/5  Genres : Romance, Mental illness, Japanese, Literary Fiction. This happens to be one of the most read novels by Haruki Murakami. It literally lifted him from shadows of obscurity into international stardom.  In this book, he creates a world in itself. He has interleaved elements of love, friendship,hope with those of selfishness, melancholy, depression and shock. This is my second book by him and I guess I will always have a bit of discomfort with his explicit sexual descriptions but he also makes them  very center stage to his stories that without them the depth of his narration will fall apart. Like all his other works i read, this one is gripping and gives a totally immersive reading experience. The main figures in this book are teenagers who are coming to terms with loss/death of their dear ones and their ability to handle the pain without falling apart. The important lesson to take away from this book for me happens to

The Old Man and the Sea By Ernst Hemingway  Rating 4.75/5  Genres : Literary Fiction, Award Winning, 2022-read  An old man has been a successful and well known fisherman most of his life. He hasn't been having much luck of late and is despondent as a result. After about three months of no catch, the old man sets off on his hunt skeptical of catching anything. But this time something unexpected happens. He thinks a regular fish has caught his bait but doesn't know how big a fish it is until it drags the boat a long way into the sea and then starts circling around to get to him. Determined to capture it and sell it for a huge profit, the old man spears it in the chest and kills it. He ties it to a skiff of his boat and start his journey back.  The blood which is spilled during the killing attracts many sharks from the depths of the sea. The first one to attack is a Mono shark and he loses his harpoon killing it. The second is a set of shovel nosed sharks and he succes

Girl, Interrupted  by Susanna Kaysen  Rating : 4/5  Genres : Psychological disorder, Mental illness, Memoir. A girl at seventeen finds no meaning in her life. Has no ambition or desire to pursue anything of importance/purpose. She is depressed and bored out of her wits. Gradually she descends into a state of not being able to distinguish between reality and fantasy. She sees things and then doubts herself if what she has actually seen is the same as what her brain/mind interpreted. She is also constantly bombarded with thoughts of suicide and one day, decides to take her life by consuming an overdose of aspirin. She is rescued in time but is committed to a mental hospital by her doctor. She spends around 2 years in this mental hospital and gives us a glimpse into the inner world of the insane which is otherwise shielded. They have therapy sessions every day..some of the ward incharges are good, some bad..new patients come in and others go out..it sets a daily rhythm to thei

The Giver  By Loris Lowry  Rating 4/5 Genres Dystopian future, Novel world. This is a very short read. My first thought after it ended is isn't there more to this? Because it somehow didn't feel complete. :/  The story is based in a utopia like society where the pain and suffering along with all negative emotions like boredom, hatred, dislike etc are eliminated carefully through ages - to be replaced with contentment, lack of hunger, lack of wanting adding monotony and an absence of color/passion/"life" itself into the mix. Gradually, two very specially psychically endowed people - one that calls himself 'the giver' and the other 'the receiver'(a kid called Jonas) discover it to be indeed very dystopian and make efforts to restore the past. The story ends on a note of hope and bright sunshine as Jonas and his brother Gabriel make it to the regular world outside the constructed world of utopia.  I liked the world construction and the charact

The Count of Monte Cristo  By Alexander Dumas  Rating : 4.5/5 Genres : Classics, Revenge, Counts and Barrons  Edward Dantes is a young sailor of nineteen deeply in love with a girl Mercedes whom he intends to marry after his voyage ends. He is also deeply respectful towards the only other love of his life, his father. A very promising and hard working young man that he is, his master Morrell intends to give him the captainship to his ship even though he is young and relatively inexperienced. This rubs some sailors the wrong way and one man Danglers especially harbors more resentment than others. Upon his return to mainland, Dantes visits  Mercedes  and sets up to be married to her shortly. However, she has a new beau Ferdinand who is her cousin and intends to seize her hand. He is bitter and rankles with hatred for she declares love for no one but Dantes. So on the appointed day of his marriage, Dantes gets arrested on the pretext that he is a supporter of Bonaparte who is

Contempt  By Alberto Moravia  Rating 4/5 🥰😉 Genres : Existential reality, Psychological fiction, 2022-read, Fiction Riccardo and Emilia have lived a loving and content life as married couple for two years albeit his financial inability to provide her with what he thinks she wants/craves for the most - their own house. Their situation takes a turn for the better when Riccardo gets an opportunity to write a movie script with a famous producer Battista. Although he hates his job because of a lack of self recognition or identification it would give him, he takes it purely for the money to rent a flat with Emilia. But shortly there after he starts noticing a change in her behavior - he becomes absolutely convinced that she has stopped loving him and is indeed looking/treating him with contempt. He doesn't heed her assurances that's its not the case and falls into an endless self probing about why this has happened,  why she has stopped loving him and started despising

The Beast Within  By Emile Zola  Rating 5/5 😄😃😃😃 Genres : psychological fiction, fiction, violence, murder, suspense  Its a solid, hard core 5 point from me. Emile Zola is a treasure and a brilliant writer that I haven't stumbled upon till now. I vaguely remember reading bits and pieces of Nana by him but not fully. This book has him embodying every single character and writing it from their perspective of how they feel and why they make a certain choice of action. He is one time in the head of a murderer, another time  in that of his victim. He is one time  in the head of a woman vulnerable and weak, another time in that of a ruthless,unflinching  amazon. It is hard to not read on as the story is unraveling in such a mysterious way..there is no knowing who is going to get killed next..who is going to murder whom, for what motive and how?! Its full of suspense and mystery but it also has many scenes of graphical violence which sensitive readers must be warned about

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue  By V.E.Schwab  Rating: 4/5 Genres : Historical Fiction, young adult, Soul, Devil, Romance, 2022-read  This is my first book by the author and I am pleasantly surprised by the depth and insight she has into human nature and her grip over human emotions. I am trying to search for the right keyword to describe this book..its not great or amazing or any of those things..I would say the word would be impactful, heavy, deep and literally dealing in soul. A young girl makes a deal with the devil/darkness/God of the woods and sets off a game spanning over 300 years with him chasing after her trying to seize her soul..but she successfully evading him. He pushes her into situations where embittered, frustrated and broken she should be ready to offer him her soul but adamant and stubborn as she is, she chooses to live time and time again. Yes! Addie LaRue is a young girl of 23 who born in a small village town of France has big dreams..to explore the