Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

The Housemaid  (The Housemaid #1) By Freida McFadden  Published Year: 2022 Page Count : 287 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Mystery, Murder, Suspense, Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Fiction, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5  God!! What a book! What a story! I got up this morning and my first thoughts are to recapture where I left off the story last night! I got addicted to the two women characters - Millie and Nina. What appears on the surface is definitely not what lies beneath. This story proves it. Do we really know the people, who hold infinite grace and charm, enough to trust them? This story makes us question our convictions twice! If something feels too good to be true and real, probably it isn't! The most normal looking families could be the most dysfunctional. An unsuspecting and naive newcomer might have the surprise of their life when they learn the truth! I sincerely hope that this book doesn't put thoughts into already some sick, perverted minds out there.  I tho

 Exhalation: Short Stories  By Ted Chiang  Published Year : 2019 (Alfred A. Knopf)  Page Count: 317 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Science Fiction, Multiverse, Technology, Time Travel, Aliens, Robots, Humanity, Theology, 2024-read.  Rating :  5/5  These stories will remain with the reader long after the book is put aside. I feel, as humanity makes more strides in the direction of developing AI and realizing their dreams of contact with Aliens or making time/multiverse traveler feasible, they become less 'human'. That they embrace the culture and outlook of people who wouldn't attribute much to a God or divine plan or work on cultivating 'generosity'. But Ted Chiang has shown precisely thats where I could be wrong in my visions/fears for the future. He has,through this set of brilliant,articulate and lurid story collection, tried to cross 'theology' and 'humanism' with hard core 'science' using fiction as a vehicle.   All the stories a

Murder in the Family  By Cara Hunter  Published year: 2023 Page Count: 475 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Murder Mystery, Suspense, Screenplay, Book Review, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I so thoroughly enjoyed it. This is my first book with Cara Hunter but it has quickly propelled her into the list of my must-check-out authors. This seems to be the first of a kind book in creating an atmosphere of the reader brainstorming with the detective/expert panel which is resolving the case. The unraveling happens like a screenplay .. fully packed with witness interviews, montages of images and it sort of branches off into different angles before striking the target. And the funny part is that the target hit at the end might not be legit. The author seemed to have hinted at a sequel or there being a different explanation to the mystery. Anyways, I am eager to know and read what it would be. The reading is a very engaging and refreshing experience.  A man, 28 years old, is found murdere

 The Space Between Worlds  (The Space Between Worlds #1) By Micaiah Johnson  Published Year: 2020 Page Count: 305 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Science Fiction, Fantasy, SFF, Adventure, Multiverse, Technology and Space, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Such beautiful book. The writing is terrific. The prose is so good and the world building is next level! I read a digital edition of this book and have large swathes of paragraphs highlighted .. thats how good the writing felt! It expertly weaves the worlds of multiverse, space - time travel and fantasy into a beautiful science fiction, fantasy story. The plot is complex but is also laid out in a fashion that makes everything clear. I find that not everyone has the ability to tackle the confusion and conundrums that multiverse - with multiple selves of a person,different times and relationships -  creates. Michaiah has navigated this tough space by limiting the number of focused worlds to two and also killing off most of the paral

 Clockwork Angel  (Infernal Devices #1) By Cassandra Clare  Published Year : 2010  Page Count: 485 pages  Medium Used : Paperback  Genre : Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Fiction, Vampires, 2024-read, Adventure.  Rating : 3.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐💫 I think when I saw the huge number of ratings and the average rating for this book on GoodReads, I built high expectations for this book. Having just finished, I don't understand what the gaga is all about.  The biggest achievement for the author in this is her ability to pull together vampires, warlocks, demons,angels and modern day Robots all into one plot. The spin off that these Downworld creatures being offspring of demons - either born of them or infested by them - is too fantastic. She has taken some liberties with the logic but made the plot stick to her rationality.  I thought the prose is good. The twist that came in, is a breath knocker. The characters have depth and are well drawn. The pacing and the placement of different elements of surprise and in

 Dark Season 2  (Watched on Netflix) Rating : 7/10 #timetravel #multiverse #tvseries #review  Most of the players can be seen hauling around suitcases carrying time machine equipment in this season. They have all become aware of the time travel and the mind numbing relationships that are fostered as a result. There is an apocalypse coming up that wipes away humanity and two sides are known to exist - Adam's which wants to bring time to an end and usher into a new world, Claudia's side that wants to save the world as it is. I felt the story has become more scientific in nature with lesser scope to drama as seen in season 1. Ulrich got very little screen time. Jonas Kahnewald emerges to be the main character that plays both good and bad sides. He will be seen shuttling between the 50s, 80s, current time and the 2020 when the apocalypse occurs. There are also some mechanisms devised by the scientific community to travel between times not separated by 33 years. A set date can be tr

 A Journey Through Time  (Eine Reise durch die Zeit) By H.G.Tannhaus  Published Year:  Page Count: 270 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Multiverse, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Watches, 2024-read.  Rating : 4/5  A very interesting book. This is the book that is carried around and much shown in the Netflix Series : Dark. The author Tannhaus names one of the main characters after his name. This book deals in time travel and shows the nonlinearity of time and how altering a time line could result in alternative worlds/dimensions. The translation from German to English is decent..although at places, the translator got the grammer and gender pronouns wrong. This kind of confused me a bit and I had to re-read few sentences to understand the meaning.  For someone who is new to the concept of time travel and multiverse, this narrative could become quite incomprehensible. I didn't quite follow why the heroic feats need the main character, Charlotte's involvement at all - she was

 This is how you lose the time war  By Max Gladstone and Al Mohatar  Published Year: 2019 Page Count: 170 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Science Fiction, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Adventure, Multiverse, Time Travel, Shape Shifters, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 👏👏👏👏👏 Amazing. Brilliant work. Did a magic play with words. Weaved a tale that is mesmerizing while keeping it short!  Although I didn't understand it fully - despite reading it in two iterations - I loved the vivid imagery, cinematic prose and wonderful narration style. In my first attempt to read this book, I went fast in my perusal and understood very little. Then I quit that attempt and started new. I read the paragraphs real slow and made myself some mental notes as the plot unfurled. It is an amazing experience - walking in the shoes of the main characters, Blue and Red.  So, first of all, my question is - what are they? They are definitely not human beings. While I came to the conclusion that Red is some ty

The Assassin's Blade  (THRONE OF GLASS #0.1-0.5) By Sarah J Mass  Published Year : 2014 Page count: 438 pages  Medium Used : Paperback  Genre : Fantasy, Adventure, Celeana Sardothien, Science Fiction, Magic, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I read this book after the sequel Throne of Glass. I enjoyed it very much. In the Throne of Glass, we see the main character, Celaena Sardothien, as an indomitable, somewhat ruthless and very, very hard at the core fighter. That is because she is pitted to fight the games which are life / death and has sworn to herself to win. In this prequel book, we see a Celaena with a more realistic personality. She loved someone very deeply and lost them to betrayal, torture and brutality. She resolves to keep that caring and vulnerable part of her being under subjugation to her will. It was caring too much for him and getting carried away with rage, righteousness and vengeance that got her into her current predicament.  I enjoyed every page of this book. The

Dark Season 1 (2017) Review Genre : Time travel, Multiverse, Science Fiction, Thriller, Suspense, Season 1. Rating 7.5/10 In a German town of Winden, two kids disappear over a time gap of 33 years. There is a nuclear power plant which might be acting as a portal opening to other times - across 33 years in the past or future. A mesmerizing drama where we meet the characters, their younger and older selves as they are traveling through this portal/time. It goes a bit slow and that adds to the intense, suspenseful nature of the plot.  There are also subtle hints to this drama being a small peep into a larger fight between good and evil. Have to see how this plays out in the next seasons!

The Regime Season 1 (2024) : 6 episodes  Genre : Speculative Fiction, Britain, Political Intrigue, 2024-watched.  Rating : 7/10 Superb, mind blowing acting by academy award winning actress Kate Winslet. She plays the role of UK chancellor who is childish, petulant, self indulgent and blase about how her government is functioning. She is paired up with an ex military officer who is as deluded as her and who adds fuel to her whimsical fancies and feelings. He is an aggessive personality that has got strong convictions and uses those to influence her thoughts and actions.  The ministers of her regime stand by and watch their charade with fingers on their lips and barely concealed disgust, but the love pair don't pay any heed. Where does this regime take the country and how does it define its foreign policy? She snubs the Western world (US), makes a trade agreement with the East (China) even though it is detrimental to the survival of local industries and people. What are the repercuss

 The Man in the High Castle  By Philip K. Dick  Released Year: 1962 Page count: 252 pages Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Alternate Reality, Science Fiction, Multiverse.  Rating 2.5/5  I didn't understand what this book is trying to convey or suggest. The outcome of world War 2 is altered and the Axis powers(Germany, Japan, Italy) have won instead of the Allied powers ( USA, Britain, Russia). The author writes of the intense atmosphere created in the occupied USA. While Japan has the control over the west, German forces occupy the East. Jews and other Americans live in a state of fear and use assumed personalities. They change their appearances and names to live a life of deception and hiding. The Japanese in power, more than the Germans, suffer from the morality of what they are doing and this leads to some confrontations between the SD of Germany and the Japanese leaders on US soil.  A man who lives in a isolationist high castle in Colorado has written a highly controversial and