Nagasravika's Book Reviews Blog

 The Eyes of the Dragon  By Stephen King  Published Year: 1984 Page Count: 430 pages  Medium Used: Oneplus Nord Ce6  Genre : Horror, Fantasy, Thriller, Action, Demons, Dragons, Suspense, Young Adult, 2026-read. Rating : 5/5 😎 😎 😎 😎 😎  This book is just so amazing and gripping that I couldn't put it down. Its fast paced. The character development is just amazing. Only thing is I felt the author has made even 16 - 17 year old teenagers sound like children. He is very good .. no absolutely phenomenal .. in writing young kids going on adventures and if we choose to overlook the ages and such  details, we can enjoy the story thoroughly. Reading from the title, I assumed this story is gonna be surrounding or involving dragons. I postponed picking the book on this account. But now having finished it, I know the title is very misleading. The only dragon in the story is the head of a killed dragon mounted on a hook in the king's private room. The king Rola...

 The Divorce  By Freida Mcfadden  Published Year : 2026 Page Count : 380 pages  Medium Used: Oneplus Nord CE6 phone Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Thriller, Psychological, Twists, Suspense, Mystery, 2026-read. Rating: 3.75/5 😎😎😎😎 The main characters in the story are Naomi Roth the wife, Jeremy Roth the husband, Veronica the mistress and Teddy the child. Right off, I felt Jeremy and Veronica's characterization is not realistic. They seemed forced and melted to fit the mold of the story. While reading the Veronica's version of the tale,I was rushing through it and stifling a yawn. Its hard for me to see her in the light of her projection. The first narrative from Naomi showed her in a negative light so her own ought to show her in an exact opposite and pink light? I would have believed if there was some deception or weakness in her nature but the absence of it made me uneasy. And Jeremy - his story doesn't add up. He married so his kid can have two parents but he had...

 Storm Front  (The Dresden Files #1) By Jim Butcher  Published Year: 2000 Page Count: 370 pages  Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre : Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Magic and Wizards, Action, Detectives, 2026-read.  Rating : 4/5 😀😀😀😀 I really enjoyed this book. I really liked the character of Harry Dresden, a wizard detective that helped the cops on the side. Dresden's character was introduced in this book and I felt that there is so much more to know about him, which was not laid out in this book yet. There were many sequels in the series and I would definitely like to check them out. I thought the pacing is fast and the narrative really hooked me. It was a typical detective story - with magic involved. Someone had been murdering people through black magic - blowing their chest cavities and ripping their hearts out. There was a White Council which oversees the practitioners of magic and ensured that a set of rules be adhered to. The cops with whom ...

 The Book Of Doors  By Gareth Brown  Published Year: 2024 Page Count: 436 pages  Medium Used: ipad Air  Genre: Fantasy, Magical Realism, Magic, Magical Books, Action, Suspense, Thriller, Science Fiction,Time Travel, 2026-read.  Rating: 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 I couldn't put this down. I started it as a means to break my boredom and sleeplessness by reading one or two chapters in a well received work of science and speculative fiction. This book hooked me right away. It kept me up way longer than I expected. The first chapters I read on my phone but then i had to switch to a bigger screen. I couldn't leave out the time I was charging my phone. That good this book was. Definitely try it if you happen to like all the magic books could deliver.  The first thing that came to mind as I kept devouring this book was how thorough the author was while writing it. He was very careful and thoughtful about not having any loopholes, flaws and weaknesses in his plot. Had a qu...

 Twelve  (The Naturals #4.5) By Jennifer Lynn Barnes  Published Year:2017 Page Count: 125 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Mystery, Murder Investigation, Thriller, Psychological Profiling, 2026-read. Rating : 3/5  I would have to say that this book didn't give me the high from reading something novel. Its just that the killer and his motivations, needs for influencing his victims were different. But because this is a novella, I didn't expect much too. Its short and undeviating from the author's style and set up of the previous Naturals novels.  A new girl of twelve with natural talent for identifying and seeing things out of usual perspective got recruited into the Naturals programme at the end of the book. This girl was also the targeted victim for a psychopathic killer. Cassie and her friends saved the girl from literally the brink of death. The girl, Mackenzie McBride, caught the attention of FBI by threatening to jump off a high tower. She had...

 Bad Blood  (The Naturals #4) By Jennifer Lynn Barnes  Published Year: 2016 Page Count: 375 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction, Suspense, Cults and Secret Societies, Young Adult, Blood and Gore, 2026-read.  Rating: 4.5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 This series is so much fun to read! Hands down. I had formed various threads in my mind of how this book would unravel and how the ending would play out. There are many twists and surprises in the story but the one that came in lieu of Cassie's mother's dual nature felt redundant. Why can't she justify herself as someone who wanted to survive against all odds because she wasn't someone who would give up easily ? Why introduce this new element into an already twisted and mind bending story? I also felt that the author had not laid enough groundwork for establishing a solid timeline ( because so much was happening all through) to the succession of Masters and their apprentices - like the relation...

 All In  (The Naturals #3) By Jennifer Lynn Barnes  Published Year: 2015 Page Count: 375 pages Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Crime Fiction, Secret Societies, Mystery, Thriller, Psychological Fiction, 2026-read.  Rating: 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 What bloody hell! What did I just read? Secret Societies? Ritualistic, fibonacci series based killings? Very well written. Best book in the series as far as I have made it through! Blends all the elements that ticked me off from first book and adds some more spice of its own. This is the book which paves the way for Cassie to become something more than a Natural and embrace the truth of her mother's murder/missing identity. Everything that has happened so far - including the Naturals programme and the associations Cassie made with the other kids in the programme - fades in comparison to the revelation that comes towards the end in this book. It is simply shocking.  Cassie's mother went missing five years ago from a room drenc...

 Killer Instinct  (The Naturals #2) By Jennifer Lynn Barnes  Published Year: 2014 Page Count: 370 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Action, Psychological Thriller, Psychological Profiling, Murder Mystery, Young Adult, Hit Series, FBI, 2026-read.  Rating : 3/5  Not as sensational as the first book in the series. I was totally blown away by book 1. It had a mixture of suspense, psychological profiling, insights into deviant minds bordering on psychopathic tendencies and romantic triangle between the lead characters. In this book, I thought no emphasis was laid on any of the above aspects.  The author had laid exaggerated importance on the character of the villain who seemed to be the kingpin behind the 5 murders in this book. He had minions - referred to as copycats, students, partners or apprentices - who echoed his MO and signature in their crimes. That guru happened to be the father of one of the teenagers in the Naturals programme funded and...

 Divine Rivals  (Letters of Enchantment #1) By Rebecca Ross  Published Year: 2023 Page Count: 360 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Fantasy, Romantasy, Epistolatory, Gods and Magic, Young Adult, Enemies to Lovers, 2026-read.  Rating: 5/5 😍😍😍😍😍 I didn't feel this story should be encompassed under the umbrella of enemies to lovers. There was definitely some rivalry between the two main characters - Iris Winnow and Ramon Kitt - but it was never devoid of some empathy and mutual attraction. Ramon and Iris are vying for the role of a columnist in the Oath Gazette newspaper organization. For Iris, it is a matter of survival because with her mother enfeebled and muddled in drink, she is the sole bread earner of her family. Her brother is away, fighting a war between the Gods Dacre and Enva. Dacre is the God of the Underworld while Enva is the Skywards. They too had a enemies to lovers and back to enemies history. I liked how their background is uncovered ...

Snow Crash  By Neal Stephenson  Published Year: 1992 Page Count: 574 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Classics, Science Fiction, Mythology, History, WWII,Fantasy, Hard Science, Mafia, Action, Drugs, Thriller, Metaverse, 2026-read.  Rating: 4.5/5 😃😃😃😃🥳 I enjoyed it very much. Atleast for the major part. But I also felt restless and dissociated when Hiro Protagonist, our main character, is talking to the librarian in the Metaverse about religion and drawing parallels with virus propagation in humans. I didn't know if I had to laugh or take them seriously. How can they compare believers of a certain faith having cult prostitution or breast feeding, spreading viruses through their bodily fluids to those doing it in the computer world? Felt outrageous to me. What is this listening on radio waves from other planets for metavirus and spreading it to the humans over? These weird comparisons and analogies, I just couldn't stomach. The last 50 pages are solid mi...

 Walking to Aldebaran  By Adrian Tchaikovsky  Published Year: 2019  Page Count: 100 pages [ Novella ] Medium Used: Kindle Paperwhite  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Space Opera, Alien Contact, Horror, Speculative Fiction, Loneliness, 2026-read.  Rating: 4/5  The narrator is an European astronaut, who having aspired to become an Astronaut that gets to navigate space and meet aliens, since childhood has his dream come true. Then what remains for him is nothing but pure regret. Because he gets lost in a maze like Crypt, an alien artefact, separated from his crew members and wandering/walking forever and sustaining/snacking on the meat of bugs and squishy, mushy alien creatures stuck in the labyrinth like him.  The narrative plays in two timelines - one is recounting his experiences with different alien creatures and how indefinite walking in the labyrinthe has altered him psychically and physically. The other tells the series of events that took pl...

 Pig Island  By Mo Hayder  Published Year: 2006 Page Count: 340 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre : Thriller, Suspense, Horror,Crime,Murder Mystery,  Religious Cults, Twists, Shocking Elements, Science Fiction, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😅 Wow. What did I just read?! Beautiful beautiful book!!  I was a bit wary going into this. I was craving for a good horror book when a friend suggested me the title. Then I read a few discouraging, low rating reviews on goodreads which said this is not a horror book and the characters are not likeable. I still went ahead with the book and now I am like, yes the reviews are correct on both fronts but what they failed to highlight is that this is one solid hell of an evocative story. I was hooked from the first page. The writing is so gorgeous and riveting. There are some shocking elements and suspense driven plot line that doesn't let up. I didn't see the end coming and I got a huge adrenaline rush w...

 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 ...