Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau  By Silvia Moreno Garcia  Rating 4/5  Genres : Fiction, Mexico, Fantasy  I liked the premise for the book more than the actual story itself. A doctor isolates himself on a Mexican island and conducts experiments of creating hybrid creatures..sometimes mingling animal with animal and other times human with animal.. his daughter Carlota being one of them. His employer not getting enough return on his investment plans to cease funding and at the same time the employer's son falls in love with Carlota .. but he is not a good fella .. the doctor wants the marriage and funding.. others in the sanatorium don't want anything to do with their alliance ..  All things break down at the end. The daughter of doctor moreau sets up her own place and practice with her surname wiped clean.. its an interesting read. Unlike other works where mention of hybrids made me cringe.. this one is very moderate and gave those animals a real human l...

Hidden Pictures (2022) By Jason Reklulak  Rating : 5/5  Genres : horror, suspense,twist, fiction  284 pages (Kindle Digital Edition)  A fantastic story with a terrific twist and a terrific ending! Loved this and couldn't put it down at all. I picked this after the goodreads choice awards are announced and this book won the award for horror genre. Finished it in a day and half .. the story is shrouded in mystery and suspense right from the start and I didn't see the twist coming..  A girl who is a drug addict but has been sober for over 20 months is hired as a nanny for the summer by a rich family. She has to look after their five year old kid Teddy and is given a cottage to live in. As the story unfolds, she learns that there is a spirit following Teddy and is trying to tell a story through his paintings/pictures. There is also a psychic woman Mitzi living as their neighbor who helps spin up a ouja board for communicating with the spirit. So who...

Therese Raquin  By Emilie Zola  Genres : Fiction, classics, Temperament  Rating 5/5  I am an ardent fan of the works of Emilie Zola. Like his precious books I have read and enjoyed, he didn't disappoint with this one either. Liked this one immensely!!   Its an ongoing and nonstop feature of anxieties and fears between a husband and wife who had murdered an innocent man to get together. Therese and Camille have been brought up together by Camille's doting and caring mother. They were married to each other but Therese had little affection to this sickly man and indulges in a debauched relationship with his friend Laurent. Laurent wants a lazy life where someone takes care of him and his needs. He sees opportunity for realizing his goal with Therese and both of them together murder/drown Camille on a trip. After that they have not a minute's peace and try to find ways to escape each other and also the ghastly act they have committed. The end comes ...

The Glass Hotel (2020)  By Emily St. JOHN Mandel  Rating 5/5  Genres : Fantasy, Contemporary,  Fiction  276 pages ( Kindle digital edition )  Funny in a non funny sort of a way. A close knit of people dragged into a case of ponzi scheme that crashed with the 2008 financial market..Johnathan at the helm of it and all his associates .. how it unraveled and what happened to the involved people after he got convicted. Some commit suicide,  some end up in jail like him,  some walk out without a penny in their pockets. The style of writing is very prosaic and moving.. there is hilarity even in places where it is not to be expected.  Liked the book very much!

I'm glad my mom died (2022) by Jeanette McCurdy 275 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Genres: fiction, contemporary, finished. Rating : 5/5 🥰🥰 Very refreshing. Brutally honest and scathingly candid. Jeanette has bared her soul to the reader about her destructive tendencies encouraged by her mother and also showed through her effort and recovery that there is a silver lining to the most desperate situations. Jeanette has been codependent on her manipulative and highly ambitious and controlling mom all the time she was alive. She wanted nothing but to please her and so did everything that did please her. Which was take up acting in kid shows and controlling her appearance through food restrictions. Her mother, a cancer patient doesn't make it out for long in her life but her ideas and judgements follow Jeanette way after she has left her. She becomes a compulsive bulimic and .. has non complete or unfulfilling relationships with men.. one of them Steven whom she thinks...

The Other Boleyn Girl (2001) By Philippa Gregory  667 pages (Kindle Digital Edition)  Genres : Historical Fiction, Tudors, England, Boleyns. Rating : 4/5  I am reading this book after Wolf Hall. It adds a lot of context and familiarity to the plot. But I didn't see Anne's disgrace coming. I didn't expect her fate to end in such a tragic state. Spoken in the narrative tongue of Mary Boleyn,  the book takes us through the historical romance of Henry Tudor with Mary herself, with Anne Boleyn - her elder sister even while he was married to Katherine of Aragorn for over 20 years and waiting for the marriage to be annulled.  Henry Tudor has been married long time to Katherine of Aragorn and he hasn't got a son on her. He only ever got a daughter followed by a stream of miscarriages or still births. Disappointed and with a wandering eye, he takes Mary Boleyn who is married to William Carey as his lover. They have two children - a girl and a boy. But to...

To The Lighthouse [1927] By Virginia Woolfe  (188 pages from the Kindle Digital Edition) Rating 4/5  Genres : classics, human relationships  This book is termed the 15th among the 100 best novels of the 20th century. This plot showcases the complexities of human relationships through interactions among the members of a Ramsay family and guests at their home. Father and mother, Mr and Mrs Ramsay, have their own quirks and marital problems which are laid bare to the reader through someone making an observation but the irregularities are smoothed out through compromise and a burst of love, duty and responsibility.  Mr. Ramsay is a tyrannical and authoritative parent who is needy and desirous of appreciation to his work which he fears doesn't amount to much in the world. He demands sympathy from his wife and others and he usually gets what he wants. He is a rambunctious person whom his children James and Cam (among others) hate the most and they dislike his m...

The Lady in the Lake [1943] By Raymond Chandler 233 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Rating  4/5  Genres : Mystery, Fiction, Hardboiled, Noir. A rich man engages Philip Marlowe to figure the whereabouts of his missing wife. She had gone missing a month ago and had sent a wire saying that she was getting married to someone. The man denies any such arrangement and this has the husband worried about the welfare of his wife. After Marlowe takes up the case, he uncovers another case linked to this in which a neighbor's wife has also gone missing the same day as the rich man's wife. A dead body is recovered from the lake near the cabin and the very next day, more dead bodies turn up. Key people linked with the case start getting murdered and who has the most to gain from this? Or is this all linked to covering up some past history? A game being played by two ex lovers endangering many lives?  I love whodunit and hardboiled noir fiction very much. Though there are witt...

Laughter in the Dark [1932] By Vladimir Nabokov  184 pages [Kindle Digital Edition] Rating: 5/5  Genres: Tragedy, Classics, Fiction  A happy family unit. A rich man interested in making art and theater, his homely wife and lovely daughter. All this torn up by a sulky, self centered and frivolous young mistress and her lover. Nabokov is a master at creating scary scenes tinged with intrigue. I kept turning pages towards the end to get the bottom of what might happen ... and it ended up as a laughter in the dark...who is laughing and at whom? For what purpose?  Albinus is a rich man who have been married long time to a woman he loved and with a lovely daughter. One day he sees a young girl and falls deep in trance about her. He courts her, gives her little gifts and makes her his mistress. She is a frivolous little thing. Not serious about life but wanting him to divorce his wife and marry her...into this picture enters her former lover who once cheated her...

The Three Body Problem [2008] By Cixin Liu  Winner of Hugo Award 2008  399 PAGES (Kindle Digital Edition) Rating 5/5👍 GENRES: Fiction, Hard core, Aliens, Dystopian. Not the usual kind of scifi novel. There are plenty of different elements thrown into the mix. I am at a loss of words on what and how to describe what I just read. Aliens are invited to invade planet Earth by a notable scientist who thinks their invasion would solve the crisises humans have been unable to solve for themselves. There cannot be a more naive assumption. As it is proved in the book, the intentions of the aliens for invasion turn out to be purely malignant and selfish in nature. Anyways, as mentioned, though that is the crux of the plot, it is also just one aspect of it.  The Three Body game which introduces the world of aliens called the Trisolaris is just amazing. . .no other words. Though it is a game that is played wearing a V suit and head helmet to experience the world and its c...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest [1962] By Ken Kesey  Rating 5/5  321 pages [Kindle Digital Edition] Genres : classics, mental health, psych ward. The ending is an absolute gut punch. I didn't see it coming. I didn't expect this to cause such an emotional stir within. I guess somewhere along the line, like all the acutes on the ward, we fall in love with McMurphy. He has become One of my absolute all time favorites!! 💗 Totally, totally love the character of McMurphy!  He has taught me something valuable by his way of being himself even in face of adversity. Being tough meaning to be able to see funny side of things .. even in those that are painful and unbearable.  But sadly, I don't see nothing funny in the ending to this book. It is too unfair and traumatic. Did the author intend to make the reader have an painful reading experience? Leaving them in tatters and tears?  Every page from the start till the end was filled with fear and curiosity ....

The Lathe of Heaven (1971) By Ursula le Guin  Hugo and Nebula Awards W inner  Rating : 5/5 🎉 196 pages [Kindle Digital Edition]  Genres : Science Fiction,  Fantasy, Classics, 2022-read. Wow. What did I just read? This is a close your eyes and give it the best rating there is kind of a read. I haven't found myself so engrossed in a while. I couldn't put the book down. Found myself getting up early in the morning and reading to find out what comes next. Great stuff! 🥂 This also brought to mind another book I read recently which is along the lines of altering reality .. Recursion by Blake Crouch .. though in Recursion, where technology is used to navigate between different lines of reality of existence .. in this book, it is the fantasy of a man's dreaming that gets the state of reality altered between different lines. And someone even tries to apply that through technology and it backfires big time!  I liked Recursion but I just love The Lathe ...

The Testaments [2019] By Margaret Atwood  Winner of Booker Prize 2019 🎉🎯 Rating : 5/5 🤓 350 pages [Kindle Digital Edition]  Genres : Hypothetical Fiction, Dystopian future, Booker Prize, Fiction, 2022-read  This book is a sequel to Atwood's The Handmaids Tale [1985] written 35 years ago and it was/is one of the best dystopian books ever written. It is also one of her best books till date. It has made huge splash waves as a TV series too. 🤘  For crying out loud, this book is too damn good! Like a trickle of never ending water, Atwood keeps throwing humorous witticisms and mind blowing philosophical insights at the reader .. while wondering if there will ever be a reader .. lol, her books not having an audience?! In what world, pray tell me?  😝 Hmm .. Atwood has become my newest favorite author. No one and no incident escapes her critical eye. I was shaking with laughter at her silent, biting remarks through out the book .. which never missed...

Carmilla  By Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu  Rating 5/5 🔮 80 pages [Kindle Digital Edition]  Genres : Horror,  Gothic, Mystery, Vampire.🎉🎯 Have to read this book with the era and time it was published in mind. I had to go back to that period in question and see the impact it has made. Or else it will wither in comparison to the Bram Stoker's Dracula .. which is along the very same lines and probably sheds more light on the subject in terms of story depth, horror content and description on vampires.  A young girl is taken under the care of a old man and his daughter when her mother has to go on a expedition on which her tenuous and fragile daughter cannot accompany. In the castle, the daughter and the new girl Carmilla become quick friends. Even though the daughter notices many discrepancies with the new girl, she keeps them to herself. Strange disease which kills people a few days after onset starts making rounds in this are round about that same time. M...

Upgrade : A Novel  By Blake Crouch  Rating: 4/5 🥂🔮🎯 Genres : Science Fiction, Thriller, 2022-read, Virus, Genetic Alteration  Well. First things first. This is not a horror novel but it might as well fall into that list. The premise and the setting is damn scary. Because it is utterly plausible and there won't be a damn thing anyone can do should it happen. Some maniac and genius scientist with a god/savior complex working on gene manipulation experiments and releasing a virus out into the human world .. to turn everyone into an "upgraded" version of themselves .. so the survival of the fittest would ensue and kill away all the rest .. no matter how big a number is to be sacrificed in the process. Well, if this is not the negative side to a genius mind and their detached/self serving actions, don't know what is.  Coming to the story, Logan Ramsay is an agent working for the GPA .. which deals with arrest and prevention of genetic manipulation expe...

The Paris Library  By Janet Charles  Rating 3/5  Genres : Historical Fiction, World War 2, Romance  This story is based on a set of true events that happened in Paris during the World War 2. A bunch of librarians risked everything to provide literary support to subscribers and prisoners/patients of war by delivering books to cheer them up and keep them in high spirits. Some of them got booted for aiding jewish readers, some were sent packing back to their homelands but the group's indomitable resolve to do their part kept them afloat till the very end .. when the war is finally over and German occupancy of Paris came to an end.  Its a great idea in theory but I felt that the execution/narrative failed to really stir any hard emotions for me. Perhaps because the World/Paris where war was under progress, where people are suffering and getting sent to concentration camps and the World/Paris where the librarians were cheerfully carrying on their book del...

The Songs of Distant Earth  By Arthur C. Clarke  Rating 2.5/5 Genres Science fiction, Fantasy, Romance,2022-read. Just closed the book and there are a myriad of thoughts floating in my head. This is a short book and a quick read. It is only 200 pages or so in digital format. Many of the scenes seem to hold no weight against the overall plot. I am no longer surprised to read really below average and underwhelming work from really great authors as I used to in the past. This is one of the works which Clarke seems to have undertaken to convince the science community of a point rather than make himself more successful in the line of novelisists - probably because he is already a very well established author in the science fiction genre.  The point he seems to be making is not to abandon research into alien contact and also not to stop any steps being taken towards reaching distant stars and making them home if they are uninhabited. The prologue to the book se...

The Last House on Needless Street  By Catriona Ward  Rating : 4/5  Genres : Horror, Mental Illness, 2022-read,Psychological Fiction, Multiple Personality Disorder.  Here comes one of the books that's not over rated at all in this genre of fiction. I guess I was 25 percent into the plot and the time was 12 AM and decided to turn in for the night. Fifteen minutes later, I got up and resumed from where I left off  realizing that the plot got deep under my skin. I got hooked to the sensation of peeling off layers of the story and having a different taste with each bite. The plot gets curvaceous and twisted with depth and at the end once everything is figured out and all the bones are laid bare, it seems too simple. I was able to unlock some of the mystery but not all of it. And the author really plays with the imagination and judgements of the reader by playing with her words and writing style .. putting and framing an innocent victim into the role ...

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 an...

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...