Nagasravika's Book Reviews Blog

 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...

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...

 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...

 Caliban's War  (The Expanse #2) By James S.A. Corey  Published Year: 2012 Page Count: 520 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Political Intrigues, 2026-read.  Rating : 4.85/5 😀😀😀😀😀 This is my second time reading this book. This time I have managed to get to the end. The first time I remember Dnf-ing at 65% and writing a 1 point review on my blog. I guess I was too prudish and naive to focus much on the fast paced, engaging narrative. This time around, I didn't pay much heed to Avasarala and her habit of using expletives in every sentence and that made me enjoy the unfolding story.  In book 1, the proto molecule that has consumed the Eros space station is pushed off into Venus and it has been slowly smoldering and cooking in there ever since. This book( book 2) starts with mutual firing between Earth UN armies and Mars armies stationed in the orbit around Ganymede station. A monstrous creature with immense strength ...

 The Last Emperox  (The Interdependency #3) By John Scalzi  Published Year: 2020 [Tor Books] Page Count: 350 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Hard Science, Space Opera, Philosophy, Stored Consciousness, Court Intrigues, Game for Throne, Thriller, 2026-read.  Rating :5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 Link to book 2, in the series,review is here:  The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi Book Review Link to book 1 is here:  The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi Book Review I wrapped up this final(as of now, based on what the author has commented) installment in the Interdependency series by John Scalzi and I am filled with mixed emotions. I want the series to have atleast one more book because it is so good. Also I felt all that needs explaining in the story/plot hasn't been satisfactorily done - so needs one more book. I got fully invested in the political, social and economic conditions of the twenty billion inhabitants of the Interdependency ...

 The Consuming Fire  (The Interdependency #2) By John Scalzi  Published Year: 2018 Page Count: 360 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy, Hard Science fiction, Court Intrigues, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😍😍😍😍😍 My review to book one in the series :  The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi Book Review Carenia - her official title, Grayland - has assumed the powers as emperox of the Interdependency and is now facing an unprecedented problem of the empire on collapse. There is ample, undubious math proof that, within a decade, all the systems of the flow stream connected empire will become isolated, unconnected and taken over by despair, hopelessness and possibly violence. She wants to help cart as many people as she can to the only isolated and functionable habitat on the planet, the End. At the start of the book, she spouts out visions of prophetic nature in order to influence the common folk into believing her/Marce...

 The Collapsing Empire  (The Interdependency #1) By John Scalzi  2018 Locus Award Winner  Published Year: 2017 Page Count: 370 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Hard Science fiction, Space Opera, Game for Throne, Thriller, Court Intrigues, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😍😍😍😍😍 The Interdependency is the nation of systems where humans are spread out across the universe. There are around 47 habitable systems in all. On some of them, like the Hub, they live underground. On some, they don't have feasibility to inhabit the planet and hence live on scientific habitats or space stations. Only End is the planet where they live on the surface. These human occupied outposts are interconnected by flow streams. Where even if they use their fastest spaceships called Tenners, it would take them anywhere from decades to centuries to plod between these habitats, using and traveling through Flow, they can reduce the time to weeks or months. ...

 Prince of Thorns  (Broken Empire #1) By Mark Lawrence  Published Year: 2011 Page Count: 375 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: High Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Mages, Magic, Gore, Psychological Thriller, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 A boy of 10, bent on revenge for the murder of his mother and brother, gathers a band of thugs and marches forth. But his path is magically modified and we get to read his escapades and adventures for the next four years in first person narrative.  A young prince of nine years old, Jorg witnesses his mother and younger brother being brutally murdered by the troops of Count Renar. The prince survived the attack because he is thrown into the briar bush with thorns and either fear or absence of bravery keeps him silent and rooted to his spot. The thorns embed under his skin, causing fevers that last for weeks. After he recovers, he collects a band of outlaws/misfits/thugs and goes on a ride for vengeance. Something suspicious happe...

 They Both Die at the End  ( They Both Die at the End #1) By Adam Silvera  Published Year: 2017 Page Count: 370 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Speculative Fiction, LGBTQ, Coming Of Age, Young Adult, Facing Death, 2026-read. Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 Death Cast is a company that has come into existence six years ago, in 2011. By some miraculous maneuvering, they can predict the death of a person within a 24 hour window. Every morning, the company representatives, called Heralds, call up the people who are dying that day (within the next 24 hours) and alert them to the bad news. Mateo is spending his time alone in his apartment when he gets the call. His mother died in child birth and his father is in a coma. He is eighteen years old and completely freaks out. He wants to go visit his dad and bid his goodbyes but is scared to leave the safe haven of his apartment. Rufus is a seventeen year old teen who is thrashing up his girlfriend's new bf,Peck,when he get...

 The Cruel Prince  (Elfhame #1, The Folk of the Air #1) By Holly Black Published Year: 2018 Page Count: 370 pages Medium Used: Paperback  Genre: High Fantasy, Suspense, Game for the Throne, Faeries, Cruelty, Princes, 2026-read. Rating : 5/5 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 Jude and Taryn are twin sisters, spending a lazy, normal day with their parents who are busy doing household chores. They have an elder step sister Vivienne from their mother. A stranger pays an unexpected visit and murders the parents, whisks away the children from mortal world to his world of Faerie. Vivienne is his daughter and he feels obligated to not leave the offspring from his unfaithful wife behind. This stranger happens to be the war hungry and brutal military general of Faerie, Madoc. Ten years pass in Faerie, with the children developing into teenagers. While Vivienne doesn't like the world of Faerie, doesn't forgive her father Madoc for the murder of her mother and takes a girl friend from the human world, the t...

 You Should Have Known  By Jean Hanff Korelitz Published Year: 2014 Page Count: 425 pages Medium Used: iPad Air  Genre: Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Murder Mystery, Detectives, Drama, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😇😇😇🤗🤗 Grace Reinhart Sachs had been married to Jonathan Sachs for over eighteen years. They have a young son of eleven, Henry who is very well behaving, well mannered kid for his age. Grace is a psychotherapist, counseling in marriage issues and has a private practice in New York. Jonathan is a pediatric oncologist, dealing with cancer cases in children. Grace considers hers to be a happy family and herself, lacking in nothing. She is a very understanding and accommodating wife who gives her husband his space and time to deal with his work. The main character is Grace and we see a third person's perspective of her life and circumstances in the unraveling plotline. According to her, Jonathan is often gripped with pain and misery of other people, usually...