Nagasravika's Book Reviews Blog

 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...

 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...

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...

 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...

 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...

 The Tenant  By Freida McFadden  Published Year: 2025 Page Count: 380 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre : Thriller, Murder Mystery, Drama, Suspense, Action, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 Wow. What a fantastic read. The twists - well, the one major one actually - blew my mind. My heart leapt into my throat and my brain did a sky dive into an abyss of unexpected thrill. Miss McFadden has proven herself again as a master of her craft. Superb story telling. Creating blood curdling thrillers and murder mysteries. She had me hanging onto every sentence and it really worked because I wrapped this book in under a day. I was fully engrossed and some of the moments are etched into my memory. It is so good - don't miss up on this read! I liked how well the author has written both male and female voices/povs without blurring the lines between. This book has earned second place in the Goodreads Choice Awards for Mystery Thrillers and its totally worth my ti...

 Someone You Can Build A Nest In  By John Wiswell  Won 2024 Nebula Award Won 2025 Locus Award for Best First Novel  Finalist in 2025 Hugo Award  Published Year: 2024 Page Count: 310 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre: LGBTQ,Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Horror, Action, Drama, Romance, Monsters, 2026-read.  Rating: 5/5😇😇😇🥰🥰 Loved this one! Absolutely. Reading this, I couldn't slurp in the chapters continuously. I took them in snatches, got a break going elsewhere (into other books, silly 😋) and returning to digest more of this story. This is not an ordinary tale. John Wiswell is an immense talent. What he has created is not just a monster that lived while the story was read and forgotten afterwards. This creature thrives in memory and imagination. It doesn't have one concrete shape or name or body parts, organs..anything for that matter. It is a shape shifter that can ingest bodies whole. It has no conscience that stops her from harming...

 A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking  By T. Kingfisher  Published Year: 2020 Page Count: 282 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Fantasy, Bread Men, Magic, Action, Young Adult, 2025-read.  Rating : 4.25/5  This is my first book by the author. I have many other books from her in my tbr and having read this, I feel she is worth checking out! This book felt more targeted for children and adolescent audience but I also enjoyed it. I felt a bit of disconnect with the story because the narrator is so objective and detached in her style of writing. I didn't feel that invested in the plot as I would have had if there was more emotional depth created through the narrative. The Duchess,one of the key characters, in the story, seemed more interested in bestowing laurels, badges of honor on heroes of war than controlling the wild elements of her council or running her government efficiently. Lol. But still, this felt like a good enough story if not the most cr...