Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

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...

The Strange Library  By Haruki Murakami Genre : Novella, Horror, Gothic🎃, Fantasy 🎉 Rating 5/5 🎃 This is perhaps the first book by Murakami that I have felt unqueasy reading. It has no sexual content .. obviously because it is about a horrid experience by a child at a library .. and very picturesque in the imagery as usual with all his novels .. I just loved it. Next time I think of a library, I might give myself in to wondering what wonderful things or horrible things are going down in its basement .. lol  A kid walks into a library to return a set of books and loan some more and meets an old man librarian. The old man gives him three thick volumes on the topic the boy wants to learn about and tells him he has to read those books on premises only. He takes the boy into a basement which is organized like a maze like structure. The boy is locked into a room, his feet chained to a heavy iron ball to prevent movement and escape. A strange wool/sheep man is assigned...

The Thirteenth Tale  By Diane Setterfield  Rating 4/5  Genre : Mystery, Gothic, Historical fiction, classics, Biographical fiction.  This is really good. A very successful and aging author Vida Winter calls for a practically unknown biographer to record her life history..which she hasn't shared with anyone..which if sees the light of the day could startle the world. Sounds familiar? Doesn't it sound very much like the backdrop to The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo? Yes, but that's where the similarity ends. The past of Vida Winter is far less complex/twisting, has an appealing Gothic feel to it and the mystery gets quite unpredictable..it almost goes out of hand. One the downside, I felt the mystery is rather too simplified..although the reader couldn't have been able to predict/figure it, the biographer sure didn't have much of a problem unraveling it.. Vida Winter's past is a mystery. She concocted a different tale to all the interviewers that came ...

House of Leaves  By Mark Z. Danielezski  Rating 5/5  Genres : Horror, Mystery, Gothic, Drama  The structure of the book is very different. At times I had to remind myself that this is only a work of fiction. It tells a scientific expedition by a group of people along side with foot notes taken from journals, research papers and puts forth different sets of arguments for and against the events and the participants' reactions to them.  Some readers said this is a horror story while some felt it is a love story. I guess I will lean more towards the horror and mystery side than love although their is some deep realization and self sacrifice in the name of true love in the story.  It is very engrossing and I couldn't put it down trying to make out what it all amounts to in the end. I guess the end is a mystery to me although there are some opinions and theories put forth in the unraveling of the plot.  An old man Zampano who leads the life of a ...

Melmoth the Wanderer By Charles Maturin Genres : Gothic, Horror, Classics, 2021-read,awesome. Rating 5/5 Absolutely loved this! Gothic and horror at its epitome and best! While reading this, I wondered if such souls like Melmoth don't really exist? My conscience and gut feeling tells me there might be some like him wandering trying to fulfill the wishes of the devil just like we have saints trying to convert men to good for the will of God. So Melmoth is a man who made a pact with the devil - sold his soul - to quench his curiosity in the black arts and is thus condemned to walk this wold alone..in search of another person who might take over his pact thereby liberating him from it. He approaches many a bereaved and extremely desolate soul in its stages of utter hopelessness offering this deal in exchange for a reversal of their circumstances and those stories are told in succession. They all reject his offer. He falls desperately in love with an innocent girl Imaal...

The Haunting of the Hill House (1959)  by Shirley Jackson  Genre: Gothic, Fiction, Horror, suspense, 2021-read, Classics  Rating : 3.75/5 This is a story of a failed experiment by a fanatic scientist at researching the happenings of a hill house. Unlike the poltergeist kind of events where a house drived it's inhabitants away, this one sucks them right in.  It's a cute, elegant looking house perched on top of a hill. It has been built over 80 years ago but no one has inhabited it atleast for the last 20 years. People in the neighborhood didn't like it and there are many stories of deaths associated with the place. Either the earlier inhabitants were taken by death or madness but they all loved the place dearly. A scholar, doctor Montague - with an idea to foster his career and give it a boost - decides to conduct some experiments within the hill house and publish a research paper. He is joined by three other people - Luke, Theodora and Eleanor - upon invitation. The ...

The Turn of the Screw  By Henry James (1898, 19th century)  Genre: Classics, Horror, Suspense, Gothic,2021-read       Rating 4/5 Terrific story! The only drawback being the style of writing - which is quaint (perhaps expected given the time of writing) and not easy to follow. There were a few sentences I had to read multiple times to make sense of what the narrator is trying to convey - which delayed the speed of my read. But otherwise, I think it's a story worthy of a 'classic' - especially "the ending" - I didn't see it coming. It bowled me over with an unexpected punch in the gut.  The story goes thus. A young woman applies for a job and gets appointed as the governess/caretaker of two kids by a handsome, rich man. They are his brother's children and are orphans in his care. Being a hedonist and carefree man, he wanted to layoff his burden on to someone else more capable. She arrives at her new mansion with many hopes and a stout desire to please her em...