Nagasravika's Book Reviews Blog

 We Used to Live Here  By Marcus Kleiwer  Published Year: 2024 Page Count: 270 pages  Medium Used; Kindle Scribe  Genre: Dark, Lesbians, Horror, Alternate Realities, Ghosts, Murder, Suspense. Thriller, 2026-read.  Rating: 4.5/5 😀😀😀😀🤞 Eve and Charlie are a couple who purchase, renovate and sell houses for profit. They have bought a mansion 3709, situated on a 5 acre plot, surrounded by mountains, forests and ponds, on Heritage Lane. It is a secluded spot, located far from nearby establishments. For example, It would take over 2 hours to get help in case of medical emergencies or police assistance. But still, they love the house and buy it. The interior is cluttered with relics, old furniture covered in dust and they project an year for clearing it up. They plan on demolishing the house and building new from scratch.  One day, a family of five arrive on their footstep with a strange request. Charlie is out of the house and Eve receives them. The Fau...

 Private Rites  By Julia Armfield  Finalist for Arthur C Clarke Award 2025 Published Year: 2024  Page Count: 235 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Dystopian, Horror, Drama,Dysfunctional Families, Science Fiction, Coming of Age, LGBTQ,2026-read.  Rating: 3/5 😀😀😇 I came across this book while browsing the shelves of Arthur Clarke Award nominees for 2025. Immediately taken in by the idea of a story loosely based on King Lear and his three daughters, I picked it, setting aside three other books I was reading at that point. The dominant thought running in my mind all the time I was reading was, where is this story going? I also remember thinking, at multiple points, that the author is not a sensational storyteller. But I was resolute to not give in to the voice in my head prompting me to DnF and see the book through to the end. Having finished, I have ambivalent feelings for this. I liked the character development and appreciate the fact that there a...

  The Little Stranger   By Sarah Waters   Published Year: 2009 Page Count: 512 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre : Historical Fiction, Supernatural, Horror, Ghost Stories, Haunted Houses , 2026-read.  Rating: 4/5  Hundreds Hall is a two century old mansion, flanked by farm lands and gardens, invariably on a spiral of decline, neglect and ruin. The inhabitants of this house are old Mrs. Ayers, her children Roderick and Caroline, a couple of housemaids Betty and Mrs. Belazely. The narrator, Dr. Faraday, is called up to the house for consultation of a sick Betty. This visit stirs up his memories of association with the house where his mother once worked as a maid. He laments at the ruin the house has fallen into and the near poverty the family has sunk into. After that he makes himself a frequent visitor at the house, first as a physician to help with Roderick's ruined leg and later turning himself into their family doctor. This story is narrated ...

 You Like It Darker  By Stephen King  Published Year: 2024 Page Count: 500 pages  Medium Used: Kindle Scribe  Genre: Horror, Anthology, Short Stories, Supernatural, Mystery, Dark Fiction, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 I should say a very easy, breezy 5 pointer this one gets! I bow down before the creative genius of Stephen King. I salute his knack for writing and keeping the reader hooked no matter what subject he is talking about. Because he is very versatile and very prolific in his writing. Each of these short stories carries its own weight. Each one leaves its mark in a different but sure way. There are short stories and there are longer ones .. but all contain some amount of darkness, death, mystery in them. I especially enjoyed the ones which had supernatural elements added and those with cops and detectives. The old aged male characters, I felt, spoke the language of Mr.King - exactly the way he speaks. Their thoughts and behaviors reflected hi...

 Blindsight  By Peter Watts  Hugo Award Finalist Published Year: 2006 ( Tor Books ) Page Count: 390 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Aliens, Science Fiction, Horror, First Contact, Space Opera, Philosophy, 2026-read.  Rating: 3.5/5 The narrative didn't make sense all the time. Its not like the author went rambling or anything, its just his sentences failed to drive his point. For the most part though, it felt very engaging and gripping. I had some issues with the overall logic and didn't understand why an evolved species like humans or an intelligent species like the aliens/scramblers do what they do. I have enumerated some of these questions I had while reading down below. The horror angle to the plot .. I felt it initially when humans encounter the ship Rorschach and have an formal dialog with the aliens but later the author has made it mostly about explaining away his theories on consciousness and the nature of these aliens. More than horror, this f...

 The Descent  (The Descent #1) By Jeff Long  Published Year: 1999 Page Count: 575 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre: Horror, Science Fiction, Satan, Underworld, Gore and Macabre, Expedition into the Unknown, 2026-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 A deeply disturbing book(but my sweet sweet cup of tea!!!). This is not for the weak minded or the sensitive souls out there. I felt like every possible from of death through murder/torture is recounted here. After reading this and taking into account all the events of face off between the underground "savage" creatures labeled Hadals and the so called "civilized" humans, I am at a loss to decide who is more brutal and animalistic. My involvement with the story got too intense and I had to force myself off for a bit. As the story progressed, it only became more often. I had to turn myself away from this darkness so that I wouldn't get consumed by it. The author has come across as someone who has done a lot of resea...

 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...

Leviathan Wakes  By James S.A Corey  Rating 5/5  Genre: Science Fiction, Mystery, Noir, Horror  Splendid!! Absolutely 💯 amazing space science fiction stuff! Kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. Things unravel fast. Ominous fear creeps in slow. Brain does several jumps and leaps before settling down into calmness. Wonderful, Wonderful,  Wonderful. Two protagonists. Both flawed and impulsive. One with his words and information. The other with his actions and intuition. Both find their redemption eventually and in the process save the whole of human race from becoming gooey food for an evolved alien race. 

The Fisherman (2016) By John Langan  290 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Genre : Horror, Fiction, Magic Rating : 4/5  The content of this book is quite a surprise to me. I knew this is horror and naturally based on the title, expected monsters and threatening sea creatures to inhabit this scary world - but to tie it all with undercurrents of sorcery and black magic felt surreal. I would say I was hooked - like a fish - to the plot till about 50 percent. The history of the fisherman was having quite a spell on me when it all starts falling apart.I skimmed through the rest of the book just catching the flow of the narrative from disconnected scenes.  The author's descriptions of fight sequences and landscapes fail to evoke the right imagery. They feel flat and designed towards being scary while not really being so.   I think the author could have improvised on the character of the Fisherman - he is a centuries old black magician that succeeds in bringin...

Solaris (1961) By Stanislaw Lem  Genres : scifi, horror, suspense, classics  207 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Rating 4/5 😀 . I have enjoyed this book the way I had enjoyed very few books. This has some of the most horrific and memorable scenes I have ever read. Paging through it is an immersive experience  .. where the cause of mystery is revealed to the reader and the main character at the start but it nevertheless doesn't stop being suspenseful. I picked it from the list of best scifi novels of all time. And it definitely makes for some super cool, horror and romantic science fiction ever written! 🤗 Kelvin arrives on planet Solaris as a psychologist researcher and docks himself to the space station. The surface of the planet is covered with ocean and there is no other visible life on the planet. Since the planet has been discovered, there has been much speculation and theoretical expostulation about the nature of the ocean .. eventually they realize it t...

The House of Seven Gables (1851)  by Nathaniel Hawthorne 271 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Rating 5/5 🥰🥰🥰 I wish I never get to see or stay in one of the houses that resemble this house of seven gables. Fabled in a mysterious dark past, damp, mottled and decaying, it would not just send a resident into the state of depression but also steal their wits and sanity. The plot starts with introducing us to the long term sole resident of the house and ends with her deserting the house with a throng of relatives making way for progressive change and improvement.  I liked the pacing and the placement of the different elements in the plot. All the characters - no matter how small and trivial - are well defined and their involvement makes the story whole and complete. There is a picturesque nature to the narrative .. felt like watching a movie in 3D. The character that I most loved is that of the old,senile and tender gentleman Clifford who as it turns out is the main ch...

 Parasite (2013) By Mira Grant  Genres : science fiction, horror, thriller  410 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Rating 4/5 🤪🤪 I am making this note having finished half of the book. The twist that is thrown at me 50 percent into the book has left me completely speechless. I shuddered and stared off into space with unblinking eyes trying to make sense of the implications of what is just disclosed. I have been under the assumption that this is a very predictably overrated book since I started reading.  I have only been paying it little attention and drifting off occasionally into random musings on other things. But I am knocked out of my stupor by what I have just read!! Upon finishing the book :  I have read some good reviews about the book but also some very strongly negative reviews on goodreads. I quizzed myself if I should actually pick this up based on the poor reviews and ratings. But to be honest, having just finished, I would say I enjoy...

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...

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 Yellow Wallpaper [1892] By Charlotte Perkins Gilman 24 pages, Kindle Digital Edition  Rating 5/5 🔮🎉 Genres: Horror, Short Story  Was getting goosebumps while reading this short story. Although it is only 24 pages in length, it has given the creeps and struck horror in my heart that a lengthy novel might have failed to do. I see similarities to this novel with The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson where the house slowly takes mental possession of one of its residents. And with a more recent boon The Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno which has a a living mold in a house that takes possession of its residents.  A wife and husband with his sister as housekeeper take residence in a palatial bungalow for three months to get a change of atmosphere. The wife has a condition of mental nervousness and feels that being in company of lively people will help her. But her husband who is a physician barely listens to her and practically locks her in a room with a...

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 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 Stepford Wives  By Ira Levin  Rating 3.5/5  Genre Horror, Fiction, Mystery. Very fast read.  Obviously,  this book is not as scary as Ira's most successful book Rosemary's Baby but for someone having to go through this, it is quite nerve wracking and nightmarish. I felt Ira Levin has left a lot to the imagination and not explained how exactly and what exactly happened to all those wives of Stepford..that turned their minds and souls into mush. I think it also makes one wonder with all the focus on the wives, what is also happening to the husbands..are they just becoming complicit in the wicked scheme for the benefits or are they getting brain washed ? I would have loved to have more clarity on these fronts..but for now I m assuming whatever makes most sense to me.  The plot is Joanna and her husband Walter buy a new house in Stepford town and move in with their kids. Right off the bat, she notices something off with the neighborhood wives. T...

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...