Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

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...

The Troop  By Nick cutter  Rating : 3.5/5  Genres : Horror, suspense, 2021-read, virus, worms, epidemic, self immolation, investigation. So, its more creepy and filled with literally creeping things- worms - than horror. I guess the plot could have been written better- making it more raw and intense.  At no point during the read did I feel really worried for the boys even though I guessed right of the bat that none of them are going to escape. And the unnecessary animal cruelty and violence felt like an attempt made by the author to make it more horrid but I only felt empty queasiness and skipped parts of the plot where its there.  Its a hard book to finish in one go. I had to take breaks in between and tried to get away from the horror but I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I tried to sleep it off but my dreams are filled with images of crawling multitude of worms. Its an understatement in the least to say this is a disturbing book.  Getti...

Tender is the Flesh  By Augustina Bazterrica  Genres : Horror, Dystopia, Science fiction, Future, 2021-read. Rating 5/5  So I am giving this one a 5 star rating. This is one of those books that gets a lower rating for being good. There were many futuristic dystopian novels I had read and loved/liked/hated some of them but none gave me the shivers like this one. Humans supplanting animals is an agreeable and digestible future?? I felt that cruelty and ruthlessness are celebrated in this world the author created and the main protagonist at the end reveals his dark side which comes as a blow. I had few ideas on how the story might have turned out while reading it and extrapolating but what actually came is a jolt. The terms and fight for human rights would have a whole new level of meaning in this society.  Coming to the story, Tejos Marcos is a man pursuing and being pursued by many evils. His beloved father is suffering from dementia and is locked up in a ...

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 Case Against Satan (1962) By Ray Russell  Genre:  Paranormal, supernatural, fiction, good-evil, god-demon, possession, exorcism, classics, priests, monasteries, 2021-read, horror, suspense, mystery, detective. Rating: 4.5/5 🎈💃💃 Some of the scenes and episodes in the book had me shaking with fear and gave me serious goosebumps. I conjured black shapes out of thin air in my imagination and had to put the book away to distract myself with something like light reading. This book is a story on demonic possession and exorcism but with many other elements added to the plot.  A sixteen year old girl Susan Garth is brought to consult a priest Halloran because she has started acting odd of late. She shuns visiting the church, calls her father slanderous names and when alone in the presence of the priest, she attempts to seduce him and strangle him. Horrified and disturbed, the priest chooses to get transferred to an orphanage. His replacement, Father Gregory , when pre...

 The Maidens By Alex Michaelides Genre : Suspense, Thriller, Greece, Mythology, Horror, detective, whod-unit, female-oriented, 2021-read Rating : 4.5/5 👌👌 Woo Hoo! I just finished this book and I feel like I have been taken for quite a ride by the author. He gave my taut imagination a spin making me guess and second guess at a game I eventually lost. He threw me - a hooked reader at that point -  off into wrong directions about who might be the murderer and right enough, I took the bait each time. So as the end was nearing, there were multiple suspects and with a pounding heart, I kept reading ignoring sleep and late hour of the day. But I felt that the end fell a bit flat for me - after all the expectation, it was like an anti-climax.😕 Something that could have been a little different and improvised upon. 🙄🤔 But still, this is one hell of a book!! I thought this engaged me more than his first book The Silent Patient which was a rage and a massive success. When this b...

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? By Henry Farrell Genre : Thriller, horror, psychological fiction,classics, best-twists, good prose, 2021-read, macabre Rating : 5/5 🎈🎈 What a twist! Didn't see that one coming! It's true what they say - all that glitters is not gold. What looks beautiful on the outside need not be so on the inside. "Beautiful people could also be very bad". This is a story of jealousy,hatred, selfishness, vengeance and the repercussions that one has to face when they can't keep these emotions in check. It's a classic story from the 1960s which got made into a successful movie with the same name starring Joan Crawford and Bette Davis who were arch rivals. It also was the book that kind of revived the slow going career of Henry Farrell and brought him back into the game with full force. 💃 Baby Jane Hudson was a star. She was hailed the most talented and famous child star by everyone. Mostly her father and family who felt they owed all the...

 Station Eleven By Emily St. John Mandel Genres : Suspense, post apocalyptic, horror, 2021-read, dystopian future, science fiction Rating 5/5 👌👌 A mutation of swine flu virus has wiped off 99 percent of human race from the face of planet earth. The one percent that survived - probably because they are immune to it or have quarantined themselves off well - are living scattered as on islands all over the planet. They plunder and pillage what they could salvage from eateries, hotels, airports and when all the food/essentials run out - they start hunting animals. There is a wide spread fear and suspicion about strangers who might be willing to kill for food/goods.  This new world has no electricity, no benefits that we take for granted - like transportation, internet, mobile communication etc. It's hard to imagine such an existence for a generation that has become excessively dependant on technology and comforts/luxuries right? 😮😧  Living through the nightmare of Cov...