Sravika's Books - Reviews and Other Trivia

 The Serpent and the Wings of the Night  By Carissa Broadbent  Series : Crowns of Nyaxia #1  Published Year : 2022 Page Count : 450 pages Medium used : Paperback Genre : Fiction, Fantasy, Vampires, Romance, Young Adult, Adventure, 2024-read.  Rating : 3.75/5 ⭐⭐⭐💫 💫 Its an okayish read for me. At times I found myself wondering if this story is for real. A human girl fights and wins against hard-core vampires through sheer brute force and some magical abilities that she doesn't really know how to wield. She summons them in case of need but that doesn’t work always. I read the whole book and I am just as clueless, about why she is called a serpent, at the end as I was at the start. She is clearly raised with messages of wanting and needing self protection and self denial from associating with vampires in her father's(the Vampire King) court because she is a human. Why is she called a snake/serpent? Is there some part of her history that is not disclosed at this p...

 Where are the Children?  By Mary Higgins Clarke  Published : 1975 Page count : 166 pages  Medium Used : Kindle PW  Genre : Suspense, Mystery, Murder, Fiction, 2024-read  Rating : 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A couple of kids, Michael and Missy, go missing. Either they are kidnapped by someone or are killed .. by their own mother who had a history of killing her kids. Yes, some six years ago, she stood and got off from the trial of accused for murdering her children - Peter and Lisa. She got off that trial without conviction because the key witness bolted and disappeared. Things don't look very bright for her this time since everyone is looking directly at her and not at other options. A man from her past, reappears and actually takes the children hostage. He has diabolical and creepy plans in mind. He almost makes them happen. Different folks come together to form a team unraveling the mystery. Who was the man from her past? What has he got on her that he wants to keep hurti...

 The Woman in the Window  By A.J.Finn (2018) (430 pages Kindle Digital Edition) Genre : Contemporary, Fiction, Thriller, Psychological Fiction, Suspense,Detective, Mystery,Child abuse,Alcoholism.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀😀😀 Simply superb! Loved it! Wish I had picked this sooner! One in its own class! 🥰🥰 Translated into over 40 languages and millions of copies sold worldwide! A major motion picture from Fox, available on Netflix! Eager to watch Amy Adams and Julian Moore blow my mind! Will check this out.😀😇 A child psychologist,Anna Fox,has experienced severe trauma and is reduced to stay indoors with doors locked and shutters closed shut . She is suffering from Agoraphobia - fear of open spaces and crowded places. No one visits her except her psychiatrist and aerobic trainer. No one calls her except her distant, separated husband and daughter. Her day is split between watching black and white movies on repeat, excessive drinking, online chatting and snooping on her neigh...

 The Return of the Native  By Thomas Hardy (1878)  (396 pages Paperback edition)  Rating : 4/5 👍👍👍👍 Genres : Classics, Fiction. Just wrapped up reading. Closed the book shut and placed it safely away on my book rack. Sat back in my rocking chair and contemplated for a while what my review should be. Everyone knows this is a classic and hence timeless, ageless,applies to everyone, everywhere and at everytime. Edgon - the countryside where this story takes place is a beautiful village. I loved the landscape and the time during which this is written. I wouldn't mind giving up my modern day amenities and life style to move here! Truly!💖🥳 I have read other works of Thomas Hardy and immensely enjoyed them. This doesn't fall short to any. All his books have beautiful descriptions of the greenery and landscapes which take one's breath away. 🤗🤓 Fate is a ruthless master and every minute we are driven into the hands of destiny through the unseen actions of divine.🤘 Cl...

Afterlives (2020) By Abdulrazak Gurnah (Nobel Prize Winner for Fiction) Genre : Historical Fiction, Drama, Colonization, Germany,  Africa. Rating : 5/5  This is my first book from this author and also covering the demography of Africa under German Colonization followed by British rule. Had some difficulty navigating through the terms initially but a little research eased the matters greatly.  Overall, Loved reading this book. :) Got to learn a lot of stuff about the schutztruppe of the Germans, askari of Africa and their practices, ruthlessness and unexposed/unfamiliar kindness of some of those Germans in control/power. This book has showed the positive side to the colonial occupation of German and British to Africa. Yes,the wars have resulted in lot of blood shed but here and there, there were kids,young boys who could vouch for the kindness of some german officers and lay their lives on line to pay back for it. :)  We see a couple of generations of Afri...

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka (2022) Winner of 2022 Booker Prize for Fiction   503 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Genre : Fiction, Fantasy, Afterlife, Philosophy, LGBT. Rating : 5/5  Mr. Shehan weaved a mesmerizing tale that is simply superb and awesome. I was half way through the book and already making plans to read it one more time!!  He lifted the stigma and heaviness attached to the most gorical elements of war, death, loss and injustice. I didn't cringe or feel obnoxious reading through the numerous homosexual relationships Maali has. This story makes one reconsider their notions of what makes life worth while and wholesome. Why should we waste a life that is blessed to be had by indulging in wastefulness of war and power craving.  Loved it through and through!!  He paints a scary picture of Sri Lanka with race / faction wars in which innocent people are ruthlessly, mindlessly sacrificed. The government tortu...

Of Mice and Men By John Steinbeck (1994) Genres : Classics, Philosophy, Fiction Rating : 5/5 Absolutely loved that the author had created character masterpieces in such short page count!! The future is unforeseeable and some of the best laid plans fail to turn out. Sometimes those who are the most vulnerable amongst us also turn out to be the most misunderstood and wronged against. Lennie (big man, mentally unsound) and George (small, smart man) move between different jobs and look out for each other. Well, its George saving and rescuing the blubbering and blundering Lennie most of the time. But this time, Lennie does something that even George cannot swing. How do the duo escape a fate that threatens their togetherness and friendship? How does it shatter their plan of owning their own place and living off by their ownselves? The immense pity I felt towards Lennie - a big, strong man capable of great physical labor but mentally challenged/incapable - soon coagulated ...

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb  (499 pages) (1992)  Genres : Mental illness, Contemporary, Fiction  Rating 4/5  Wally Lamb is one of my all time favorites. I absolutely loved his second book 'I know This Much Is True' about twin brothers, one of whom is schizophrenic - It is invariably my all time favorite book in this genre. 'She's  Come Undone' is his first novel and I thought it showed some amateurish handling of the subject matter. I am not saying I haven't enjoyed it or it is bad but while the title suggested a person - a woman/girl most likely - succumbing to the hold of a mental illness, the story is not exactly that.  Dolores Price is well crafted and moulded - Lamb has breathed life and soul into her character. This is the story of how mishaps,abuse and loss drives a young impressionable girl into the clutches of despair/depression and how she navigates back to a sure footed normal life. She becomes a slave to her culinary urges and gr...

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...

Disturbing the Peace (1975) by Richard Yates  292 pages(Kindle Digital Edition) Genres : Fiction, Mental illness, Contemporary  Rating : 4/5  I have always thirsted to read a book like this one! I read it real slow and lived through every page. The author kind of hints at what is going to come before it does .. and yet I wasn't ready to face it with a stoic calmness. The main character and his quick downward spiral into madness .. his unquenchable drinking problem and subsequent lock down in a mental asylum are very tangible and well portrayed.  A salesman John Wilder from New York with a stable marriage and a son goes berserk in the mind. He has a drinking problem and is easily irritated. He stays for a brief period in a psychiatric ward. He visits a shrink who prescribes him strong medicines and warns him repeatedly to lay off his drinking. He also attends a few AA(American Alcoholics) meetings to help him off the addiction - but uses them as a fro...

The Midnight Library (2020) By Matt Haig  258 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Rating : 4.75/5  Genres : alternative reality, fiction, philosophy  A rigmarole and long unwinding ride but it is strangely satisfying. Deeply philosophical and the reader emerges out of this book feeling replenished and cathartic. Matt Haig tries to redefine what it means to be successful and happy. He explains what makes for a fulfilling life and how to not be deluged by regrets.  Most of us beat ourselves up with all the missed opportunities, all the ways things could have been different if a choice in the past was made  differently, all the things that were left undone/unsaid and desires left unexplored. One with such strong proclivity is the main character of this story .. Nora Seed. She has a huge list of regrets and missed opportunities in her life. She struggles with depression and unable to cope with life where everything seems to go against her - her parents d...

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau  By Silvia Moreno Garcia  Rating 4/5  Genres : Fiction, Mexico, Fantasy  I liked the premise for the book more than the actual story itself. A doctor isolates himself on a Mexican island and conducts experiments of creating hybrid creatures..sometimes mingling animal with animal and other times human with animal.. his daughter Carlota being one of them. His employer not getting enough return on his investment plans to cease funding and at the same time the employer's son falls in love with Carlota .. but he is not a good fella .. the doctor wants the marriage and funding.. others in the sanatorium don't want anything to do with their alliance ..  All things break down at the end. The daughter of doctor moreau sets up her own place and practice with her surname wiped clean.. its an interesting read. Unlike other works where mention of hybrids made me cringe.. this one is very moderate and gave those animals a real human l...

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...

I'm glad my mom died (2022) by Jeanette McCurdy 275 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Genres: fiction, contemporary, finished. Rating : 5/5 🥰🥰 Very refreshing. Brutally honest and scathingly candid. Jeanette has bared her soul to the reader about her destructive tendencies encouraged by her mother and also showed through her effort and recovery that there is a silver lining to the most desperate situations. Jeanette has been codependent on her manipulative and highly ambitious and controlling mom all the time she was alive. She wanted nothing but to please her and so did everything that did please her. Which was take up acting in kid shows and controlling her appearance through food restrictions. Her mother, a cancer patient doesn't make it out for long in her life but her ideas and judgements follow Jeanette way after she has left her. She becomes a compulsive bulimic and .. has non complete or unfulfilling relationships with men.. one of them Steven whom she thinks...

The Lady in the Lake [1943] By Raymond Chandler 233 pages (Kindle Digital Edition) Rating  4/5  Genres : Mystery, Fiction, Hardboiled, Noir. A rich man engages Philip Marlowe to figure the whereabouts of his missing wife. She had gone missing a month ago and had sent a wire saying that she was getting married to someone. The man denies any such arrangement and this has the husband worried about the welfare of his wife. After Marlowe takes up the case, he uncovers another case linked to this in which a neighbor's wife has also gone missing the same day as the rich man's wife. A dead body is recovered from the lake near the cabin and the very next day, more dead bodies turn up. Key people linked with the case start getting murdered and who has the most to gain from this? Or is this all linked to covering up some past history? A game being played by two ex lovers endangering many lives?  I love whodunit and hardboiled noir fiction very much. Though there are witt...

Laughter in the Dark [1932] By Vladimir Nabokov  184 pages [Kindle Digital Edition] Rating: 5/5  Genres: Tragedy, Classics, Fiction  A happy family unit. A rich man interested in making art and theater, his homely wife and lovely daughter. All this torn up by a sulky, self centered and frivolous young mistress and her lover. Nabokov is a master at creating scary scenes tinged with intrigue. I kept turning pages towards the end to get the bottom of what might happen ... and it ended up as a laughter in the dark...who is laughing and at whom? For what purpose?  Albinus is a rich man who have been married long time to a woman he loved and with a lovely daughter. One day he sees a young girl and falls deep in trance about her. He courts her, gives her little gifts and makes her his mistress. She is a frivolous little thing. Not serious about life but wanting him to divorce his wife and marry her...into this picture enters her former lover who once cheated her...

The Testaments [2019] By Margaret Atwood  Winner of Booker Prize 2019 🎉🎯 Rating : 5/5 🤓 350 pages [Kindle Digital Edition]  Genres : Hypothetical Fiction, Dystopian future, Booker Prize, Fiction, 2022-read  This book is a sequel to Atwood's The Handmaids Tale [1985] written 35 years ago and it was/is one of the best dystopian books ever written. It is also one of her best books till date. It has made huge splash waves as a TV series too. 🤘  For crying out loud, this book is too damn good! Like a trickle of never ending water, Atwood keeps throwing humorous witticisms and mind blowing philosophical insights at the reader .. while wondering if there will ever be a reader .. lol, her books not having an audience?! In what world, pray tell me?  😝 Hmm .. Atwood has become my newest favorite author. No one and no incident escapes her critical eye. I was shaking with laughter at her silent, biting remarks through out the book .. which never missed...

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 Old Devils [1986] By Kingsley Amis  Winner of Booker Prize 1986 Rating : 5/5 🎉🎉🔮 Genres : Humor, Dry, Fiction, Booker Prize, Welsh people.🎃 340 pages, Digital Kindle Edition  I enjoyed this book very much. The dry and brutally honest wit,humor and open satire on the nature of relationships and superficiality between a bunch of so called life long friends by the author is very appetizing. They backstab each other. They poke at each other. They often booze and snooze and share far too many secrets than they should. They are there to empathize. They are there to offer shoulders to cry. And despite being really old - too much that they can't even bend properly or chew without help of aids - they are there to romance and show off to the opposite sex. 😄🤣 I can understand where some of the negative reviews find their roots and soil for the novel. It deals in less than idealized settings where romance is supposed to be flying high between a bunch of old peop...

The Satanic Verses  By Salman Rushdie  Shortlisted for Man Booker Prize 1988 Rating 4.5/5🙃😇 Genres : Fantasy,Fiction,Magical Realism, Indian Author. What a crazy, wild story this has turned out to be!!  Reading some sections of the book, I was enthralled and speechless at how fantastic it was! Rushdie has combined many folklore and mystical beliefs held by Indians into making some highly creative stories within the main story.  There are also parts which left me dumbfounded for his overt disrespect and disregard for the teachings of not just Muslims but other religions as well. I think I was over 90 percent into the book and was feeling wonderful and joyous at the humorously witty, magical narrative when he makes fun of a hindu God, Lord Shiva. Being a devout Hindu, I felt outraged. I fully comprehended and understood why this book got so much negative reception upon release in 1988. It was banned by many countries and Iran most of all, issued a fa...