Nagasravika's Book Reviews Blog

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his Years of Pilgrimage  By Haruki Murakami  Published Year: 2013 Page Count: 310 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Contemporary Fiction, Coming of Age, Mental Trauma, Relationships, 2024-read.  Rating : 4.95/5 🙂 😎 😀 🙂 💫 Murakami brilliantly portrays how shocking and traumatic experiences can get carried over, for many years afterward, if they are not resolved. These have a devastating impact on the relationships and expectations of the person who suffered. The writing is simple and flowing. The pace of the novel is medium and hooks the reader right from the start. I have come to care for each of the characters in the story and not just the protagonist, Tsukuru Tazaki. He also shows what can happen once the person confronts his trauma, talks it out with the perpetrators and realizes that he is better off because of this. Loved the book. Highly recommend.  Tsukuru Tazaki is an introverted, well balanced student who drea...

Vicious  By V E Schwab  Published Year: 2013 Page Count : 340 pages  Medium Used : Paperback  Genre : Science Fiction, Supernatural, 2024-read. Rating : 3.5/5   Victor Vale and Eli Cardale are pre-med students and roommates,friends. As part of their seminar, they have to choose a thesis topic. While Victor chooses adrenaline and its effects/causes, Eli chooses EOs (ExtraOrdinary people) startling the professor and other students alike. After studying several cases, he concludes that under specific circumstances, a person can become an EO. And those circumstances are near death experiences. The person must be in a near death situation but must also want to live desperately. So upon Victor's suggesting and monitoring, Eli makes a near death attempt. He becomes an EO. His special skill is self healing and regeneration. Because Eli has become an EO, Victor takes it as a challenge to become himself one. So he also becomes an EO - his skill, controlling pain. Aft...

 Gideon the Ninth  By Tamsin Muir  Published Year: 2019 Page Count: 448 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Action, Fantasy, Magic, Necromancers, Adventure, Murder Mystery, Suspense, Lesbian, 2024-read.  Rating : 4.75/5 🙂🙂🙂🙂🌟 Wow. The twists!! And wow wow wow .. the lies!! The deceptions ! Its exotic and steamy! Unputdownable. Highly Addictive. Been wanting to read this for a while now! The paperbacks being so expensive, I settled in for a Kindle experience. I am not disappointed. The lack of smut - which I expected/anticipated when I heard its lesbian fantasy - is such a relief. The tone of the narrator is serious throughout. I had some laugh out loud moments once or twice but that's it. One of the best fantasy book series ever!  I think it is the prose and writing style that I had to read this book real slow so as not to miss anything out. There is action in this book , necromancer magic, fantastic games and there are murders to solve and lyc...

 Tuesdays with Morrie  By Mitch Albom  Published Year: 1997 [ Doubleday Publishers ]  Page Count: 192 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Spirituality, Religion, Self Help, Death, Philosophy, 2024-read.  Rating: 5/5 🌟  Some authors write hundreds or thousands of pages to gain the same amount of traction this small book has achieved. It proves that content and writing style are much more important than the page count or adding senseless twists and turns.  This book, surprisingly, doesn't sound preachy. A young man and his dying, decaying teacher from youth, their enlightening and inspiring discussions over many topics like death, aging, love, meaning of life. I think more than the teaching points - which I mentioned below - the teacher's life story and his final days were more impactful.  Mitch finds out that his most favorite and much cherished professor from college is afflicted with ALS disease and is terminally ill. So he starts p...

 Americanah  By Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  Published Year: 2013  Page Count: 477 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Identity, Race, Immigration, Nigeria, Blogger, Coming-of-age, Black People, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🌟 Everyone who regrets not having gone or not able to go to USA or Uk - for education or employment  -  should read this. Brilliant. Loved this book. An eye opener on multiple levels. Americanah refers to a person of Nigerian origin who having spent multiple years in USA, returns to their native country, changed in many ways. Having imbibed the American culture and thinking, they are no longer the same. The way they look at the buildings,political scenario, people change. Their perspectives, interests and habits change. They become more posh and snobbish even without really noticing it in themselves. My opinion is this happens not just to Nigerians or Indians, but to everyone who has traveled and experienced things ...

 The Body Scout  By Lincoln Michael  Published Year: 2021 Page Count: 291 pages  Medium Used : Kindle PW  Genre : Science Fiction, Cybernetics, Transgenic Creatures, Baseball, Dystopian Future, 2024-read.  Rating : 4.5/5 😀😀😀😀😇 I enjoyed reading this very much. I read it word for word and it felt extremely satisfying. I spent a week reading this under 300 pages book but it is good. The world building is awesome. Transported me into a world where near immortality through technology is achieved. Damaged and diseased organs, body parts are replaced with Cybernetics and laboratory constructed parts. Neanderthals are restored to life though their survival rate in a sapien's womb is very low. Transgenic creatures populate the world along with humans. Mind and pain killing, numbing drugs are available for peanuts in the market. It's a probable future universe where human clone and Astral system research is given heavy weightage, high priority, big money. ...

 The Passengers  By John Marrs  Published Year : 2019 Page Count: 400 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Scifi, Driverless Cars, Science and Technology, Thriller, Murder, Romance, 2024-read.  Rating : 4/5 😀😀😀😀 Reading this is like watching an episode of Black Mirror TV series🤑. Overall, it's a regular revenge story with some interesting twists. The writing is good and kept me hooked. I slept light last night and whenever I woke up, I picked up this book to send me back to sleep😴. It's an easy read that also managed to put a technology scare in me. Especially about self driving cars of level 5 .. where the complete control goes to AI😨 🙀!!  This story is also an eye opener 🤔 to how much diligence is needed before governments can release and mandate the use of a certain technology for public use🤨. I have always maintained that there should be corporate or government regulating bodies for verification and validation of the claims of tech comp...

 Mother! (2017) Written and Directed by: Darren Arronofsky  Starring : Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem  Genre : Mythological, Bibilical, Horror, Suspense, 2024-watched.  Rating : 10/10  The camera lens follows Jennifer. We see the situations from her point of view. Which was eerie at first but totally scary later on.  Wow. What a movie ! Knocked my breath off. There were multiple indicators, while watching, that suggested the movie is not going to end on a note of hope or wellness. One of them is display of religious fanaticism. When mobs go mad and do things, individuals are no longer acting on their consciousness/conscience. Things go out of hand pretty fast .. as this story demonstrates. Its pure madness and sheer hell. I wanted to fast forward multiple times but also didn't want to miss out.  A husband and wife live in a secluded mansion, leading a peaceful, undisturbed life. Jennifer is happy with just the two of them. The husband doesn't feel co...

 The Angel's Game ( The Cemetery of Forgotten Books #2 ) By Carlos Ruiz Zafon  Published Year: 2008 Page Count: 504 pages  Medium Used: Paperback  Genre : Thriller, Occult, Drama, Detective, Mystery, Lucifer, 2024-read.  Rating : 5/5 😀😀😀🥰🥳 This book will keep me up at night, thinking and trying to piece together all the bits and pieces revealed in the plot. If there is a flaw in the story whole, it is that it hasn't clearly stated how so many characters like Diego Marlasca, the witch of Sorrento etc. have managed to stay alive past their prime, in pristine condition. There is only a mention of the occult sacrifice and nothing else. Is there a hand of the devil in this whole bargain? If so, why? Unclear.  The main character, David Martin, writes novels and stories for news papers. He once gets a deal to write a book on Theology (creating a new religion from a book lol) from an Italian publisher Andreas Corelli. He gets an insane amount of money deposite...

The Drawing of the Three  ( The Dark Tower #2 ) By Stephen King  Published Year: 1987 Page Count: 463 pages  Medium Used: Kindle PW  Genre : Adventure, Fantasy, Action, Suspense, Multiverse,2024-read.  Rating : 5/5  Loved this one.  Detta Walker is one of my crazy favorite characters in fiction. I expected there to be three people along with Roland because there are three doors to get one from each .. but what Stephen King did with the last one .. didn't see it coming! At the same time, I am a bit confused. Roland wants to get to the Dark Tower real bad. He doesn't care whom he has to sacrifice on the way as he gets there. It feels like we are walking along with him. And he is just as clueless as us about how to get there,what to do to get there. If so, my question is, how did he just do what he did with the Jack Mort character? What if he will be needed on the journey? I just didn't get it.  The journey of Roland continues to the dark tower. As h...