Review: Ben Jackson

Ben Jackson by Amanda Linehan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Amanda, oh Amanda.

You delivered a sucker-punch!

And in 31 crisp pages.



Let's begin with the cover .



With the blooshot stains sprawled over the wall, this has to catch your attention no matter how many books of the mystery genre you have stacked in your library.

Plot :

Imagine waking up on a Saturday, thinking it was a Friday. Only that it wasn't. jim Conors somehow manages to loose up an entire day of his life and he has count how it happened.

You can steal someone's day?!

Character Potrayal :

To add more to that he is portrayed as a fidgety and meek balding man. His manners when he comes up face to face is outstandingly carved out by the author.
He has to undergo the arduous task of expressing his sorrow to the grieving family of his business associate.
Yes, that guy had an accident.

And it happened on the Friday that never was Jim's.

The man behind it all, our antagonist has a mystery buried deep in his past. He is not what he shows the world he is. His is a character, I would pay to watch, if enacted in a movie.

The guy who was murdered (and not died of accident) wasn't either what the world knew him to be.

PHEW!

I had it enough; talking in insinuations and managing not to give out the story to you.



Amanda gave me a tough time as a book reviewer. My unassailable streak of not giving in the suspense was under threat.



Verdict A mystery so intriguing and well woven that I have no qualms before pasting 4 brilliant stars on this book.


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Review: The Yard

The Yard by Aliyyah Eniath
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A jewel to the Literary World!

Book of The Month | October of 2016

Sit back. Relax. Take The Yard in your hands. For some time in your life, Aliyyah will bring uncontrollable tears and bewilder you with her writing.

Some novels have the tendency that they play Quidditch with your emotions, giving unsettling, disturbing feelings to your soul and heart, then giggle back at you because

They. Have. Played. Well!

Aliyyah Eniath does the very same!

A novel that mends your heart, just to break it again and see you bleed ruthlessly.

Set in Trinidad, recounts a heart breaking tale of Behrooz, Sara, Maya and her family. The intricate complexity of human nature and behavior is knitted to perfection.



During the whole episode of Maya, Sara and Behrooz, I felt perturbation and agitation contemplating 'what heart shattering thing it will throw at me now!'

The flaw in the characters, their mannerism, perspective, thought process, redemption, regrets, unrestrained fears, rampant melancholy and evocative memories - all of that galvanized me.

He sat, smiling from ear to ear, on the sand, with a sand dollar in his hands. The image was captured on their first visit to Mayaro beach when he was two years old. His happiness seemed to jump out of the picture and infect anyone who looked at it.

The gravity of these lines brought overwhelming grief to the soul of the reader in me.

Aliyyah's steel hard determination and hard work of 5 years is visible, audible and heart-penetrative in this expressive and powerful piece of work.



In mere 272 pages, she made my eyes moisturized.
My tears struggled to come out or go in and dry just there, they didn't know what to do!

The Yard broke my heart many times and each time, it did so, so beautifully.
And I smiled at every shattering sound. Only because it was heard within me and nowhere else.

An aesthetic cover fits the story, making you halt and admire its unsung glory for a while.

Coming to the end,



Verdict : Book of the month indeed...! 5 glorious stars to Alliyah.


View all my reviews

Review: The Yard

The Yard by Aliyyah Eniath
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A jewel to the Literary World!

Book of The Month | October of 2016

Sit back. Relax. Take The Yard in your hands. For some time in your life, Aliyyah will bring uncontrollable tears and bewilder you with her writing.

Some novels have the tendency that they play Quidditch with your emotions, giving unsettling, disturbing feelings to your soul and heart, then giggle back at you because

They. Have. Played. Well!

Aliyyah Eniath does the very same!

A novel that mends your heart, just to break it again and see you bleed ruthlessly.

Set in Trinidad, recounts a heart breaking tale of Behrooz, Sara, Maya and her family. The intricate complexity of human nature and behavior is knitted to perfection.



During the whole episode of Maya, Sara and Behrooz, I felt perturbation and agitation contemplating 'what heart shattering thing it will throw at me now!'

The flaw in the characters, their mannerism, perspective, thought process, redemption, regrets, unrestrained fears, rampant melancholy and evocative memories - all of that galvanized me.

He sat, smiling from ear to ear, on the sand, with a sand dollar in his hands. The image was captured on their first visit to Mayaro beach when he was two years old. His happiness seemed to jump out of the picture and infect anyone who looked at it.

The gravity of these lines brought overwhelming grief to the soul of the reader in me.

Aliyyah's steel hard determination and hard work of 5 years is visible, audible and heart-penetrative in this expressive and powerful piece of work.



In mere 272 pages, she made my eyes moisturized.
My tears struggled to come out or go in and dry just there, they didn't know what to do!

The Yard broke my heart many times and each time, it did so, so beautifully.
And I smiled at every shattering sound. Only because it was heard within me and nowhere else.

An aesthetic cover fits the story, making you halt and admire its unsung glory for a while.

Coming to the end,



Verdict : Book of the month indeed...! 5 glorious stars to Alliyah.


View all my reviews

Review: She: Ekla Cholo Re

She: Ekla Cholo Re by Santosh Avvannavar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Received this book by the author for an honest review. And so it is. Honest.

A short and good one.

HITS. ITS. MARK.

She is a story of one's identity in the society. What is a society after all?
A collection of people with varied ideologies living in harmony.

Only that it is far from true for humans. We have over processed our thoughts and drawn conclusions that the makers of laws would never have imagined.

Love and compassion is the basis of every flourishing community. We accept all and embrace all.
Or we used to.

There are more lines that divide us rather than uniting. On caste, creed, gender, race, ideologies, football clubs, types of colors we have on our walls and what not!

She: Ekla Cholo Re is one such story of a transgender who struggles to get a foothold in the frameworks of the social customs. She shares a ride with a stranger and pours her pain out to him - and to us, readers. That ostracization is the correct word for the glimpses people give her. Her pain and suffering that even her parents failed to comprehend. Loved ones' separation. Rukhsat!

She is a strong lady that self motivates herself from the ashes with the help of a guiding light of an author. His books make her come out and face the dawn. And the shame that was never hers to bear.

Jodi Tor Dak Shune Keu Na Ase Tobe
Ekla Cholo Re

If no one follows you,
oh my dear soul,
Walk alone.

Walk alone on the path,
That you think is correct.

Because it very well is.

The denouement is something that made me smile ear-to-ear.

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Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Some books you read. Some books you enjoy. But some books just swallow you up, heart and soul.

Very truly so.

Penning a review for this book is hard, so is the book itself. Complex and intricately sewn together.
No, I am not revealing the plot to you, dear wife. All I am saying is that this is a different work altogether. And a very, very fine one indeed.

The story weaves childhood memories and nightmares, beliefs and myths into one fragment after another, until the fabric is tight enough to hold the weight of interdependence. A child who knows a lot. Someone who knows that he knows things that his parents don't know he knows.

The fears are as vivid as it can be our owns. Mr. Gaiman captures the feeble nature of childhood perfectly in this work.

He confessed that he actually meant it to be a short story that got out of control.
Interestingly so, the author attributes the motivation for writing this masterpiece to deal with a 4 month separation from his wife.

The result was a thoroughly engaging and majestically laced novel. An ocean of feelings.

Told you, this is the hardest book to be reviewed I have read this year.
So, I will let that be the end.

A perfect glittering 5 stars!

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Review: The Third Wheel

The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

AND I'm done!

This one, the seventh in the last 20 days says some things.

First : Jeff Kinney is a total ROCKSTAR . He has mastered the art of writing great episodes one after the other.

Second : I am a lifetime fan. No proofs needed.

Third : There's always something or the other thing trolling Greg. I can assure you that no square inch of the book turned out as boring. None.

Fourth : The third wheel or the stepney, your life never fails to get hold of the funny bone. May true love bless you in the future editions. *Amen*

Uncle Gary is the star! A total kickass character.

The chicken pox fear stifling Mr. Greg Heffley was represented like a pro. The end is hilariously fine tuned.

So fine tuned that you're just counting days for the next novel to hit the stores. Guess this is what will happen to me when my GR counter hits the 10th book of this series.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, You Beauty !!

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Review: The Dawn at Dusk

The Dawn at Dusk by Sandeep Nayyar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

" The circle completes, Shatvari.

It always does. "

Cast in the post vedic era, The Dawn at Dusk is a heart wrenching tale of hate combed with a false belief of justice that sometimes clouds the minds of the best of humans.

The situation worsens even further, if this hatred is fueled by personal grievances and gets the arsenal of will-power.

Those who fuel the fire of revenge within,

Shall know,

That like charity,

Hatred too, begins at your very home.

Shatvari, as righteous as a woman could be, is a wife of honor. She lives a simplistic and austere life where she dutifully does all for her husband. Only that is not reciprocated by him who goes on awry ways to self destruct.

Implode, perhaps is the right way that to describe the collapse of such families. Collapsing within with forces inside your own consciousness.

Very well researched and deftly dealing with the evils of the Aryan civilization, the author is almost as fearless as one might be in penning down such a risky subject. Blending social ostracization into the characters of Shatvari and a character named Gunjan who you can't place in the relations defined by the society.

How do you define the bond between that of a married woman and a friend who happens to be male? They are loyal to their respective feelings but still could do anything for the another.
I can't put my finger to that word because such a relation never existed. Or if it did, we failed to name it.

Blinded by an absolute rage and steel hard determination to the wrongs that were committed against her, being cheated on with a courtesan by her husband, the allegations over her purity and questions on her status - were enough to kindle a volcano that would over throw the mightiest of reigns.

Plot : Sharp and crisply written. You never saw what was coming on the next corner.

Character Drawing : With so numerous a beings involved, it was easy to get meddled up. The fact is Mr. Sandeep Nayyar avoids that. And with class. All the traits are well chiseled!

Three kingdoms and their respective rulers, their armies and all their royal prowess. The lines between friends and foes that change with the clock. The complex workings of a neglected and plotting human mind.

This book had it all for me.

Lastly, the author does not take sides. And that, just that, made me ooze out an extra star. A powerful star.

The husband overlaps his feelings of lust and love. He still hoards feelings for the two women till the very end. We are defined by the choices that we make. Shatvari chose Damodar over Gunjan. Did Damodar feign his love for Shatvari to satiate his love of conquering? Nope. Did the courtesan regard Damodar as just another client? Nope. So how do you define the complex web of emotions?

What was correct?
Or rather who was correct?

Or is there even a word called correct for human emotions?

A translated version of the original Samarsiddha, you got to jump your reading queue and get this one straight out.



Verdict : Never let me breath. Thrilling to the core.

View all my reviews

Review: The Dawn at Dusk

The Dawn at Dusk by Sandeep Nayyar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

" The circle completes, Shatvari.

It always does. "

Cast in the post vedic era, The Dawn at Dusk is a heart wrenching tale of hate combed with a false belief of justice that sometimes clouds the minds of the best of the humans.

The situation worsens even further, if this hatred is fueled by personal grievances and gets the arsenal of will power.

Those who fuel the fire of revenge within,

Shall know,

That like charity,

Hatred too, begins at your very home.

Shatvari, as a righteous as a woman might be, is a wife of honor. She lives a simplistic and austere life where she dutifully does all for her husband. Only that is not reciprocated by her husband who goes on awry ways to self destruct.

Implode, perhaps is the right way that to describe the collapse of such families. Collapsing within with forces inside your own consciousness.

Very well researched and deftly dealing with the evils of the Aryan civilization, the author is almost as fearless as one might be in penning down such a risky subject. Blending social ostracization into the characters of Shatvari and a character named Gunjan who you can't place in the relations defined by the society.

How do you define the bond between that of a married woman and a friend who happens to be male? They are loyal to their respective feelings but still could do anything for the another.
I can't put my finger to that word because such a relation never existed. Or if it did, we failed to name it.

Blinded by an absolute rage and steel hard determination to the wrongs that were committed against her, being cheated on with a courtesan by her husband, the allegations over her purity and questions on her status - were enough to kindle a volcano that would over throw the mightiest of reigns.

Plot : Sharp and crisply written. You never saw what was coming on the next corner.

Character Drawing : With so numerous a beings involved, it was easy to get meddled up. The fact is Mr. Sandeep Nayyar avoids that. And with class. All the traits are well chiseled!

Three kingdoms and their respective rulers, their army and all their royal prowess. The lines between friends and foes that change with the clock. The complex workings of a neglected and plotting human mind.

This book had it all for me.

Lastly, the author does not take sides. And that, just that, made me ooze out an extra star. A powerful star.

The husband overlaps his feelings of lust and love. He still hoards feelings for the two women till the very end. We are defined by the choices that we make. Shatvari chose Damodar over Gunjan. Did Damodar feign his love for Shatvari to satiate his love of conquering? Nope. Did the courtesan regard Damodar as just another client? Nope. So how do you define the complex web of emotions?

What was correct?
Or rather who was correct?

Or is there even a word called correct for human emotions?

A translated version of the original Samarsiddha, you got to jump your reading queue and get this one straight out.



Verdict : Never let me breath. Thrilling to the core.

View all my reviews