Author : Alex Michaelides

This book got me out of my reading slump and into a frenzied reading pace, resulting in me finishing it in less than a week. And this should be review enough to serve as a recommendation for anyone else considering to pick this up as their next read, but there’s so much more I have to say about it.
When you think about a book, there are a lot of factors to consider – the plot, the characters, the locations, interpersonal relationships, facts, consistencies etc. The strongest factor in this debut book by Alex Michaelides is definitely Time (or timelines, if you prefer). The narrative alternates between the voices of Alicia Berenson (the titular character) and Theo Faber (the psychotherapist, who is determined to make her talk), but the shift is always seamless, and that I believe is an excellent trait in storytelling. Their timelines are the past and the present respectively. The former goes about narrating her, Alicia’s life with Gabriel (her husband) and their relationship, their stories that circle around Max (Gabriel’s brother), Paul (Alicia’s brother) and a couple of other recurring characters. While she is battling a lot of antagonistic external elements in her life, there are some inner demons as well that she constantly is forced to face. The latter revolves around Theo’s own journey into his profession and his life post joining The Grove, a life he’s decided to begin with the sole purpose of “rescuing” Alicia, all the while coming to terms with his own challenges at home. What follows is a tale of following-the-breadcrumbs, as Theo undertakes a investigative trip down Alicia’s memory lane and goes about meeting all her former associations to understand her life and to attempt to help her break her silence.
I will not tell you if he succeeds or fails. But I will tell you that this book is more than a set of psychotherapist-patient interviews, not that you ever thought it was. Jokes apart, it’s a thoroughly well written book that destigmatizes therapy a lot, and also makes you introspect, delve into your own psyche…question your voids and wonder if you are as whole as you thought you were or if you’re really at peace with yourself, make you feel lucky for having a wholesome childhood, because, as Alex believes, that’s where it all begins –

“As babies, we are innocent sponges, blank slates, with only the most basic needs present: to eat, shit, love, and be loved. But something goes wrong, depending on the circumstances into which we are born, and the house in which we grow up. A tormented, abused child can never take revenge in reality, as she is powerless and defenseless, but she can—and must—harbor vengeful fantasies in her imagination. Rage, like fear, is reactive.“.

The Silent Patient, pg. 141

Oh, and it has one heck of a plot.
You’ll never see it coming. And when you do…🤯

Subjective Rating: 4.5/5

Author : Leigh Bardugo
Succeeded by : Crooked Kingdom

I didn’t know what to expect when I started the book. I just associated it with the word “heist”. I didn’t read the blurb at the back for some reason before I started it, but I was given to understand that it was good , so I decided to give it a shot. I went in thinking about “Ocean’s 11”, “Now you see me” etc.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover the characters as they were being fleshed out, each more enigmatic than the last – the best of all being the main anti-hero Kaz Brekker. What a well-created character! But just as I falling in love with him, the other characters – Jasper, Inej , Nina and even Matthias and Wylan were given their backstories and it was impossible to restrict my affection to just the bastard of the Barrels. I liked that none of them were..perfect. They all had their flaws, their weaknesses and most of all, motives. Each of them had a reason for being a part of the plot. This is a good segue into the plot itself – It wasn’t a straight B & E and the number of obstacles in their path were to be many. The fact that Matthias and Wylan were familiar with the target destination was of assistance without making it too convenient. The minor twists towards the 60-70% mark were very welcome even though things were never boring, even till then. I loved the non-overt romantic relationship between Matthias and Nina, the description of discovery of feelings Kaz has for Inej and vice-versa and even the dynamics between Jesper and Wylan. It was a nice journey to see of a somewhat dysfunctional team coming to trust each other over the course of the mission.
The introduction of the Grishaverse terminologies took some getting used to but despite not having read the other books in the universe, I was still able to understand the different specialties of each of the Grisha – the Fabrikators, the Heartrenders etc. Good magic system. All of this takes place in a city called Ketterdam and Bardugo builds place descriptions just as vividly as she builds character sketches.
Overall, I completely enjoyed the book and, being part of a duology definitely has a story to complete. I look forward to reading “Crooked Kingdom”.
4/5.

Subjective Rating: 4/5

Author : Brandon Sanderson
Preceded by : Alloys of Law
Succeeded by : Bands of Mourning

The second book in the Wax and Wayne trilogy (Not sure if there’s a fourth book to come?) is titled “Shadows of Self” and is titled so, in my opinion, because there’s some heavy introspection that goes on in this book – both on Wax and Wayne’s part. We get some deeper insights into what makes these characters tick in this book. The plot revolves around a rogue murderer that’s going around creating all sorts of mayhem in the city, shaking its very political pillars in the process, starting with the killing of the governor’s brother and it’s upto Wax, Wayne and Marasi to get to the bottom of it. Brandon Sanderson’s magic system itself is somewhat diminished in its use here and the book seems to revolve more around the characters’ interpersonal relationships and how they grow in the process.

Marasi learns how to be more effective in her new role as a detective (having abandoned her original career as a solicitor), traversing the different challenges her office throws at her by way of petty jealousy from her colleagues, Wax and Steris learn to be a little more comfortable with each other, even as Wax is tormented by visions of his old paramour Lessie and even Wayne is shown to have a regretful side, a face we would not expect the playful, impish character to have. There is this amazing flashback-exchange between Wax and his uncle that reveals how Wax was a “lawman” even as a young boy. There is no dearth of excellent dialogues that are very relevant even in our non-allomantic dull real world which suck you into the book the way only Sanderson can. The villian, revealed to be a kandra, plays an important role as well (actually, a-duh-moment), exploiting the weaknesses of Wax and society as a whole.

This book is.. good – the story, the familiar characters, the fights – they’re all very good. I don’t bemoan the time I spent reading it, because I really had fun. But it falls short of a 5-star because the original Mistborn trilogy was still So much better. Let’s see if the next book in the series – Bands of Mourning can change this opinion of mine.

Subjective Rating: 4/5

Author : Ernest Cline

This book, the second work that Ernest Cline produced in 2015, “Armada” is at best an average read, if read with regular remembrance that “Ready Player One” was a good book. The story traces the life, well, a few days in the life, of teenager Zack “ZackAttack” Lightman, who likes to play video games and beat up bullies. His father died shortly after he was born, but he left behind his legacy of video games and the same passion for games and everything “pop culture”, in Zack. Everything changes for Zack when one day, he’s picked up by a giant military flight manned by his third best friend on Earth and owner of local videogame store, Ray and tells him that he’s been recruited by an international agency called the “EDA” to save the world from war aliens from the moon Europa. I would go on, but at this point, I feel like spending more time describing the “plot” of the book would be just as much time wasted as it was reading it. But here are a few things wrong with this book and they are primarily and probably due to the expectations stemming from Cline’s first work – “Ready Player One” –
a) Too much name dropping. The number of pop-culture references are sickening and probably sufficient to cover three chapters worth of content on their own.
b) Unnecessarily detailed and drawn-out explanations of certain events
c) “Plots” drawn here and there from the likes of Deception Point and Ender’s Game.
d) Even things that seem like they’ve been written to evoke surprise fail to impress.

If there’s one thing that can be said for the book, it’s that it does not glorify the protagonist. No one can claim that Zack is portrayed as a winner through and through. He wins, (this is not a spoiler), but only eventually, after he’s had his share of falls.
Oh and the way I read this book was by listening to the audio book read by Wil Wheaton And by reading it on the Kindle when I could. So, if nothing else, Wil Wheaton is amazing as a narrator.
Those are the only two reasons to want to pick up this book.

Otherwise, you should just pick RPO again coz that would frankly be time better spent.

Subjective Rating: : 2.9/5

Author : George Orwell

This book was a roller coaster of emotions, culminating in the equivalent of a huge tidal wave crashing against a boulder, scattering into indiscernible droplets of water. The story describes a dystopian world (or is it?) where every action of every individual in the land of Oceania is monitored by an all-seeing, all-knowing body called “Big Brother”. The system is one devoid of free thought and speech, the very first scene opening with scenes of hatred towards the only attempt at a revolting entity (Goldstein). Amid all this, there are still those who understand that this is not how the natural order of things should be, that they should not be rewriting history to match the present or the past predictions of Big Brother, that people should not be “vaporised” for committing thought crimes and the story follows one such individual — Winston. His journey from cautious citizen to a reckless revolutionary is a breath of fresh air in the suffocating environment of Oceania, as he finds a cohort in the plucky, young Julia. Together they dream and scheme and believe they aren’t alone, and find this to be true when they meet O’Brien. 

And just when you think the uprising just might be successful, that there just might be a chance that the underdogs shall prevail….. George Orwell picks up your heart, puts it in a box, drives a nail through it and smashes the box with a hammer, burns what’s left of it and scatters the ashes in a meadow where a cool breeze blows them away…

Subjective Rating: 5.0/5.0.