Pages: 221, Kindle Edition

Published: 2016, Bloomsbury

Cover Rating: 5/5

Nominated for The Man Booker’s Prize in 2016, Hot Milk by Deborah Levy has been siting on my virtual shelf for over a year. I thought, before this year ends I should give it a go.

With an interesting cover, the plot revolves around Sofia, a twenty five year old anthropologist, born to a British mother and a Greek father. She believes she has spent much of her life trying to solve the mystery of her mother’s unexplainable illness. She is frustrated by her mother’s constant complains and travels with her to the coast of souther Spain to see a famous consultant in the hope that he might be able to cure her mother’s unpredictable limb paralysis. With doctor’s strange methods, Sofia track while tracking down her mother’s symptoms in an attempt to solve this msytery of her pain but along this journey that, she discovers her own desires, her sexual personality and coming on terms with herself.

The storyline starts flat but as it moves forward it becomes interesting and enjoyable. It might take some readers to adjust with the plot but let me tell you this is one of the books where plot is secondary. This I realised after I was done with almost half of the book. The characters are the mai point of this book. These characters are always thinking and feeling. They develop on their own, some of them instantly and are interesting personalities. Whenever the author shifts focus from our protagonist I observed how intelligent the other characters in ths novel are.

Moreover, one gets to see the transformation of some characters as the plot move forward. The writing style has a pace with it and I highly enjoyed the narrative. The writer has clearly captured the strangeness of a mother who demands attention from her child who is an adult. The element of this type complexity is explored through out the novel. The landscape described in the book is limited but I think it has high impact both on the readers of the book and the overall characterisation.

I enjoyed reading Deborah Levy’s work. She is now one of the those authors on my list that I have to explore and read their other published works. This book can be finished in a day as I managed to read. Something different, not your usual contemporary fiction.

4 out of 5

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The Blasphemy Law by Salman Shami
on 26/11/2017
Genres: Fiction, Thriller
Pages: 530
Format: eBook
Goodreads

The weaving of a thriller is an art and not many have mastered it. To find that thrill for a reader in a book that promises such an element is hard to find but Salman Shami’s The Blasphemy Law is an addition to the genre.

The plot is set in modern Pakistan, a country charged with political corruption in name of religion does already create a thrill in itself. An Australian engineer, Jane Kelly, is on a verge of providing electricity in remote villages of central Punjab through installing solar panels. A ruthless landowner uses terrorism to frame her for blasphemy in the Islamic country, an offense that comes with a death penalty. He plots her execution and along with that of her family and close friends. With partial success Jane is now relying her hopes on her two lovers, Sergei and Razane, to save herself and her family. With an exploration of everyone’s demons from past this book is going to have you on the edge of your seat.

This political thriller covers many realistic elements as to what the people of the country endure in their daily lives. With all elements of greed, money, power, and controversial laws, this novel sets a benchmark in its genre for Asian writers to look forward too. The novel starts at the present day lives of current characters and the development of plot takes from there. Salman has a unique way of covering every aspect of developing a story, a learning if you are an aspiring writer and a pleasure for a reader. This is being said, in terms of writing a political thriller and organizing a good amount of characters in a manner that the reader does feel left out at any point.

The evolution of characters is great and as a reader, I could clearly estimate that what a strong background each one of them has. The relationship between the main cast is displayed in a very authentic and an uncompromisable manner with usual twists and turns from the start. If that is not enough, the writing style will hook you up since it is fast-paced and I managed to finish it in less time than I expected after giving a glimpse on the length of the book.

The use of intertwining of multiple protagonists even after the story has a locus in its development is a plus point of this novel. The climax of the novel, I feel might have appeared before than it does in the book but that is just my opinion. I enjoyed it thoroughly and I look forward to Salman’s next novel in this series as I got a sense of the next novel in the end.

4 out of 5!

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Based on Lies - It Begins by Debarshi Kanjilal
Genres: Fiction
Pages: 105
Format: eBook

Based on Lies: It Begins is the first in a series of two novellas published in 2017.  The main element used in this novel is of psychological thriller following the life of Anuraag Sanyal, the protagonist of the novella. The writing certainly displays the dark corners of an imaginative mind.

The plot starts with the protagonist sitting in the middle of the night, suffering from insomnia writing in his notepad about the event of his past life. The storyline somewhat follows this pattern and a reader gets to see the Anuraag’s present too. He is having a troubled marriage  for five years and had a lover in past, and one as a nearby cafe owner. Each new chapter decipher a new phase or a new skeleton in the closet of Anuraag’s past. Other characters that play their roles are essential, which I realised upon reading this novella. They all have involvement in events that turns into violent crimes where some have been victims to those crimes and otherwise some were the performers of them. As it is said in the blurb of the book, there are no innocent people in this book.

Along with these storylines, I find the characterisation interesting and is the spine of the novella. As you know, a novella has limited number of pages and the author, Debarshi does a great job with forming the whole dramatise personae and making them interesting in just mere 100 pages.  Each character seems to have a dark past and are living with half voidness in their present. The twists and turns that are the outcome of actions of these characters, are so unexpected that they produce the thrill of reading a story. I could not put it down and read it in one go.

The story is fast paced, written using first person narrative voice. In the end, the reader is left with some of the questions of his own and the author has promised to answer them all in the second tier of this novella which is releasing this year. This book is an unusual and a unique book in terms of Indian contemporary fiction.

If you like psychological thrillers or a fan of Chuck Pahalnuik’s writing, this novella is definitely for you. It’s short, fast-paced and thrilling at the same time.

4 out of 5!

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Murderous Greed by Arun K. Nair
Published by Notionpress on 2017
Genres: Mystery, Fiction
Pages: 203
Format: Paperback
Goodreads

Crime Fiction is one of my favourites genre to read. I can read books falling under this genre in no time. In my reading years, after reading both classics and contemporary crime fiction novels, I have concluded that a good crime fiction is written with variant in its narrative pace. Not only it keeps the reader driving forward, continue the guess work, but it eliminates the possibility of having dragging components in between. Murderous Greed by Arun K is an excellent example of that.

The plot is set in town of Avadi, Tamil Nadu where two tragic occasions have happened on one morning. In the first one a woman falls victim to chain snatching and gives away her life in the process. In the second case, a young business man falls short of his life and his shot at least twice, reported by the witness. A police officer is on the roll and has a deadline to match to complete these cases. But more over he suspects are these two cases interwind somehow? Follow Satyajit, the contemporary detective inspector, as he attempts to uncover these dubious questions.

The storyline has an average start as it takes time to build up the whole situation and the life around the characters involved. I always, when introducing a detective, or protagonist in mystery or crime fiction novels, a writer should spend some amount of time in the process of building up the surreal reality. It is always a good sign, or a good start in my opinion and is an essential step in crime fiction genre. The author of this book does that. The narrative voice uses third person element gracefully.

The characterisation of this novel is interesting because these characters play bigger role. The character of protagonist gets the reader’s attention from the start and does take enough time to develop and it feels his character might fall flat in the first half of the novel. Believe me, things get a lot more interesting in the second half, as soon as your half way through this novel. The pace of this book is smooth at times but picks speed when it has too. This novel does not classify as a complete thriller until the climax but in my opinion it does not have too. There are strong vibes from the start that mystery included is going to be larger than life kind of thing.

As a reader, to fulfil the challenge of solving the mystery is a bit difficult int this novel. I am sure, many might do but I could not. The reason being the well use of red-herring element by the author. A master display of that. I am surprised by the conclusion and found it a delight at the same time.

Pick this one up if you have taste for crime fiction or mystery. There is a sequel coming this year.

4 out of 5

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Pages: 284, Paperback

Published: 2015 by Niyogi Books

Cover Rating: 5/5

Kochery Shibu’s debut novel Men and Dreams In the Dhauladhar is a mesmerising tale. Set in the lesser Himalayan Ranges around the peaks in Dhauladhar, this book is a perfect companion on a wintry night to get cozy.

The plot majorly revolves around the lives of three individuals who in return somehow get intertwine with each their. It starts at a hydro power project in Himalayas where an engineer running from his past, after losing almost all of his family. Another individual, a Kashmiri boy displaced in his youth from his family, gets involve in terrorism and some how lands working as a labour at the Dam construction site. Lastly, a doctor with passion for classical dancing arrives at the construction site through the medium of love. Each of their story involves drama, passion, skeletons in their closet and extraordinary hardships and struggles of their lives. Like an eternal spectator, the Dhauladhar peaks watches as these beings risk their lives to full fill their dreams.

The storyline is somewhat different, unique in its own wa and in terms of contemporary fiction. It is smooth, using the element of third person narrative. There is flip of narration as it changes almost every chapter but in the end, the author does combine to drive the forward story. As a reader, I realise how important the role of this multiple narrative format in not only driving the plot forward, but keeping things interesting for the reader as well as development of characters. It touches various themes such as love, tragedy, and monologue of multiple protagonists. Use of local and regional dialects makes the dialogue formation more interesting and a proper translation is given for the reader to understand the context better.

The characterisation contains multiple characters. Most of them are like satellites that revolve around our main protagonists. The characterisation is well organised as the characters are developed through out the story with a steady pace. As a reader, I did enjoy this part very much. Rare to be seen such an element used by modern day Indian writers. Another impressing thing is the fragments of scenic places and in-depth knowledge of a dam construction site are taken by the author from his own experience. Though some readers might argue that there too much in-depth context provided and I agree with that but I also understand that the author likes to put touches from his own reality.  The writing style is mature, carried with grace and engaging. There are traces of thrill in between the subplots, another enjoyable moment for a reader. The climax is good, a bit too late in my opinion.

If you like to read a contemporary Indian novel, this one is for you.

4 out of 5!

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Pages: 42, Kindle Edition

Gargi Saxena’s Sindoori Ranng: Love is not Blind is short story that will leave an impression on its reader. Only 42 pages long, this story can be read within an hour and is great companion if you are looking to read something enjoyable and too in quick manner.

The plot is about a girl named Sindoori, an average girl, who in her early twenties lives with her family. She is in relationship with a boy of whom her family knows nothing about and her friend strongly disapproves. Slowly few incidents uncover the real nature of the boy and how conservative he and his family are. Along with that, there is the interesting character named the Whistler who Whatsapp’s‘ her about her whereabouts whenever she goes out with her conservative boyfriend. Through these messages, she gets to know more about her own feelings, and even though she regrets talking to her secret admirer she comes face to face with her own reality and that of the inhuman nature of her boyfriend.

The storyline is fast paced and is written using third person narrative voice. Even though its only 42 pages long it does tend to leave a strong impression of the theme through which it directly communicates with its reader. The norms of modern day Indian society with regard to domestic abuse and violence. Well written with smooth voice, I liked the way the author kept the characterisation to the point. I think it is best form of developing characters in short stories. Not too much, nor too less information, enough to hook up a reader.

I recommend this book to read for the message it wants to convey about taking hold of your life, especially to young readers.

5 out of 5

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Pages: 200, Paperback

Published: 2016 by Notion Press

Invoked is the first book in the series of Hymns of War (a very thoughtful title, in my opinion) written by Karan Bhatia. The book is a horror thriller in the fiction genre and some of the scenes are dark and terrifying enough to give one goosebumps.

The plot revolves around Krishna, a common man who is teacher at the university, and leads a simple life with his wife, daughter and his parents. An accident changes the fate of the whole family. These attacks starts like baby steps, small, as warnings but soon turn fatal and the life of Krishna becomes painful and intolerable. He then decides with the help of a tantrik to embark on a spiritual journey to save of what remains of his family as well as himself.

The storyline of this book is like thread in which beads are being poured by the author. The size of the each individual bead are uniform but are essential to drive the story forward. It is like every scene in this book is important and its contribution is remarkable to complete the whole storyline. The first half of the book is as horrifying as it could be, with third person narrative voice that is well written and smooth at the same time.

The second of the book is where things get interesting. With the intertwine of supernatural beings, a local tantrik whose thousand times stronger than a normal human being and our protagonist being tested both physically and mentally on his spiritual journey.

The characters in this book are so calmly develop each performing their own role. It was heartbreaking when death knocked on the door of some of their lives. It was sudden, surprising and unexpected. A great joy for a reader like me. The storyline becomes so intense after 100 pages that I could not keep my nose out of it.

This book is certainly not for the faint heart. Even though I wished author would have left us with more action after the climax, I certainly felt there were less dragging elements and the genre of the book compliment the writing. If you are fan of supernatural, fantasy and horror fiction, this book is definitely for you. Cannot wait for the next title in the series.

4 out of 5!

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Pages: 334, Paperback

Published: 2017

Cover Rating: 5/5

I love reading complex plot structures. Not only it is clear view of writer’s imagination on how far they can push things inside their head and then put it in writing, but are a  challenging for a reader’s mind. Such is Nilay Shah’s latest book, A Life To Die For. A political thriller with a great amount of action.

Based on a fictional representation of controversial state in the country of India, Kashwarg is is considered a paradise. The plot starts at an interesting point when a man who is the member of a militant force hands over a sixteen year old girl to the local police. The girl has been a captive for many years with only walls and a glimpse of light in the room by a man who is now being searched as a monster. The girl seemed to have psychological effects and there are signs of sexual abuse. The highest political authority of the country forms an investigation committee to resolve the matter by going in depth. Based on Fidelity and Honesty Measure of Individualism (FHMI, an interesting concept) few people are shortlisted to be the part of this mission.

The plot then follows Aryaman Zaffar’s (the guy saves the girl) adventures, represented as the pawn for the reader to dwell into the story and experience various aspects of this political thriller.  The whole country is forming their own opinions based on the matter of what is known to them in search of freedom from all the political drama. With many subplots that mislead just as in real political misleading and set in some future years then present timeline, I invite you take a look a look what is a clear representation of reality that is going on for many years in the form of writing.

I am not going to dwell more into the storyline since I fear a reader might lose the interest. The first few chapters in this story are clearly the building blocks of the whole book. The third person narrative voice works so well with the amount of characters and action packed plot. The twisted nature of political element is at its fine display in this book.

The characterisation overall is good, I like that the focus on main cast of characters is equally distributed. The writing style has no flaw and after reading this book, neither the author’s imagination and creative process. However, I do think some of the sub plots could have been less twisted for the reader to follow the main plot in a smooth manner. The complexity is really enjoyable nonetheless for a reader’s mind.

4 out of 5!

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Pages: 301, Kindle Edition
Published: June 2017, translated version
Cover Rating: 3/5

I love to find out how sci-fi novelist approach a story. The possibilities of storylines, if you are sci-fi writer, are endless but only researched sci-fi books thrive for a longer period of time and have an ability to entertain a reader. Similar is Dean de Servienti’s upcoming trilogy, Quantum.

The storyline is starts in 2009, in Sudan where two doctors employed by an NGO come across a metallic looking cylinder, mystifying as of its behaviour and element of construction. Soon they gather a team of experts in science, technology, physicist and a biochemist. Their discovery, even though unique and has ability to change the aspect of human civilization, has a dangerous enemy. Mossad, CIA and unification of other religious communities declare these six scientists as fugitives to protect their lies. However, these six people, who spent their whole life finding solutions to problems that already exist are now for the first time, might be closer to find solution that the whole humanity seek. Where did we come from? Who made us? Who is IT?

The plot is a mixture of mystery, science, thriller, adventure and some other dramatic elements. Written in third person narrative it starts slow but once a reader manage to turn enough pages, the pace of the plot starts to increment. I was hooked by it and especially the second half of the book. With the increment in pages, a sense of thrill can be clearly observed by any reader, as I did. It has enough captivating twists, one or two might be predictable to you if you follow the characters strongly from page one but the author has a bag full of suspenseful tricks.

Apart from these six scientists, I found three more characters in this book fascinating. The characters are mature enough and some of them really help in driving the storyline forward and intrigue a reader with their charm and boldness at the same time. My favorite is the one with the shadow and I a, expecting seeing IT (I am not leaving any spoilers, you have to read the book to find about IT) in the next two parts of this trilogy.

This book is easy to engage with especially the writing style. The amount of scientific details and part of the story that revolves around it so well-researched and realistic. I applaud the writer for the professionalism and a well thought story. My recommendation goes not only to Sci Fi and/or suspense fans, but too those who are looking to read something captivating in a day or two. Looking forward to next two parts.

4 out of 5!

I got my hands on the English translated version of this book which was launched back in June 2017 and translated by Antony Shugaar.

The original work is written in Italian by Dean de Servienti.

Note: I received this book from the author but that doesn’t mean my review is breaking any reviewing rules and I thank them for their effort with all my heart.

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Pages: 198

Published: 2017

Cover Rating: 5/5

Europa by Hywel Pinto is his latest book and another treat for science fiction and fantasy fans to enjoy. Got released earlier this year, this book possess a strong storyline that is entirely new from a conceptual point of view with extraordinary pace. I am a big fan of Star Trek and I really enjoyed this novel. Now let me convince you for the same.

The storyline opens in the year 2250. The story revolves around Europa, a moon of Jupiter. In the past there had been travels made to planets like Jupiter and Saturn. The readers are introduced on the murder trial of Captain Sparks held by SEUSA, a secret space organization. He is charged with the murder of his crew who were on the board of spaceship Silver Star to a trip to Europa which usually takes 408 days to rescue a team of lost scientists. There are many questions to be answered. Who was real murderer? Is the team of scientists on Europa still alive? Who can Captain Sparks trust? Is SEUSA hungry for power?

With that many questions awaiting to be answered for a reader, I guess, you could imagine the number of twists and turns this storyline possess. It starts at a surprising point and ends at another. In between a reader like me is highly entertained by those twists. The pace of the novel does reflect the element of thrill. The major point is the climax of the novel and will blow your mind (it did mine) as its unexpected.

The characterisation, I have to is reflected in an intelligent manner. I think their development with the plot is the key. The pace of the novel is fast. After reading Pinto’s previous novel, I can certainly say his writing style has improved since the dialogue formation is now formal and realistic. Another point to notice is the amount of details his books possess. This one is a great example of that.

I recommend this book for someone looking to read and entertained by a great novel in no amount of time.

4 out of 5!

About the Author

Born in Bombay and brought up in Mumbai, Hywel has always been a big fan of mystery/suspense books, which keep you enthralled right up to the end, hooking you to the characters and the storyline. He works full-time at a Media agency and reading and now writing books has been a break for him from the daily stress of life; he is predominately a weekend writer. Couple of story ideas and the encouragement of his wife, Christina, and his family have led him to write his first story. In addition to books, he loves watching football and playing the guitar whenever he gets some free time.

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