The Secret History by Donna Tartt is a curveball that comes and hits out of nowhere! I was not ready for the impact of this story at all. This book is considered a classic, and it is rare to find a bad review for this book. All the reviews that I have ever read of Donna Tartt’s books have cemented her as a critic’s darling in my eyes. This to me, means that her books are difficult to read and full of verbose philosophy. The Secret History is exactly that, and so much more.
The book starts off with a vibe similar to that of Dead Poet’s Society. You are tricked into thinking that this is a story about a teacher’s influence on his students. It’s not. Maybe there’s some shade of Lord of The Flies here. No, not really. As I read on (with much difficulty in the beginning), I thought maybe later books like We Were Liars were based on this book. Again, there’s no similarity except in the most superficial sense. It is useless to compare it to any book. It is original and shocking in its coldness and lack of feeling. This is Dark Academia at its best.
From the beginning, the characters cause conflict within the reader. They are odd, unemotional, and leave you feeling cold. None of these people elicit any sympathy in the the heart of the reader; not even the murder victim whose murder is the central theme of the book.
Richard Papen is nineteen years old when he comes to Hampden College in Vermont. He is from a small town in California, and all he wants in life is to get away from his roots. He becomes obsessed with a teacher and his exclusive group of students studying ancient Greek, and wants to join the class by any means.
However, once inside the clique, he realizes that these four boys and one girl are not as golden as he thought. Instead of becoming disillusioned, Richard becomes even more enamored of his new friends. Finally, he starts to feel like he belongs. Still, he cannot shake the feeling that his new friends are hiding something from him.
The truth, when it hits him, is wild and gruesome. Yet, Richard is by no means repelled or disgusted by it all. He is ready to do whatever is needed to get rid of all irritants and threats to his friends. What follows is something bound to end in disaster.
For a debut novel, this has to be one of the greatest that I have read. No wonder this book inspired a whole new genre of Dark Academia. Donna Tartt draws such a vivid picture of Vermont in fall and winter, that you cannot help but give a real shudder. The cold feels real, the darkness feels menacing, and at times, you can even smell the cigarette smoke! The mood is oppressive and heavy on the heart. There are no comic reprieves, just more coldness and cruelty.
It is no mean feat to write a book where you feel no sympathy for any of the characters, yet are unable to stop reading. You feel the need to read what happens next because something like this can never end well. And it doesn’t, but not in the way you expect it to. The climax is sudden and unexpected; it comes out of nowhere. But once you read it, you realize that it makes a twisted sort of sense. However, there were a couple of things that I was uncomfortable with. The hint of racism and Islamophobia was one. The other was the fact that Henry emerges as a hero when he was anything but!
It is definitely not easy to read The Secret History. It requires concentration and attention; and a little bit of heartlessness. But if you’re capable of all this, the book will not disappoint. I love the way Donna Tartt writes, and have become a fan. Still, I don’t think I will recommend this book to everyone. Certainly not for the sensitive and easily offended audience.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid may be a fictional account of a 70’s rock band, but the stories, the songs and the music sound so real that you can’t help but think about getting your hands on that awesome album that doesn’t really exist!
The book follows the rise of Daisy Jones and Billy Dunne and his band, The Six; and how it all came to an abrupt end after a sold out show at Chicago Stadium. No one knows why it all ended the way it did when everything seemed to be going so well for the band. Now, after more than 30 years, someone is making an effort to find out what actually happened.
The book is written as an oral history, recounted by several people. However, instead of going the usual route of everyone telling their stories one by one, this book gives a voice to everyone in one go. It feels like you have a number of people in your head talking about the same thing, yet looking at it from different perspectives.
I thought Jenkins Reid was a good writer when I had read her “Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” This book confirms my belief. The way she writes about her female protagonists, it’s impossible not to feel their pain. You may not agree with their life choices, or what they stand for, but you can understand their misery.
Throughout the book, what I wanted to do the most was to hear all these great songs being talked about. You know a writer is a winner when she pushes herself to write all the lyrics for all the songs mentioned in her book! I certainly hope someone can get a real life Daisy Jones and a real life Billy Dunne to sing these songs some day!
A powerful book with a great soundtrack to accompany it!
I had been thinking about reading The Good Girl by Mary Kubica for a long time. It seemed to be a favourite on Instagram. I was a bit disappointed with it though. First off, there were comparisons to Gone Girl, which is never a good thing. A book should be original and not remind you of any other books. Then, as I read it, I realized that there was nothing in the book (except the “Girl” in its title) to make it seem even remotely like Gone Girl.
The book is told in alternate voices, flipping back and forth in time. One of my most favourite things in a book is to have more than one perspectives of the story. This book, however, failed to catch my interest from the beginning. The start is quite slow, and it takes a long time to come to the point. I was halfway through before I got a bit interested in the story. By that time, I was only interested in knowing what had actually happened and whether my guesses were correct or not.
The love angles in the book seem forced, and if there was ever a case of the Stockholm Syndrome, it is in this book. The character of Mia Dennett is like that of a typical Mills & Boon heroine, perfect and flawless but not valued by her own family. She is the essential poor, little, rich girl who shuns her father’s wealth to live hand-to-mouth while teaching the underpriveleged. The constant refrain of how her own father doesn’t love her becomes too much after a while.
Of course, Mia’s father is shown to be utterly heartless while her mother is utterly helpless. There are too many cliches here to count. Detective Gabe Hoffman works in a strange police department, where he has to tackle only one case at a time, and even when he has other cases, it still leaves him enough time to not only visit Mrs. Dennett, but also keep an eye on Ms. Thatcher regularly!
I would have overlooked all of this if the book had been marketed as anything other than a thriller and a worthy successor to Gone Girl. It is a drama at best, and the only part that might make it a borderline thriller is probably that last chapter.
The Epilogue is definitely something I was not expecting, though it makes me question the palusibility of the whole story, particularly the mental stability of the main character. An average read if you go in without expectations, and keeping in mind the usual books published under this particular publishing house.
Wow! What can I say about this book? Let me tell you right now that this book is not everyone’s cup of tea. Once in a while, a book comes along that you really like even when you can see the weaknesses in the story. This is one such book. I was transported into a world so dark and fantastic, a world of creepy fairy tales, that I didn’t really care about anything else but getting out of this world alive!
Alice is the grand-daughter of a once-famous author of sinister fairy tales, who she has never met. This is because for the seventeen years that she has been alive, she and her mother, Ella, have been running away from the bad luck that seems to be following them everywhere. When they get the news that her grandmother is dead, Alice and her mother draw a breath of relief and decide to restart their lives, believing the bad days behind them.
Then Ella is kidnapped and Alice decides to find her grandmother’s estate in order to free Ella. Her frustration mounts as she realizes that she has no knowledge of the fairy tales written by her grandmother about the fantastical Hinterland. With the help of a classmate, Ellery, who happens to be a fan of the Hinterland stories, Alice sets off to find her mother, and eventually, the truth about their lives.
As Alice and Ellery start their quest, you realize that nothing is as it seems, and the fairy tales are dark and full of horrors. The characters and the world they inhabit is chilling and deeply disturbing. There are no good guys in these stories, and Alice herself is a part of this world. It is a race against time, because time in Hinterland is not the same as that in our world. Years can pass in the blink of an eye, and days can seem to last forever. It is in this world that Alice has to fight her destiny and change her story before she is sucked back into it forever.
I always love a story that takes you into a dark world where you have to fight the demons inside you more than the ones on the outside. The Hazel Wood took me into this world, and all I can think about after finishing it is that I really want to read all these fairy tales. Someone, please find me a copy of Tales From The Hinterland!
Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan is a book I’m not too sure about. I have mixed feelings about this acclaimed courtroom drama that has everyone singing its praises. I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads, because I can’t see anything extraordinary in it. We all know that when it comes to legal thrillers, John Grisham is the master of this genre. There was a time when I used to read every book that he wrote. Compared to those, this is a very tame affair. Warning:This review contains spoilers, and is reflective of how I felt while reading this book. Not everyone is expected to agree with me.
When James Whitehouse, a junior minister and the Prime Minister’s closest friend, is accused of rape by a colleague, his wife Sophie, knows that he is innocent. He may have indulged in a short-lived affair with the woman, but he was no rapist. So, even with all the anger and hurt about the affair, she is willing to stand by her husband when he needs her the most.
QC Kate Woodcroft knows that Whitehouse is guilty, and she will do everything to prove it in front of the jury. She might come off as insensitive and unfeeling when it comes to grilling witnesses, but she knows how to sway a jury, and she feels very strongly about making everyone see the truth.
As the drama unfolds in the courtroom, I couldn’t help but feel bored. The book was about fifty pages too long. There are no real surprises. I was able to make the connection between Holly and Kate almost from the beginning. I knew what had happened to Holly quite early on too. And the secret being alluded to since the beginning of the book, the secret that Sophie knows, is not as explosive as the writer would have you believe.
In the middle of all this, is something that I really didn’t like. There was this general thread that men are incapable of being faithful, as evidenced by both Sophie’s and Kate’s fathers, as well as Sophie’s husband. The thing that had me feeling uncomfortable was the tone of acceptability in the book. There are many books about women who won’t leave their cheating husbands because of one reason or the other, but those books make you feel that what these women are doing is wrong.
This book felt like the author was implying that staying with a cheat is better than not having a man in your life. Sophie was like all women in such situations, not wanting to leave but not wanting to stay either. So, there isn’t anything blatant which I can pinpoint, but I got the general feeling that as Sophie justifies James’s actions, the reader is also supposed to do so.
And then there is the whole underlying lesson of not taking anyone to court for sexual assault or rape. Because that is what I learned from this book. If Kate had won the case that she was prosecuting at the beginning of the book, or if she had sounded optimistic about the outcome of any such cases, it could be said that she was up against a master and she lost. But she lost the previous case, and keeps dropping gems like, “Juries are keen to convict the predatory rapist….yet when it comes to relationship rape, they’d really rather not know, thank you very much.” She keeps telling us that she wins cases, unfortunately we don’t see much evidence of that. Even in the courtroom scenes, she never comes across as the brilliant QC she is supposed to be.
So after reading 350 plus pages, we come to know that nothing much has changed, except the lives of the women involved, while the man is free to go back to his life, both public and private. There is hardly any mention of what happened to poor Olivia after the trial; Sophie is a shallow woman all through the story, with the sole aim of landing and then keeping a husband in her life; and Kate is destined to be alone and unloved because she chose to have a demanding career.
For a fan of outstanding courtroom dramas like To Kill A Mockingbird, A Time to Kill and Pelican Brief, this book is very mediocre, with forgettable characters and a weak storyline.
Everyone knows by now how big a fan I am of thrillers of all types. Many people ask me to recommend some good thrillers, but there are so many that I can never make up my mind about which ones are the best. Sometimes it’s because I have forgotten a particular story, so I have to read it all over again, and in reading and rereading, never get the time to actually compile a list of my favourite thrillers. Even now, as I sit here trying to make a list, I find that I cannot make up my mind. I have tried to pick some of the books that I find exciting and would want others to read too. They are not in any particular order.
The Da Vinci Code
I became a Dan Brown fan after I read The Da Vinci Code when it was first published in 2003. Since then, I have read all his books, and even though I don’t like all of them, to me Dan Brown is one of the best writers of thrillers. I have never thought about leaving his books halfway even if they seem like a repetition of the old theme.
The Da Vinci Code was a book that turned everything I knew on its head. I had to keep reminding myself that this is fiction and has little to do with reality. It is set in Paris and London with a timeframe of just one day. Robert Langdon, an imminent Professor of Symbology at Harvard, is visiting Paris when he gets embroiled in the murder of a prominent member of a secret society.
As he is on the run, aided by the murdered man’s granddaughter, he realizes that things are not what they seem, and he has to use all his knowledge and learning to figure out a centuries old mystery and save the day.
The strength of Dan Brown’s writing is that majority of artworks and places mentioned in his books are real. It is my dream to one day visit Paris and see all the things Robert Langdon talked about in this book.
This is one book I would recommend to all fans of mystery and puzzle solving.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
When I first read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I was taken aback. I had never read anything like it before. Here was a heroine who was unlike any heroine that I had ever seen or heard of before. She was everything that a “good girl” shouldn’t be, yet she was the best kind of heroine. At the same time, the “hero”, Mikael Blomkvist was like any other hero, except that he was no saviour of the heroine. The heroine could not only save herself, she could also keep the hero safe from harm.
As Salander and Blomkvist are brought together in an unlikely pairing, to solve a forty-year old mystery, the challenges facing them are terrifying and seemingly insurmountable. No book review or discussion can do justice to the excitement or thrill of reading this book. It might not seem very shocking now, 10 years after it was first published in English, but at that time this book was the first of its kind. Even now, I find myself reading it again every time I hear about another sequel in this series.
There have been many similar books and characters in the decade since its publication, but nothing can surpass the brilliance and originality of this book. One of my most favourite books of this genre, recommended for all kickass females in the world!
Gone Girl
The one book that single-handedly changed the face of the genre of Thrillers and gave birth to the contemporary Psychological Thriller. This book is so terrifying that I have been unable to re-read it in one go after the first time. I can only read it in parts and that too takes its toll on me. Every. Single. Time.
Nick Dunne is shocked by the disappearance of his wife, Amy, on their fifth wedding anniversary. Police investigation shows Amy was scared of her husband, and there are some strange searches on his computer. Nick is bewildered because none of it is true. He cannot understand what is happening to him, and where his wife would disappear to. Then there is Amy’s diary that clearly shows how unhinged Nick is.
As a reader you realize that you cannot trust Nick’s narration of the events because of the diary entries, but as you start reading Amy’s side of the story, you realize there is something wrong with her narration too! As you read further, you start questioning the sanity of all characters, and eventually your own for continuing to read this book! Yet, you need to find out the truth. You need to know how it all ends, how something this crazy can ever make sense.
This book made me so crazy the first time I read it, that I was suspicious of my own husband for a week after reading it!
Big Little Lies
This book is what a good domestic thriller is all about. There are no over-the-top crazy characters, no out-of-this-world scary settings, yet it is gripping, mysterious, and full of secrets. It tells the story of a group of school moms and how something that happens in school has the potential to unravel into something much bigger, and lead to unthinkable circumstances, even a death.
When single mom, Jane, moves to the town of Pirriwee, she meets Madeline and Celeste who take her under their wings. All three of them have children in the same class, and the three of them seem to get on well together, so it makes sense for them to hang out. Then, on the first day of school, an incident causes friction between Jane and another school mum, Renata.
Things start spiralling out of control as adults start taking sides in what was essentially an altercation between two kids. As secrets start coming out, all the women involved can sense the impending catastrophe. It turns out that all three women have secrets of their own that they have worked hard to hide from everyone. The rumors start, and it becomes harder and harder to tell fact from fiction. It is only a matter of time before all this results in disaster.
The best thing about this book is the characters, who are so real and believable. As a mom with school going kids, I can vouch that I have met all the types of parents mentioned in the book. The incidents are all quite credible and you can see them happening to people in the real world. Though, I have to admit, there is a chance that women will like and understand this domestic thriller better than men.
The Good Daughter
The Good Daughter is one of the best thrillers from 2017. The narrative is quite graphic, and not for the faint of heart. It grips you from the first chapter and you find yourself wanting to know what happens next.
The story revolves around a family torn apart by a tragic attack twenty-eight years ago, which leaves all of them with scars, both physical and psychological. Charlotte thinks that she has come a long way from her nightmarish ordeal almost thirty years ago. She is a good lawyer, not like her notorious father who is willing to represent anyone regardless of their guilt.
One morning, she gets caught in a school shooting that threatens to expose everything she has worked so hard to keep inside her. As things get worse, Charlie’s life starts to unravel around her and there is only one person who can help her become whole again. But they haven’t seen or spoken to each other in a long, long time, and there are some wounds that just refuse to heal.
There are some sequences that are truly horrifying and leave the reader close to tears. However, the solid narrative and story make it very hard to put the book down. This book contains assault and abuse, and may not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, for true lovers of psychological thrillers, nothing can be a deterrent to them reading a good thriller.
Underlying the narrative is the theme of a father’s love for his daughters and how he believes, I think quite rightly, that everyone needs a different kind of love. Having lost my father soon after finishing this book, it hit me even harder how far a father can go to protect his children from pain and heartbreak.
One of the best thrillers that I have ever read. Definitely a must read for all lovers of this genre.
We Were Liars
I never thought I would include a Young Adult novel in any list of mine, unless it is a list of Young Adult novels! We Were Liars is the book that proved all my generalisations wrong. Young Adult suspense thrillers can be as addictive as any adult book in this genre.
Cadence comes from a rich and privileged family, who owns a private island in Massachusetts, USA, where they go to spend summers every year. Cadence, her cousins Johnny and Mirren, and their friend, Gat, are known as the Liars. They hang out together at the island every year and get into scrapes like normal teenagers.
Then, an accident changes everything. Cadence cannot remember what happened that night, and her family is not willing to remind her. She enlists the help of the other Liars who gradually help her piece together the events of that terrible night. We are taken on a journey through a summer where everything seems normal, but nothing is as it seems.
I even let my teenage son borrow this book to read, and he really enjoyed reading it too. A great book for ages thirteen and above.
The Silkworm
After Harry Potter, J. K Rowling found it hard to get out of her own shadow, and be taken seriously as a writer of adult books too. As a result, she decided to write another series under the pen name, Robert Galbraith. As it happened, her identity couldn’t remain hidden and by the time the first book came out, everyone knew who had written it. Still, it makes a difference seeing a new name on a new adult detective series, instead of a name known for writing Harry Potter.
I loved the first Cormoran Strike novel and was eager to read the second. In my opinion, the second, called The Silkworm, was even better than the first. We already knew the back story of Cormoran Strike, and had been introduced to his assistant, Robin Ellacott. This book not only cements their partnership, but also provides the requisite thrills in the form of their next case.
Owen Quine is a novelist who has gone off somewhere by himself, and his wife wants Cormoran Strike to find him and bring him back. However, as Strike probes into the disappearance, he realises that something is not right. The writer had recently finished a novel which revealed secrets about a lot of people. People who are influential, and who have a lot to lose if the book ever sees the light of the day.
And then Owen Quine turns up dead. The murder is brutal and just how Quine wrote it in his book. Strike is at a loss to understand the reasons or what the killer might do next, and it makes for a most exhilarating read. The whole book is like a roller coaster ride, and you never know what might happen next.
While it is better to have read the first book in order to understand the background of the two main characters, The Silkworm on its own is a stellar thriller. It shows the brilliance of J. K. Rowling, and her unique talent of creating unforgettable characters. A great book from one of the best authors of our time.
The Chalk Man
Another excellent book that is a recent addition to my favourites. The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor is different in that it has a male protagonist and narrator. Here we have a middle-aged man, battling with his own demons, trying to appear as normal as possible, and failing to do so.
Eddie Adams is a British twelve-year-old in 1986, hanging out in his small town with his four friends, when their lives are changed irrevocably. Thirty years later, Eddie Adams, a middle aged, single, English teacher with a drinking problem, still living in his hometown, gets a letter with a piece of chalk. The letter has a stick figure drawn on it. Memories of that long ago summer have left their scars on everyone, and it all starts coming back to Eddie now. When an old friend’s drowned body is found, Eddie realizes that things did not end thirty years ago, and he has to find the truth before another body turns up.
The character of Eddie Adams is interesting. The way he narrates the book, you know you shouldn’t trust him along with anyone else in this book. That he is a kleptomaniac, is established early on in the book. On top of that, he is a sleepwalker who has trouble differentiating between his dreams and reality.
The book is fast paced and gripping. It makes you hold your breath and wait for what comes next. There are so many twists and turns that take you by surprise. Even if you’re able to predict some things, there is still a lot that makes you feel dizzy. For a fan of thrillers, this book is the perfect read.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the first crime thriller that became my favourite. Believe it or not, it was included in our school curriculum in grade 9. I read as soon as I got my hands on the syllabus books! It was and still is one of the best books that Agatha Christie ever wrote. And she wrote quite a few, since she is still considered the Queen of Crime.
When Mrs. Ferrars commits suicide a few months after poisoning her abusive husband, Roger Ackroyd starts suspecting that she was being blackmailed. She was after all the woman he loved. And then he gets a letter that might confirm his suspicion, but before he could finish reading it, he has been murdered.
Hercule Poirot has retired from his work, and is busy growing marrows in the village, when Flora Ackroyd requests him to solve the mystery of her uncle’s murder. Tired of vegetables and the slow pace of village life, Poirot decides to investigate this strange murder which seems to have little or no motive.
With the help of Dr. Sheppard, Poirot goes about digging into facts and stories, and reaches the truth. The truth, however, is stranger than fiction in this case. With a finale that is equal parts shocking and unexpected, this is Agatha Christie at her finest. A great whodunnit for all ages.
I would also like to add some other books, which are also very high on my list of must-read thrillers:
A Time To Kill by John Grisham
If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon
The Cuckoos Calling by Robert Galbraith
Deception Point by Dan Brown
SharpObjects by Gillian Flynn
The Breakdown by B. A. Paris
You Will Know Me by Meg Abbott
This list can go on and on, except that I cannot remember a lot of other books that I have read but don’t own. Maybe I can make a part two of this list when I remember more. Until then, add these books to your reading list and enjoy!
There are some books that I would never even have thought of buying if it hadn’t been for Instagram. This applies to Fantasy more than any other genre. I don’t know why that is, because I have read some fantastic books belonging to the genre during the last year or so. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman is one of them.
Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew, who moves to London from a small Scottish town. At first overwhelmed in such a big city, he soon settles into a routine and his awe with London recedes. Then he meets Jessica, who is way out of his league and turns him into a scatter brain, and Richard finds himself engaged to a woman much more ambitious and determined than him.
One evening, when everything seems to be going wrong for Richard, he stumbles upon a bleeding girl on the street, and stops to help her. If things were bad before, they become unbearably worse after his decision to defy Jessica and help a fellow human in need. For the injured girl is the Lady Door from Neverwhere.
Neverwhere is the shadowy reflection of London which exists underneath the London known to man. It is a world with monsters and assassins, angels and demons, and everything that has ever slipped through the cracks of the real world into this underground world.
Richard is drawn unwillingly into this world when it seems that he has stopped existing in London Above. Now he has to stick to Door and her shady companions if he ever wants to go back to his former life. But the Lady Door is on a suicide mission to avenge the death of her family at the hands of the most gruesome and terrifying murderers that history has ever seen, and it seems likely that Richard will just be one of the casualties of this crazy quest.
As grave and serious as the story sounds, it is anything but. It is irreverant and witty, and I fell in love with most of the characters. While Richard is funny as the clueless man being taken on an adventure against his will, and Door is admirable in her quest to find out the truth, it is the Marquis de Carabas who steals the show! And yes, the Marquis is named after the fictional Marquis from the very famous fairy tale, Puss in Boots.
Neverwhere is a roller coaster ride of adventure, as the motley crew consisting of Richard, Door, de Carabas and Hunter, the bodyguard, dashes across London Above and Neverwhere to find the answers needed to solve their problems. The characters they meet on the way are no less remarkable. Whether it is Anaesthesia, the rat girl, the Earl from Earl’s Court or the Angel Islington, every character is tongue-in-cheek and batshit crazy!
It would be remiss of me if I don’t mention the two terrifying murderers who are after Door from the beginning of the book. They are the main villians, and as villainous as a villian can ever hope to be. Maybe even more. They are Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar. They are filthy and disgusting, with terrible table manners and no sense of humour. And they are hilarious! Even when they are dismembering and torturing living things, their banter doesn’t stop.
At the end of the edition I was reading, is a bonus story about my favourite, Marquis de Carabas. And it was a bonus, because I have not had my fill of this wonderful, mad world called Neverwhere, and would love to visit it again some time. A fun read to take your mind off real world problems.
A few days ago, I was talking to someone about The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and how it was bound to be appealing to men even though it has been written by a woman. The book is widely considered groundbreaking and presents a new philosophy called Objectivism, which while panned by academic philosophers, is still followed by a faithful group.
The Fountainhead itself is a book that is more likely to be read by a younger audience, during college years, and early career, when it seems like the ideal text to follow. As they grow older and become more worldly, this idealism seems to fade from the minds of these readers. It is not so easy to read this book once you have left behind your student life. The text is too long and too slow, and the theories too idealist for the real world.
The book traces the life of Howard Roark, architect extraordinaire, and an egoist to boot. He is reviled for his ideas and integrity, and the world in general seems to be baffled by his genius. From humble beginnings, he becomes an architect known for being forward looking, while at the same time he is persecuted by the society for being rigid and unyielding on his principles.
Roark is wired in such a way that he believes that in order to do the most good, a person needs to be the most selfish. This selfishness is the only way to achieve happiness and contentment in life. For him, selfishness is giving precedent to his happiness and not what others think of him. A person wants fame and money because of an unnatural need to be validated in front of the world. According to him, if he changes his work to make others happy, then he is not being true to himself, and if everyone tried to make themselves happy instead of listening to others, the world would be a better place for it.
The Fountainhead presents the ultimate hero, one who is not willing to compromise, even if it means paying hefty fines, going to jail, or losing the one true love of his life to his biggest enemy. We have seen many versions of this hero over the years, both in books and movies; the man who is not afraid to take on the world for the sake of his principles. The only difference is, that these other heroes are all eventually revealed to be altruistic and philanthropic, redeeming themselves in the eyes of society and mankind.
The Fountainhead puts forth the philosophy that an ideal heroic man is one whose purpose in life is to keep himself happy, and his nobility lies, not in doing good for others, but in being productive and useful to himself. It presupposes all humans as rational beings capable of sound reasoning.
On paper, this sounds like the perfect world, more so to the younger reader who immediately casts himself or herself in the role of Howard Roark, standing up for what is right and just in their eyes. What it doesn’t account for, and what these young men and women learn as they grow older, is that it is next to impossible to keep their emotions separate from their reason.
So, while Roark looks like the ultimate hero, who sacrifices his only love for the sake of his principles, it remains subjective which principles to uphold; because every individual has a different moral compass. What is sacred to one man may not be important for another.The drawback of going against collectivism is that it refutes all laws and regulations. By the same token, if everyone started standing up, and there was no compromise in the world, there would ultimately be chaos.
So, it could be that while Howard Roark has some principles that he will fight for till death, why should his principles be important for any other individual, who wants to succeed in his own field? In the real world, this philosophy seems too good to be true, for the simple reason that not all individuals are strong in character. In the book, however, Howard Roark remains the ideal man, a man willing to go to any lengths to uphold his beliefs and not surrendering his convictions in the face of adversity.
Finally, a crime thriller that I could really sink my teeth into! The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor is different in that it has a male protagonist and narrator. I have really become disillusioned with crazy females doing crazy shit, trying to become Amy Dunne! Here we have a middle-aged man, battling with his own demons, trying to appear as normal as possible, and failing to do so.
Eddie Adams is a British twelve-year-old in 1986, hanging out in his small town with his four friends, when their lives are changed irrevocably. A new albino teacher, Mr. Halloran, with the help of Eddie, saves the life of a girl after a freak accident at the fair, and from there it all starts unraveling fast as summer fades into autumn and the beginning of the new school year.
Eddie’s mom is a doctor and her newly opened clinic earns the wrath of the local vicar, who happens to be the father of one of Eddie’s group of friends. The vicar is a nasty man, whose own daughter seems to be scared of him. Eddie’s dad gets into a fight with the vicar at a birthday party and things become tense in a previously sleepy town.
The children, aware of the new tensions, spend most of their time trying to get the most out of the remaining summer. This includes coming up with a secret code to send each other messages with. The code involves making different symbols and stick figures with coloured chalk. each of them has a different coloured chalk so they can figure out who sent what message. Soon, however, they tire of this game and move on to other pursuits.
As things become worse in the town, the final blow comes when the dismembered body of a girl is discovered, with her head missing. The main suspect is Mr. Halloran. Eddie is sure of his innocence even as his normally easy-going parents think otherwise. As the police close the case, everyone thinks that things will finally go back to normal.
Thirty years later, Eddie Adams is a middle-aged, single, English teacher with a drinking problem, still living in his hometown. He gets a letter with a piece of chalk. The letter has a stick figure drawn on it. Memories of that long ago summer have left their scars on everyone, and it all starts coming back to Eddie now. When an old friend’s drowned body is found, Eddie realizes that things did not end thirty years ago, and he has to find the truth before another body turns up. The problem is that he cannot trust anyone, not even his closest friends, because everyone in this town has a secret to keep.
The character of Eddie Adams is interesting. The way he narrates the book, you know you shouldn’t trust him along with anyone else in this book. That he is a kleptomaniac, is established early on in the book. On top of that, he is a sleepwalker who has trouble differentiating between his dreams and reality. And his dreams are really creepy. He is flaky and vague, and is in no way a reliable narrator.
The book is fast paced and gripping. It makes you hold your breath and wait for what comes next. There are so many twists and turns that take you by surprise. Even if you’re able to predict some things, there is still a lot that makes you feel dizzy. For a fan of thrillers, this book is the perfect read. It made me remember why I love this genre so much!
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin is the sort of book that I hardly ever pick up to read. From all the reviews and pictures on Instagram, I was somehow under the impression that it was a fantasy novel! Yeah, I know. That’s how closely I read all the reviews! Actually, when there is so much noise around a particular book, I try to avoid reading it until it has all died down. The only problem with resisting this book was its cover. I am totally, completely in love with this cover. I can truthfully say that this is one book that I judged by its cover!
The story starts in 1969, when the four Gold siblings Varya, Daniel, Klara, and Simon decide to visit a fortune-teller. There are rumours that this woman can tell the date of your death. The siblings enter her place one by one, and when they come out, nothing is the same ever again.
The narrative spans from 1978 to 2010 as it follows the four siblings, all of them transformed by that one afternoon at the fortune-teller’s. Life takes them all on different paths when their father dies suddenly and they are faced with the question of mortality. Simon and Klara run away to San Francisco, while Daniel and Varya are left behind to take care of their mother.
Simon, who is the youngest and has not even finished high school, becomes a dancer and loses himself in the hedonistic world of San Francisco in the early 80s. His mother, who is already reeling from her husband’s death, is left stunned when her youngest and most favourite child runs away.
Klara, who has always wanted to be a magician, struggles to find a foothold in a business dominated by men. Her struggles to find her place in the world and to keep her demons away lead her to Las Vegas where she dreams of making it big.
Daniel, stays firm on his chosen path, studies medicine, gets married, and goes on to become a doctor in the army in the 2000s. However, even his practicality cannot stop him from regretting the afternoon when he convinced his siblings to go and see the fortune-teller.
Varya, the oldest and the most studious, has to stay at home looking after her mother after Simon runs away. Eventually, she studies science and goes into longevity research, becoming obsessed with finding the secret to immortality.
The conflict between religion and science, faith and proof, is a recurring theme in the book, as all the four children question the faith of their devout Jew parents. It also raises the question of whether the choices you make can change your fate. It tells the story of how sometimes the lines can blur between illusion and reality, and how there are some things that defy explanation. Above all, it is an ode to all siblings, close or strained, who are tied together by an invisible bond of blood.
I love reading books about siblings, because they remind me of my own relationships. My bond with my siblings is something that I hold very dear. This book gives rise to so many conflicting emotions, that you cannot help but feel emotionally drained at the end. I might not agree with a lot of things in the book, but that is only because of my own background and prejudices. For me, this was a superlative read. Oh, and one extra star for that gorgeous cover! Fair warning:This book has religion, atheism, sexism, racism and homo sexuality. It is an unforgettable book if read with an open mind, and a mine of controversy if read with preconceived notions. It is not for anyone who gets offended by a non-conforming view of religion, or finds homosexuality an affront to their sensibilities.
