Tag: book reviews

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Review: Salt And Saffron

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Salt And Saffron by Kamila Shamsie is a light-hearted book about family history, class divisions, prejudices and familial love. Shamsie has created a fictional aristocratic family, proud of its roots that go back many centuries. She has used this family as an example of the elitism and caste system deeply embedded in our culture in the guise of family values and pride.

The very name of the family, the Dard-e-Dils (the Heartaches), is so unreal that you know what will follow can only be satirical and tongue-in-cheek. This family, the Dard-e-Dils, is proud of its heritage and they love to tell stories, mainly about their ancestors. Most of these stories are about the “not-quite” twins. These “not-quite” twins have been born quite frequently through history, and have always brought about the downfall of this family.

Aliya is the main protagonist, going back from the US to her family in Karachi, by way of London. She last talked to her Dadi (paternal grandmother) 4 years ago when they had a massive falling out. After avoiding her for 4 years, Aliya thinks that it’s time to heal the breach. But first, she makes a stop in London to see her older cousin with whom she is very close. And it is there that her own story seems to take an unexpected turn. She not only finds herself attracted to a boy who might be unacceptable to her family, but also meets the Indian side of her family.

The Indian and Pakistani sides of the Dard-e-Dils refuse to acknowledge each other, and still carry old wounds from the time of the partition. Aliya learns something about herself during her meeting with her Indian relatives. This makes it even more imperative for her to go back home and figure out what she wants from life.

Essentially a love story, Salt And Saffron also takes a look at the deeper consequences of the Indo-Pak partition; the deeply ingrained prejudices that are passed down through generations in the form of class and caste. How family history is written through stories that become legends as time passes.

Kamila Shamsie is an excellent writer and it is hard to find fault in her writing. She takes very real elements from her surroundings and turns them into a riveting story. The only problem is that since this book is written from the perspective of a particular class, it might be difficult to relate to for people who do not belong to that class. However, this does not stop me from appreciating her craft and her command of words. She is definitely a master storyteller.

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Review: The Chestnut Man

Rating: 4 Stars

The Chestnut Man by Søren Sveistrup reminds me of why I love crime thrillers more than psychological or domestic thrillers. The adrenaline rush of going after a serial killer, and learning about their motivation, is something else altogether. Police procedurals are so much more intriguing than any other kind of fiction, and Nordic thrillers are the best.

The press has given the name The Chestnut Man to a killer who is terrorizing the suburbs of Copenhagen. This killer leaves behind a chestnut doll near the victims. Theses victims have been severely tortured and have had their hands sawed off.

The police discovers a fingerprint on the chestnuts; that of a girl kidnapped and presumed dead a year ago. Her abductor is in custody, having confessed to the crime.

Naia Thulin is investigating the murders and doesn’t care much for the partner assigned to her. Europol sent mark Hess back to Copenhagen as a punishment, and he doesn’t want to stick around for too long. He is happy to let Thulin handle the case without getting too involved himself.

As dead bodies increase, so does Hess’s interest and Thulin’s determination to solve the case. However, not everyone is happy with what the two are uncovering. With little support from their own department, Thulin and Hess are in a race against time and a serial killer to save the next victim, and figure out the killer’s connection to the missing girl, the daughter of the Minister for Social Affairs, Rosa Hartung.

The story is so fast paced and interesting. Pages just fly by and before you know it, you have finished the 500 page book. There is of course, the blood and gore that has become a trademark for this genre, and it only makes things more sinister, and the odds stacked against the protagonists. The overall atmosphere is dark and gloomy, and the setting is late October and autumn, which ties in with the theme of chestnuts and dark nights.

The identity of the killer is a real surprise, and so much more satisfying than who I was thinking it was! Saying anything more would give away the story and take away all the fun. Overall, I would say that this is one book that all fans of crime and Nordic Noir should definitely read.

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Review: Remnants of a Separation

Rating: 5 Stars

I got Aanchal Malhotra‘s Remnants Of A Separation from Karachi, back in July 2018. Since then, it had been sitting around on my shelf with all the other numerous books that I never read. One fine day, sick from my overdose of thrillers, I just picked it up to see what it was about.

Objects have a way of inspiring the mind to remember things it might have forgotten.

Aanchal Malhotra, Remnants Of A separation

To say that reading this book was difficult, is an understatement. Every story, every page reminded me of my grandparents. These stories are their stories; of hardship and resilience at the time of the partition of India. The horrors that both the sides witnessed, the loss, the displacement, the helplessness, it all becomes real as you read the accounts of some very real people. This is not fiction, yet sometimes that is all you want it to be.

Not everything is about darkness and despair though. While the actual time of the partition was traumatic, most of the narrators reminisce about their youth in a way that is endearing. It makes you want to return to your own childhood. Even with this lightness, the fact remains that circumstances forced most of these people to let go of their dreams. They had to grow up overnight.

Almost all these stories have one thing similar in them; the suppression of conscious memory of those dark times. They might never have talked about the past to their own families, but when they finally talk about it, all of them become fascinating story tellers, each with their own unique story. Yet all these stories are essentially the same.

Displacement, often sudden and mostly in the dark of the night, is a frightening concept. The thought of leaving all your worldly goods behind and starting anew in a place where you have no roots and nothing to fall back on, is a scary one. Add to that, the breakdown of common human decency and a return to barbarianism, and it’s no wonder everyone wants to suppress their memories of such times.

Reading Remnants Of A Separation gave birth to a lot of regrets too. I wish I had thought of documenting the lives of my grandparents while they were alive. The stories that I heard growing up became blurred and clouded by the passage of time. Maybe because while they were being told, no one was really interested in listening. My son did a unit on displacement last year, and I will be eternally grateful to his school because when he interviewed my paternal uncle for the unit, I learned the harrowing story of a 6-year-old boy who came to Pakistan without his parents. I never knew the details, and never bothered to ask either.

Aanchal Malhotra has done something that I wish I had been able to do. I wanted to keep reading and never stop. Remnants Of A Separation is the type of book that we should make our children read. Textbooks teach us only one side of history, often biased and mostly opinionated. We need to know our past and learn from it, not glorify and worship it.

As a Pakistani, I can only be thankful that Pakistan came into being that August in 1947, but the way it was done, and the politics of division that made men into animals, is something that no one, Pakistani, Indian or Bangladeshi, can ever condone. Anger, intolerance, greed, these words can never define the destruction that was caused by human hands. It was, and will always be, a dark blot on humanity. All of us need to revisit that time again and again so that we never forget the lessons that the Partition taught us.

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Review: Someone We Know

Rating: 4 Stars

Shari Lapena is an author I can always rely on to deliver the goods. Her book, The Couple Next Door, is one that I recommend to anyone who wants to read thrillers. While her other books are not as highly recommended, Someone We Know comes quite close. The twists and turns leave the reader breathless, and the ending makes them gasp. Just the way it always does with good thrillers.

The story starts with a teenager who has been breaking and entering into several homes in his suburban neighborhood in upstate New York. His intention is not of stealing or causing harm. All he wants is to hack a few computers and boast about it to one of his friends. However, things start to go downhill once his parents find out what he has been up to.

At the same time, a woman down his street is murdered quite gruesomely. The ensuing investigation is causing all sorts of problems in the neighborhood. When a couple of homeowners receive anonymous letters telling them that their houses have been broken into, the whole neighborhood becomes a hotbed of intrigue and secrets. Now the police is having trouble trying to separate facts from lies and omissions.

Lapena weaves a complicated web of truths, half-truths and outright lies, that make it difficult to guess who is guilty of what. It seems that in this neighborhood, no one is innocent.

I will also admit that having a teenager and a tween myself, I couldn’t help but empathize with Olivia Sharpe. There really is no manual on how to raise kids. Once they enter their teens, you can only hope that what you have given them is enough for them to come out unscathed on the other side.

I can also sympathize with Raleigh. It’s not easy to walk the boring path when everyone around you is having fun falling off it. Peer pressure has made kids do worse in real life. Also, you have to give the poor kid some leeway. After all, he has to live with that name all his life!

Overall, Someone We Know is a good thriller that made me glad I took out the time to read it.

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Review: The Last House Guest

Rating: 4 Stars

After complaining of not finding good thrillers, finally I managed to read something that interested me enough to finish reading in a few hours. The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda is gripping and unpredictable, and you know you cannot trust any of the characters.

Avery Greer works for the Lomans, who own rental property in her small town, Littleport, Maine, which is a tourist attraction during summers. After going through some tough times, Avery was given the opportunity to work with the Lomans because their daughter Sadie took a shine to Avery, and became her best friend. This friendship was only for the summer months when the Lomans relocated to Littleport. It was an unlikely friendship that sparked strange rumours, but had held strong for ten years.

Then one summer, as the season is drawing to a close, Sadie is found dead; her death ruled a suicide. A year later, Avery is still not over the incident and Sadie’s brother and a police detective are suspicious of her. As Avery stumbles into one problem after another, she realizes that the police were too quick to close the case, and there is a strong possibility that Sadie was murdered. Unfortunately, the closer she tries to get to the truth, the more it seems to implicate her for the murder.

The book is fast paced, with something new being revealed in every chapter, the narrative jumping back and forth between the two summers. The chain of events is such that you cannot trust anyone, not even the narrator herself, who seems to reveal something new in her story every time you think you know what happened.

Though the real character of a town supposed to be dark and evil, never really comes through, I was relieved not to have to read through unlimited lines of prose dedicated to a town.

Overall, a good, interesting book after a long time.

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Review: The Travelling Cat Chronicles

Rating: 4.5 Stars

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa is not the type of book that I read generally. I don’t know why I bought it, but I’m so glad I did, and that I made myself read it. The story of Nana and Satoru captures the beauty of Japan, and reaffirms your belief in selfless love, be it family, friends or man and animal.

Nana is a stray cat found and adopted by Satoru, and after five years living together, they’re now on a journey across Japan. Nana has no idea why they’re on this trip, or what is going on in Satoru’s mind, but he is content to be with his beloved human and travel the world with him.

As Nana and Satoru visit three of Satoru’s oldest friends, we gradually see the picture of Satoru’s life, and how it has been shaped by the people he has met along the way. In the midst of all this, we are also shown a picture of how beautiful and diverse Japan is. From big cities like Tokyo, to amazing places like Mount Fuji and Hokkaido, we see a Japan that is impossible to forget. As is the story of Nana and Satoru.

Even though you think you’re ready to read about what will eventually happen, it is still nearly impossible to stop your tears from flowing. I had thought this was a book for cat lovers, not people like me who have never owned a pet. Turns out, it is a story for everyone who has ever loved anyone. It is a story of love, friendship, companionship, family, and above all thankfulness.

A beautiful, beautiful book for everyone.

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Review: The Turn of The Key

Rating: 3.75 Stars

I will not call this an excellent book, but The Turn of The Key is my favourite one by Ruth Ware to date. I have found Ware to be a good writer who keeps the audience interested while giving the least surprising twists. This book is a bit different because it has more than one twists, and a couple of them are quite good too.

The book starts with a nanny imprisoned for murdering her charge, a little girl, writing to a well known lawyer about how it all came about, and how she is not the one guilty of murder. The book is in the form of a letter, where the nanny is writing about the whole nightmare experience in the first person.

Rowan came across the ad for a nanny by chance. She was intrigued by the ad as well as the unbelievable salary being offered for the post, and decided to apply for it. She expected to be rejected, so when she got the job she was determined to last longer than the other nannies who had ran away before her. Rumour was that the other girls all got spooked by the ghosts living in the house.

Rowan, who is practical and has no time for silly things like ghosts, thought that she was above all this nonsense. However, once she started working at Heatherbrae House, she couldn’t help but be scared by the unexplained things happening to her. The house itself was a technological miracle, with surveillance cameras and smart controls, which seemed to overwhelm her at all points. Add to that, the absence of her employers, and the presence of four girls of varying ages, three of whom were visibly antagonistic towards her, was enough to drive Rowan almost mad.

It didn’t help that Rowan herself was keeping some secrets that made her look quite guilty when they came to light. As she tries to set the record straight, you can’t help but wonder at what really did happen if she is telling the truth.

I admit the book was too boring in the beginning to keep me interested. It was only my determination to finish it that kept me reading on. However, as I read on, I found myself wanting to know how it all came about. I wasn’t expecting a scary book, or even for it to be too unexpected, so I was pleasantly surprised when I read the thrilling bits and was suitably spooked.

This was the first Ruth Ware book I read where the ending wasn’t neat or the matters resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. This just shows that she is getting better at thrills with each book.

A good book, if you can get past the first quarter of it.

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Review: Hijabistan

Rating: 4 Stars

Hijabistan by Sabyn Javeri is a collection of short stories about women, with a common thread of hijab running through all the stories. As a rule, I’m not one for short stories. They always leave me feeling like I missed the point. These short stories just sucked me in and left their mark. It is entirely possible that I might be biased towards this collection.

These stories speak to me personally because I have been through the struggle myself. This push and pull of wearing the hijab or taking it off has been a part of my life for most of last 15 years. Of course, it has never been as hard as it is for most of the protagonists in these stories, but I feel an affinity with most of them. There is no judgement about the garment itself here, just the people who use it as a weapon and those who let their views be coloured by it.

I liked almost all the stories in this collection, even those that might seem far-fetched to people who have no clue about how close to the truth they are. I will not talk about all the stories here, just my most favourite ones.

The Full Stop is about a young girl who gets her first period. It reads like a true story because it is the truth of millions of girls who are taught that menstruation is something to hide, something evil and disgusting. Girls are told that it is something to be ashamed of when they should be told that it is natural and something ordained by nature.

Only in London shows us a girl stuck between two cultures, not knowing which one to call hers. It is the dilemma faced by all immigrants, no matter where they come from. It is not easy to give up your old values and suddenly pick up new ones. When a person migrates to a new place, they inevitably become a mixture of the two, their country of origin, and their country of migration.

The Good Wife has to be my favourite story out of all. It is also the saddest. It tells us of a woman who covers herself because she wants to, who is not afraid of what others think of her, whose faith in her Creator is strong even if her husband’s is not. At the same time this woman loves her husband with everything in her and is not afraid to show her love as well. I was crying for that woman by the end of the story, and trying to make sense of our senseless world at the same time.

The last story, Coach Annie, is the sweetest and most upbeat story of the collection. I loved reading about Annie who has to wear the hijab at a tender age, yet she makes it her own, even when she is surrounded by men double her size. Annie makes me believe that women can do anything they put their minds to, regardless of how they choose to dress.

A great book about women and hijab that needs to be read with an open mind and a big heart.

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Review: The Death of Mrs. Westaway

Rating: 3.5 Stars

I realize that I’m a bit late to this party, but despite having bought this book back in July 2018, I only just got around to reading it. At first, it was the size that seemed too much to me, and then it was the fact that I wasn’t too impressed with Ruth Ware’s The Lying Game and didn’t want to be disappointed again.

The Death of Mrs. Westaway is more like Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10, though. It is interesting, if predictable, and just fun to read. I mean fun for those who like light mysteries and thrillers.

Harriet “Hal” Westaway is a young Tarot card reader in Brighton, who has gotten into trouble with a loan shark. She is all alone in the world after her mother’s tragic death three years ago. When she gets a letter saying that she her grandmother has left her a bequest, Harriet knows that it’s not true. Her grandparents died more than 20 years ago, and she has no other living relatives that she knows of.

As the loan shark becomes more persistent, Hal decides to pretend to be the real Harriet Westaway, in order to get her hands on the bequest. It is only when she gets to the Cornish estate, that she realizes the pitfalls of the web that she is weaving. There seems to be someone who doesn’t want her around, and is willing to do anything to get rid of her.

Ruth Ware is not too much into suspense and thrills. I have understood that from her previous books. I was able to predict everything almost down to the last detail quite early on in the book. Nevertheless, it is quite gratifying to find that you were right about what will happen all along.

Harriet is a likable character, as are almost all other characters in the book. For once, we see a family who with all their differences possess enough love to want to welcome a long lost relative into their midst. It is a nice change to read about good coming out of the most adverse circumstances, of love and acceptance growing from a childhood of hate and neglect.

I enjoyed reading this book, even though it is too tame and predictable to be a thriller.

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Review: Believe Me

Rating: 4 Stars

When I read J. P. Delaney’s The Girl Before, I thought it was good, except the last part which fell flat for me. I don’t have any such complaints with Believe Me. This is my kind of book, with enough twists and turns, and grey characters to make me happy. This is one of those books that I picked up at an airport, not because I wanted to read it, but because it’s a sin to not buy a book from the airport! I had no idea what it was, and I have never seen a single review for it. Once again, I was so happy to be taken by surprise.

Claire Wright is a British student, some people say an excellent actress, with a problem. She’s studying drama in New York on scholarship, but doesn’t have much money for anything else. She cannot work like other students because she doesn’t have a green card and is not allowed to work off-campus. The only way for her to make ends meet and pay the rent is to work for a law firm, acting like an easy pick up to gather evidence against philandering husbands. Even this stroke of luck seems to be running out as the firm decides to part ways with her.

And then, a client is murdered and her husband, who had been one of Claire’s target, is accused of the crime. The police want Claire to help them catch the killer, and Claire, backed into a corner, agrees. As she plays her part, she begins to fall for the suspected killer, Patrick Fogler, and it dawns on her that things might not be as straight forward as they seem.

With the backdrop of New York, Broadway, theater and drama school, this fast paced thriller goes from one high to another without losing momentum. As soon as you start believing in a character, they give you reason to doubt. Everything that you read seems like a deception. There are no innocents, yet you can’t figure out who’s guilty either. It was a pleasure reading this book, which I managed to finish in less than a day.

Recommended for all fans of thrillers.

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