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Review: The Perfect Wife

Rating: 4 Stars

JP Delaney has done it again! The Perfect Wife is the perfect thriller. It keeps you on the edge and waiting to see how it all concludes. Technically, this book can be classified as a sci-fi thriller, but only because it revolves around Artificial Intelligence.

The blurb of the book is so misleading that you think that you’re in for a murder mystery. Actually, The Perfect Wife is about Artificial Intelligence and human failings. Whoever wrote the blurb probably didn’t read the book. Abbie finds out in the first chapter that she was declared dead five years ago.

Abbie Cullen-Scott wakes up after a vivid dream to find herself in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. She assumes she was in an accident, and wants to know what happened. When she sees her husband, Tim, she wants to know what happened, and whether their autistic son is all right.

Tim is a genius. He is the founder of Scott Robotics, a tech company that has made revolutionary strides in AI technology. What Tim tells Abbie is so unbelievable that she is unable to grasp the implications of it all. Abbie’s memories are of 5 years ago, when she disappeared. What follows is the chilling and thrilling story of Abbie trying to figure out the truth while looking out for her son and her own welfare.

Delaney goes back to the theme that he first used in The Girl Before, and tweaks it into something that is so much better. It is guaranteed to create conflict within the reader about right and wrong. After all, how far is far enough when it comes to technology?

There is an ambiguity about who the narrator of the story is. Seemingly two different people are telling the same story, but from different perspectives, which makes it more engaging.

A word of warning though: This book talks a lot about Autism and its challenges, and the different approaches to understanding it. The author has an autistic son himself and he has tried to be as real about it as possible. For many people, it might be painful to read about the treatments and attitudes regarding Autism that are very common in real life.

A superb thriller that makes me look forward to Delaney’s next.

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Review: Where The Crawdads Sing

Rating: 4.25 Stars

I had been hearing so many good things about this book, that I was sure it was going to disappoint me. For one, the story seemed like something I could never get excited about, being set in the U.S of fifties and sixties, and for another, everyone kept harping on about how emotional it is. Fortunately, Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens lived up to all the hype surrounding it.

I cannot call this story of Kya Clark, popularly known as the Marsh Girl, a roller coaster of emotions because there were only high emotions all through the book. Catherine “Kya” Clark is barely 7 when she sees her mother walk away from home, never to return. The youngest of 5 siblings, she is left alone when all her much older siblings also leave their abusive father. What follows is a tale of heartache, hardship, the resilience of human spirit in face of adversity, and the need for love and belonging in a person’s life.

Kya’s family lives in a marsh, on the outskirts of Barkley Cove, a very small town on the coast. They are known as the town trash, just one step up from the “coloreds” in North Carolina of the 1950s. When her family disappears, hardly anyone in the town is bothered. It is with the help of a black couple and an old friend of her brother, that Kya manages to survive on her own, all alone, surrounded by hundred of acres of marsh land.

While we learn of Kya’s past, there is an alternate story about the suspected murder of Barkley Cove’s golden boy, Chase Andrews. His influential parents, and many others in the town, believe that the Marsh Girl is responsible for the murder. Now Kya has to face a murder trial in a town already prejudiced against her, with the possibility of being given the death penalty.

As I read the book, I was struck by the fact that real and true love doesn’t mean making things easy for the other person. Real love is when you work towards making that person independent and able to stand on their own feet. Reading about a little girl left all alone to fend for herself was not easy. To imagine her going through life without anyone to cuddle her or take care of her, just broke my heart. At the same time, her will to survive, and her determination to win despite all the odds against her, made me cheer her on.

The book is also full of lessons on the wildlife found on the North Carolina coastal areas. All types of birds and insects make an appearance and it was hard not to stop reading and look up the creature being talked about. There are zoology lessons along with some stirring poetry that makes this book a unique experience for the reader. Many reviews talk about the murder mystery in the book. However, I was so invested in Kya and what was happening to her that I couldn’t care less about the mystery of who killed Chase, or whether it was a murder or an accident after all.

A sweet, poignant book about a girl’s journey through life, this book is recommended for those who like drama, emotions, romance and love, as well as those who like reading about wild life.

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Review: Need To Know

Rating: 3.75 Stars

This book really took me by surprise! I don’t know why I bought it, maybe because there wasn’t much choice at the time, but I’m so glad that I did. This is one book that all fans of suspense, thrills and espionage should read. That it is written by a former CIA analyst, is a big bonus.

I have always been a big fan of Alias and 24, Sidney Bristow being my ideal woman since I was a teenager. Need To Know has a similar vibe of intrigue and suspense, with lots of twists thrown in for good measure. Most of the time you don’t know what to believe and what to suspect.

Here, I have to say that I found the character of Vivian a bit naive and gullible, but that’s how most normal people are. I might be suspicious of the characters in a book, but I’m sure given such a situation, I will probably react in the same way. It’s just not a good feeling to see a woman go through all this on paper, even if we will all do whatever we can to save our family too.

Writing a long review might lead to spoilers, and that is something that I don’t want to do at all. The things I loved about this book is the fast pace (I finished it in half a day!) and the constant feeling of being on the edge of your seat. However, there were some things I didn’t like at all.

I felt that in making the story so interesting, the author forgot to make the characters interesting too. Somehow the characters didn’t feel very real. It was as if they were all going through the motions but their heart really wasn’t in it. I found it hard to sympathize with Vivian even while my heart was pounding at what she was about to do! Similarly, the negative character did not frighten me, even though their actions made me sick and frightened.

Another problem was that I wasn’t surprised by the twist at the end at all. It was a good one though, but I had worked it out for myself. Maybe I just have a suspicious nature when it comes to books!

I can see this book turned into a movie or a TV series, it’s got all the potential. I wouldn’t even be surprised if there is a sequel to that movie, given the last twist. A thrilling, fun read for me.

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Review: A Place For Us

Rating: 4 Stars

All individuals are a unique sum of their life experiences, so much so that reading the same book at different stages in your life sometimes results in completely different reactions. The place where I am right this moment in my life made A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza resonate with me very deeply.

The book starts off with the wedding of Hadia, the eldest daughter of Rafiq and Layla. We are immediately made aware of the tensions within the family, as Amar, the youngest and only son, returns after 3 years of leaving his family, to do his duty by his sister. In all this, there is also Huda, the typical middle child, overlooked by not only by the family, but also by the author herself.

As we go back and forth in time, we are given a glimpse into the life of a Muslim couple who moves to the US from India, and try to bring up their three children according to Muslim and Indian traditions and culture. As is the case in most cases, the children all try to rebel in their own individual way.

Being a parent bringing up my kids in a foreign land, while I understand the worries of the parents and their fear of the children losing their religion, I don’t agree with trying to scare them into conforming. As this book shows, pulling the strings too tight causes them to break ultimately. When you have two children who are good at being obedient, it is natural to assume that the same mode of parenting will work on the third. Most of the time this is not so. We, as parents, know our children better than anyone else, and this is why sometimes we need to keep our egos aside and change our ways in order to avoid regrets later.

The book jumps from one time to another without any warning, and as the pattern starts becoming evident, you realize the importance of all the different instances from the eyes of three people, Hadia, Amar and Layla. We see how small betrayals and forgotten reactions all lead to the eventual breaking up of this loving family. We also see how people form opinions according their own understanding of the situation, instead of trying to find the real facts.

It is very sad that open communication is something that is lacking in most of our interactions, especially when it comes to families. In most families, the father is considered the one who lays down the laws, the disciplinarian, the person his own children are hesitant to approach. In such families, the mother assumes the role of the middleman, the one who is responsible for changing the father’s mind. No one realizes that some things are lost in translation when you have indirect communication. This can sometimes cause rifts in families that become almost impossible to breach over time.

As I read the book, there were a few instances where I felt that the writer did give in to stereotypes, and the constant strain of “The Ali Boy” was really getting on my nerves. So, I was completely ready to give this book 4 stars and move on. Then came the last part.

What was missing in the whole book was there in the last part. As I read about a man trying to do his best by his family, I couldn’t help but feel for that man. A person brought up to hide his feelings can never feel comfortable letting his emotions show. The way Mirza has written about Rafiq’s thoughts is moving and heart wrenching. The struggles of a father who is unable to voice his love for his children, are brought to life in the last part of the book. I couldn’t help but think of my own father, who while lying in bed, too sick to move, and in so much pain, was worried about how he had been unfair to his son! It all felt personal, and I want to admit that I cried while reading the last part of this beautiful book.

This is a book that is meant for everyone. I even found myself wanting my teenage son to read it even if only to understand how parents love their children in their own different ways. A beautiful book that will stay with me for a long time.

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Review: The Broken Girls

Rating: 3.75 Stars

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James is a chilling thriller with a paranormal twist. The central character is a boarding school for girls that used to take in troubled girls who no one wanted, but that has now become an abandoned, decrepit building after being shut down in 1979

In 1950, four roommates became each other’s friends and secret keepers at Idlewild Hall, a depressing boarding school, rumoured to be haunted. All four of them came from different backgrounds, but they formed strong bonds, helping each other survive in a hopeless place. Then one night, it all changes as one of them vanishes and is presumed to have run away.

In 1994, a girl was murdered, her dead body left on the hockey field of the deteriorating ruins of Idlewild Hall. The murder sent a shock through the small Vermont town, resulting in the conviction of the girl’s boyfriend.

Twenty years later, the dead girl’s sister, Fiona, now a journalist, still feels the echoes of the crime that destroyed her family. Try as she might, she is unable to let go of a feeling that something was not right with the investigation at the time of her sister’s murder. This obsession with the past has made it impossible for her to hold on to relationships or lead a normal life.

When Fiona finds out that someone is planning to restore Idlewild Hall and reopen it as a boarding school for girls, she thinks it is the perfect opportunity to write a story about the place, and maybe it will help exorcise her ghosts. But an unexpected discovery leads her to a strange case from the past, and things become more and more entangled as she tries to find out about the history of Idlewild Hall.

The tone of this novel is dark from the beginning. There is nothing light-hearted about this story. From the first page, you know that something dark and sinister is afoot. The scenes from the narrative of the past are deliciously eery, and you can feel a chill while reading about the school in 1950. The four girls are as different from each other as can be, and you can feel their frustration at what is predominantly a patriarchal society where they have to work towards the ultimate goal of acquiring a husband.

The parts about the present are not so impressive. Though Fiona’s character is interesting, and you feel her pain and unease, her interactions with others are rushed, the various other characters seeming one-dimensional and bland. The information that Fiona acquires seems to easy to get, and one thinks that why did it take her 20 years to get to this place.

The climax too was a bit disappointing, and over too quickly. With 300 plus pages, this is by no means a small book, but it is St. James’s gripping writing that made me want more details. The scenes where there is an element of the paranormal are quite spooky and scary, and I just wanted more of the same. The main female characters are all strong and real. I just wish the male characters were the same.

This book is more for fans of spooky books than those of mysteries and crime solving. Still, I had a good time reading it and would rate it higher than average.

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Review: American Gods

Rating: 4.5 Stars

This review has been a long time coming, considering I finished this book more than a week back, and have already written a review for a book that I read after this. The thing is, that I haven’t been able to gather my thoughts into something coherent. There are a lot of things that make me like American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and I want to be able to put them all into words.

Gaiman has a knack of creating memorable characters. From Richard Mayhew, Door and Marquis De Carabas from Neverwhere, to Shadow, Wednesday and Mr. Nancy from American Gods, Gaiman’s characters have a magnetic pull to them that makes you want to go on an adventure with them. They are endearing, exasperating, irritating and funny all at the same time. And they are working on two levels.

American Gods is a very interesting book even if you read it on a superficial level, without assigning any hidden meanings to it. It is the story of Shadow, who is released from prison after three years, only to find that his wife has died one day before his release. He is recruited by a shady man called Wednesday, who has some equally dodgy friends. What ensues is a roller coaster ride which is reminiscent of Percy Jackson, but for adults. In the middle of all this, is the abundance of mythology from all over the world. Reading it made me wish I knew more mythologies than just the basic knowledge about some gods.

As the events move towards an epic war between the gods, we are introduced to the two sides, the Modern and the Ancient, both fighting for survival and relevancy. And the battleground is the United States of America. It is this country that all powers want to dominate, and are willing to do everything to achieve this end.

If you read this book with an open mind, you soon realize that everything is not as it seems. When you first realize who Wednesday really is, you are compelled to go back and look at the story from the beginning, with new understanding and clarity. As the story progresses, it is evident that this book is also a commentary on present day United States, and how materialism and technology are rapidly taking over the society. Materialism had become the new religion, and as a result, faith in things like gods and divine beings has taken a back seat.

In American Gods, you see these forgotten deities and gods trying to fight to stay alive in the hearts of people. That they do it while being crazy and funny, is what the beauty of this book is. I have to admit, I am a sucker for madcap characters and this book has them by the dozen!

For me, American Gods is a winner, but it is not for everyone. It has mythological creatures and different gods, and for anyone not comfortable with reading about these, this book is not the way to go. If you’re offended by the thought of these mythological beings, then please stay away from this book!

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Review: Homegoing

Rating: 5 Stars

“Evil begets evil. It grows. It transmutes, so that sometimes you cannot see that the evil in the world began as the evil in your own home.”

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is the kind of book that leaves its mark on the reader. It spans centuries and generations in only 300 pages. It reminded me so much of Alex Haley’s Roots, in that it takes your heart and shatters it into pieces. Of course, while Roots is like a full length movie, Homegoing is more like snapshots of a family’s journey through the centuries. It reads like fourteen short stories connected together by a familial thread.

I come from a country which used to be a British colony, and our history books are full of how the colonists came and exploited our resources and ruled us for centuries. Every kid knows of their atrocities and injustices. Yet, we can never even imagine the havoc they wreaked on Africa. The echoes of their evil are still heard all over the world, and the Africans are still paying for crimes committed centuries before they were even born.

Homegoing starts off as the story of two sisters, born from the same mother, who never meet in their lifetime, and whose destinies are as as different as night and day. One marries a white man, a slave trader, while the other becomes a slave. One stays in Africa, where her descendents struggle with their identity, while one is taken to America, where her descendents struggle to stay alive. As their stories play out, you are given a glimpse into American history itself.

The prose is beautiful, some lines so profound, that you have to come back and read them again and again.

“The need to call this thing ‘good’ and this thing ‘bad,’ this thing ‘white’ and this thing ‘black,’ was an impulse that Effia did not understand. In her village, everything was everything. Everything bore the weight of everything else.”

As one side of the family is challenged by the changes taking place in Africa, it is the other side, the slaves, who are going through trials that no human being should have to face. Yet, all characters are unique individuals, who fight their own battles and face their own challenges. You are shown many faces of bravery, many forms of resilience, and underneath it all, the strength of charcater and the will to change things for themselves and their children.

Even though the book ends on a hopeful note, it is heartbreaking to realize that things haven’t changed all that much over the centuries. The colour of your skin still makes a difference, and where you come from still matters. This book has left me with a heavy heart and a real sadness about how human race has failed to learn from the past.

I think this book is a must read for everyone.

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