Heartless by Merissa Meyer
How I love fairy tales. And how I adore Marissa Meyer to have retold every single one of them in such a beautiful way. Meyer has completely eliminated the only complaint I have had from the fairy tales—the female protagonists, which were bound by the old patriarchy, are strong, independent and determined to have their way. […]
The Death Relic by Chris Kuzneski
When the back blurb of a book compares the New World of 1545 to the Yucatan Peninsula today, when there is magic and historical fiction involved, you expect magic. You expect to be taken on a crazy ride across two eras and see history battling the present in a thrilling contest. Sadly, the blurb is […]
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
When you hear too much about a book, you know when everyone is calling it a classic; you think, “This is a goddamn phoney book.” And when I started reading it, I thought to myself that this was just another story about just another guy and I’d spent the precious dough on banal things about […]
Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud
This review was first published on June 30, 2016 Rupert Devereaux (let’s think, a Mr David Cameron) is the Prime Minister of Britain, governing it with mediocre talent, lots of dinner parties and his much-conflicted Council. Britain is fighting a war with America, which desperately wants the Brits out (you know who else wants out?) […]
The Golem’s Eye by Jonathan Stroud
Three things This is what broadly happens New characters are introduced; a certain feisty Miss Kitty Jones, part of the Resistance and their leader, Mr Pennyfeather, along with a few other members like Anne, Nick, Fred and Stanley. They make up The Resistance and after having been in the periphery for long, are planning to […]
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
Reading fantasy at 22 while pursuing a Master’s in Art — English Literature, is a test in itself. How you react to a largely ‘childish’ book after hammering for two semesters about literary criticism and theory is the best judge of whether the story-seeker, the artist, and the reader in you has survived. Check. Jonathan Stroud’s The […]
A Man’s Head by Georges Simenon
Here’s something about me: I love philosophy, and believe firmly that it needs to be made more mainstream. Philosophy helps root your beliefs into a concrete base. Professor Michael Sandel in his Justice series asked a very interesting question which went something like this: “You are in a mine, in one of those trucks and […]
Howling at the Moon by Darshana Suresh
I’ve been following Darshana on Tumblr for a while now, and I’ve been waiting to read Howling at the Moon since it was first published, and I have to say it did not disappoint in the least. Darshana Suresh’s poetry collection is exquisitely painful – but it’s the beautiful kind of painful, the kind that […]
Fools and Other Stories by Njabulo S. Ndebele
The Test For a long time, I wanted to write about the streets of my childhood, our games of summer and rain, my poverty and my perception of it. I have still not been able to pen down anything without it sounding like a chip on my shoulder I need to get rid of very […]
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
I’ll be honest — I am not (yet) a science fiction aficionado. I have a very limited, can-count-on-my-fingers number of the genre, some short stories and currently only two novels I can think of. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is the second one. (“What can I say? I only read science-fiction books I fall in love […]
