The One by John Marrs

“He couldn’t imagine what it might be like to be with someone new after losing the person you were designed to be with. How could any potential relationship stand a hope in hell when you know you’ve loved somebody else with every inch of your being.”  John Marrs

As we all know psychological thrillers are trending these days and when something is trending, it is easier to fall for it. More often than not, popular books have a tendency to not live up to their hype. Luckily, it wasn’t the case with this one.

It is so easy for a thriller to turn into a series of unfortunate exaggerated  forceful twists.  This book somehow was able to capture the true essence of psychological thriller/mystery with relevant and precise sequence of events to keep the reader interested and wanting for more.

The author was able to incorporate psychology at the right time with a perfect combination of characters and the subject of this book. The character build up was particularly very fascinating to me.

The first few chapters came to me like a tsumani of words & characters which made it difficult to distinguish between the characters. But after a few chapters into it, I got a hold of it. You can sense how well the author knows these characters and was able to convey it to the readers as well.

The unpredictability and how those different characters were somehow linked but not necessarily tied together was commendable. I really applaud the author for writing it so beautifully. There wasn’t one boring sentence in there.

I believe the ending of a book plays an integral role in making an opinion about it especially because it stays with you for sometime. Ending to this one was not at all what I was expecting. In fact, I did not have the time to predict because I was so absorbed in what was happening. It’s a fast paced read with so many twists and turns that will keep you on edge.

I would rate it 4 out of 5.

Synopsis

A quick DNA test to find your perfect partner – the one you’re genetically made for.

A decade after scientists discover everyone has a gene they share with just one other person, millions have taken the test, desperate to find true love.

Now five more people meet their match. but even soul mates have secrets. and some are more shocking – and deadlier – than others…

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Have you ever read a book that made you stop living your real life because you cannot stop reading? This was how the girl on the train was for me.

O Paula Hawkins, you had me from the very first page. I just couldn’t put it down. Believe me! I am not exaggerating. It was an epic read. Gripping from the very start and this is coming from someone who is not into crime fiction.

After reading considerable amount of mind numbingly boring books, this one was like a breath of fresh air. When I picked it up, my intention was to merely read first couple pages just to get an idea about how it was going to be. My plan was not to start reading this one since I was already in the middle of another book. Little did I know my plan had crumbled the moment I picked it up because this book sucked me into it like a tornado taking everything away with it.

The narrator is a woman who has lost her husband to another woman and she’s facing a difficult time letting it go. Or maybe she doesn’t want to let it go. She starts observing a couple she doesn’t know and wishes to live the life they have.

You know how when our life is tough, we tend to look at those around us, the happier ones and wish for that perfect life. But looking from far away is always different than what the reality is. Paula captured this beautifully. looking from far away, we all assume assume others lives are perfect but the truth lies beneath those layers of seemingly perfect life.

With intriguing characters, compelling story, Paula has made me believe that there are still some amazing books out there. If you are looking for something that keeps you wanting for more, this is the right choice for you.

Overall, I will give this book the rating of 5/5.

 

My top NOT favorites of all time

Everyone will recommend you what books to read, people who actually have read plenty. So here I am today to tell you what books you should never bother picking up and why.

Since, I have wasted my time on them and as a fellow human being, I feel obligated to warn you about it.

So, here it goes:

1. Adultery by Paulo Coelho

“A woman in her thirties begins to question the routine and predictability of her days. In everybody’s eyes, she has a perfect life: happy marriage, children, and a career. Yet she feels is an enormous sense of dissatisfaction.”

Ahhh I don’t want to torture myself by even thinking about this book. Paulo Coelho, one author that I really think can write something meaningful, failed terribly in his attempt to write this one.

It was such a Baseless novel. Should’ve been a short story instead. It was like you know someone sharing a story about their mid life crisis and then getting over it because they just have to without any real reason. *yawn*

I can’t even describe it properly without giving out the story but trust me, it was neither here nor there.

2. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

“One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find two notes in her mailbox: Who are you? Where does the world come from? The mysteries deepen when she receives a postcard with another girl’s name on it. Who is the other girl? And who, for that matter is Sophie herself?”

I’m someone who loves philosophy and can never have enough of it but if you’re telling me that this is a novel about the history of philisophy, I would hike all the way up to mount fuji and scream at the top of my lungs! IT IS SO NOT!

The author gathered the history of philosophy and forced a story into it just to make it interesting which it didn’t. He could have just written a book about history of philosophy without forcing a story into it. It was such a pain to read because the way it portrayed the characters existence was so disturbing for me & didn’t go well with the subject of that book. It was more inclined towards fantasy than philosophy. Philosophy in NO WAY is fantasy!

3. The Monk who sold his Ferrari by Robin S. Sharma

“Here is the story of Julian Mantle, a superstar lawyer whose out of balance lifestyle leads him to a near-fatal heart attach in a packed courtroom. His physical collapse brings him into a spiritual crisis that forces him to confront the condition of his life. Hoping to find happiness and fulfillment, he embarks upon an extraordinary odyssey to an ancient culture, where he discovers a powerful system to release the potential of his mind, body and soul and learns to live with passion, purpose, and peace.”

O boy! people are going to hate me for adding this into “not to bother reading” list but I have to be honest here. I did not like it at all. I thought, it was a sad attempt to sell yoga. I would advise you to rather google benefits of yoga than to go through 200 something pages of this!

You cannot possibly say that life is going to be all good once you leave everything behind and start mediating. Yes, it will bring a certain level of control over yourself but you will still have to face the real world and its challenges.

How this book got a rating of 3.77 on GoodReads, I will never be able to understand.

If you still want to go ahead and give these books a shot, by all means, go ahead. Some of you might disagree with me so I would like to make it clear that this is only my opinion. Nonetheless I would love to get your perspective on these books. If you have anyone of them and loved it, please do let me know. Maybe I was not able to look at it from that angle.

Thank You for reading!

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

“You don’t just blow everything with one wrong move. A friendship is a space where you’re supported and free to make mistakes. I think when you reach this understanding a lot of things are going to feel better for you.” The Idiot by Elif Batuman

If you have been following my blog, you’d know that I start and end my book reviews with a quote from the book I’m reviewing. Sadly, I couldn’t find more than one quote worth sharing from “The Idiot”.

Sure, it is my fault for judging book by its cover. In my defense, I did not expect a novel with such good ratings to suck this much.

Let’s begin by discussing the story, shall we?

Now, the whole time I kept waiting for something to happen or for it to make sense somehow. It was so incoherent and illogical. To me, it felt like the author didn’t know where to go with it.

You know when you’re given an assignment and you try your best to write because you need to submit it before the deadline with the precise number of word count? This is the pressure what I felt the writer was going through. Later, I found out that this book had been written in 2001. Clearly, that was not the case.

I still don’t know what the genre of this book was.. Romance? contemporary? historical fiction? travel? philosophy? chick lit? autobiography? It’s as if the writer tried to fit everything into one novel.

Was there any message? I failed to understand the purpose behind it. It was incoherent, not just the story  but also the characters.

The protagonist particularly was so disconnected. The whole time I felt like she was some extremely boring and aloof person who was trying to complicate her life for no good reason. There were times when she opened up a bit but it felt so staged even when she laughed.

There were so many characters introduced and all at once. It was mentally exhausting to keep a track of them.

Even though I finished this book yesterday, I feel like this can’t be it? Have I really read a book or was it some sort of disturbing nightmare?

Maybe it was intended for a very different kind of reader. I did not enjoy it at all.

Either it was too convoluted for my taste or it was really idiotic.