NeverwhereNeverwhere by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

As Neil Gaiman says in the prologue of this book that he wanted to write an 'Alice in the wonderland' for adults and he has done it in a very compatible way. He takes us in two worlds; similar yet very different in many ways; London above and London below and also in each of these worlds belong, two protagonists, Richard and Door (yeah, an actual name of a girl). One is a regular chaotic, monotonous world that we live in and the other is the magical world of which we all dream of at some or the other point of time in our life. In Gaiman's fluid language I travelled through extraordinary lives of its characters. The best part of reading this book was listening to it in Neil Gaiman's voice in my mind (after having listened to so many interviews and talks of Neil), his dreamy voice was an added benefit for me. I'm a Gaiman fan through and through now.

View all my reviews


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Girl on the TrainThe Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I rarely read thrillers, but I had heard so much about this book and now a movie is coming out, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. This book consists of a very limited number of characters which is good for a newbie reader to understand. Author maintains the suspense till the end despite having so few characters. A particular thing I learned from this book is the protagonist need not be a strong, firm character. Author takes the worn out, drunk and (some may call it) a loser Rachel as the chief protagonist with equally important characters of Megan and Anna. All three characters are narrating the story and author being a lady, it feels more authentic and realistic to read all three women voices. Author has certainly played her strong points. Though the ending didn't match my expectation, it was already sky high, so no let down there. Although, me not being a staunch thrillers fan, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

View all my reviews

Looking for AlaskaLooking for Alaska by John Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It started with a kindle book which was on a freak sale; I didn't even like YA novels (so I thought) and it was an impulse buy (you know, when you buy books just because, you know!!) but boy, has this book opened my eyes! I had liked some YA movies like 'Perks of being a wallflower' and 'Me and Earl and the dying girl' but always thought YA books to be fodder for the inferior somehow. I couldn't be more wrong. This one created swirls of emotions I had always loved but current cynicism had forbidden. It is true that we grow bleaker and more cynical as we grow older but we are delusional as well. Books like these show you the softer side of life. Everyone has gone to school once upon a time and each one of us has had a crush on someone we thought was cute but not every crush ends up being 'happily forever', well, most of them don't. This book is an ode to those turbulent times of the journey from childhood to adulthood, first kisses (and blowjobs too!), that fluttery feeling in the heart, friendship, unbreakable bonds, introduction to vices of life, adolescent pain, breaking rules, love and most important of all, memories!

View all my reviews

The Museum of InnocenceThe Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A book this big takes you through a whirlwind of emotions. I started this book because of the Nobel-winning author and the fact that it was available in the library. It started with moderate pace and very happening storyline. I was immediately hooked. But after a certain stage, I had to put special efforts to read this book. The protagonist's pain and suffering were so intricately detailed that it was mentally exhausting. Kemal the protagonist's lament after his love, which in my opinion, tends to be borderline psychotic, was one of the saddest and most gruelling I have yet read. (Spoiler Alert) After the big middle chunk of the novel, it again becomes interesting, only to be faced with the death of his love. I was literally frustrated at that point. But as I experienced with Hemingway, Great authors have death as their big weapon in every love story they write. No great love story is without death I guess. Anyways, earlier I was going to give it a one or two stars, but with ending like that, it deserves one more star from my end. No judgment though. He's a great author and this rating just says about my experience.

View all my reviews