Book Review : The Girl on the Train

ISBN    : 978-0-698-18539-5 

Author  : Paula Hawkins

Pages  : 336 pages 

A Penguin Random House, 2015

Format: Digital

An intriguing suspense thriller from a debutante that will keep you turning the page until the very end.

Right from the title, The Girl on the Train, reminded me of a series and a book - the millennium series and Gone Girl - both which have been made into movies. And, though I've been hearing good reviews about Paula Hawkins' debut novel The Girl on the Train, I wasn't in a hurry to read it until I heard that the book was being made into a movie. That's my baseline. I simply have to read a book if it's been made into a movie and I'm planning to watch it; especially if the book has been getting good reviews. So, I go, get myself a ebook into my Kindle and take it off from there.

The story starts well; good language, slightly poetic, simple and casual. The narration is split between three women-Rachel, Megan and Anna. Rachel Watson,the main protagonists of the three, is an alcoholic with an identity crisis; she is still hung up on her ex-husband and hasn't been able to get hold of her life after their divorce. She has these gaping holes in her memory, all thanks to her drinking problem, courtesy of which she has even lost her job. In short, her life is a total wreck she is unable to bring back on track. Being a regular commuter from Ashbury to London, she picks a house on her way, just four houses away from her old house with her ex-husband, where she observes a couple nearly everyday. To her imagination the couple, Jess and Jason, are perfect the way she and Tom, her ex-husband, were until they weren't. And then, one day, something happens that shatters the tiny perfect world she imagined for them. That's where the story takes off from. The narration then moves on with Megan, the complicated woman who lived in that house, and Anna, Tom's new wife. 

This is one of those stories where none of the characters are exactly likable. Rachel is a total mess and you want to slap her on her face and yell at her to get a life! Megan is just too complicated that halfway through I gave up trying to figure her out. And with Anna, I found her over-protectiveness for her family and her sense of self-importance along with her complete lack of fairness towards Rachel annoying and  tedious. I did not form opinions about the male characters as the author, I believe, had kept the characters purposefully vague. So you don't exactly like anyone till the end, but I sure did want to see Rachel get a hold over her life.

And this is where this story is a U-turn from Gone Girl. In Gone Girl  the protagonist had a complete and total control and firm grip on the way she wanted to live her life. She even controlled the lives of people around her. Rachel Watson has no such 'virtues' or qualities. I intermittently felt pity and sorry for her throughout the story. I hoped and prayed that she get a grip on her life and turn around a new leaf!
The book did drag in the middle where the story just going in circles around Rachel's misery. But, apart from that, the twist in the plot, which came at the end, was a really good one.
The book is being made into a movie with a few changes, though not in the plot. Unlike with Gone Girl, Paula Hawkins does not have much to do with the movie, which like the book will not be based in London. The movie seems to be in the casting stage; most of the female casting is done and they are now casting the men for the movie (link). 

Coming back to the book. It is a good book, but slightly over hyped. The language was simple, casual and poetic at times. I left the book feeling light and relieved from the suspense and thrill of the book. For a debut novel, I think, Paula Hawkins has done a wonderful job. I will wait for the movie just as hard as I'm waiting for Ms.Hawkins' next book.

Rating: 4/5

Book Review: Rage of Angels

ISBN04: 46366611

Author : Sidney Sheldon

Pages  : 504 pages 

Warner books, 1980

(Borrowed book no. 2 from ChaiCofi)

I have sinned and yet I'm purged from any crime. A validation to this dates back to my school days when my school library, in the brightly lite corridors of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom, was my favorite places of all in the school and my librarian, Ms. Sushma, whose pet I was, carefully guided me through all the right books I should have read from the vast collection they had in there. She was a darling, in that she let me have the best of books at all times. She even let me slightly bend her rules. Everyone, but me, could pick one book a week and could return it only after that week. Everyone, but me, had also to write a detailed review of the books they read. I think the one thing she liked about me was my obsession over keeping the books neat. I never used to dog-ear mark pages and she taught me to hold the book properly, in that the binding are in 45'. I Loved all that about her. Even today when I walk into a library and I half expect to find her standing there, as I've not known a better librarian than her.

But while all shelves in that library were open to me, one wasn't. This was one afternoon after lunch when we had our library period and I had chosen two books from a shelf I always look beyond. This was a shelf on a closed wooden cupboard with glass doors. I had chosen The Godfather by Mario Puzo and a Sydney Sheldon book. But, like God forbade Adam and Eve from tasting Satan's apple, Sushma ma'm forbade me from reading both these books and any other books by the authors. Maybe she thought that I wouldn't enjoy it of she thought it inappropriate for my age, I might never know. But what I do know is that she putt me off these authors up until now.

Coming back to our subject, I have sinned and yet purged of crime. Behold while I take you through my experience with my first Sydney Sheldon book, Rage of Angels. It's one of those self discovery, coming-of-age stories, where Jennifer Parker, freshly out of law school landed a job at the DA's office and is very excited about her first day at work. 

The story is one of the most fast-paced and dramatic one I've come across. It actually reads like one of those serialized drama series you watched in late 80s and early 90s. Without giving away any spoilers let me just tell you that this story has been re-created on the silver screen in many languages, including Malayalam, my mother-tongue. And atleast the Malayalam movie was just as enjoyable as the book. 
So the most significant question here is whether I will read another Sydney Sheldon? The answer is-YES. I'm dying to read Tell me your dreams if not anything else. Will you tell me which one's from the Sydney Sheldon bandwagon did you enjoy? Post your comments here and do let me know; I would love to hear your suggestions. So until we meet again. Keep reading!

Quotes: My Story

"One's real world is not what is outside him. It is the immeasurable world inside him that is real. Only the one who has decided to travel inwards, will realize that his route has no end."

Pg. 103, The Psychoanalyst

"Society can well ask me how i became what i became, although born to parents as high-principled as mine were. Ask the books that I read why i changed. Ask the authors dead and alive who communicated with me and gave me the courage to be myself. the books like a mother cow licked the calf of my though into shape and left me to lie at the altar of the world as a sacrificial gift."

Pg. 147, Penfriends

Quotes: Sharp Objects

"I was a lingual conservationist."

"Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom."

"Lately, I've been leaning towards kindness."

Book Review: Sharp Objects

ISBN13: 9780307341549

Author: Gillian Flynn

Pages  : 336 pages 

W&N, 2007

Format: Digital

Gillian Flynn! Gillian Flynn! Gillian Flynn! For me she sparkled right through 2014. Gillian Flynn had me first excited about her book, Gone Girl, which was my first tryst withe her creative brilliance, and then the movie, which she screen wrote herself. (To find out how I felt about her book click here.)  

So, I naturally wanted to progress onto her other works. But you know how you don't want to OD over heady, dark and gritty books? That's exactly what kept me away from this one for this long.

Let's now venture into what this book is about. Camille Preaker, a journalist who is just out of an asylum is dealing with her own self when she's handed her first major assignment, to cover a twin abduction and murder in her native, Wind Gap, which is the last place she wants to be. The turn of events following the investigation of the twin murders puts her face-to-face with a lot of issues she isn't equipped to deal with yet. As the story unfolds we find us reeling in a whirlpool of mess Carmille is in.

The story is intensely disturbing and complicated, fiercely raw, dark and gritty. This one is not for teenagers or kids, given the number of teen aged characters it has. Unless you are a grown up you don't want to read this, not for the sexual content (it's not the least bit erotic), but for the bod rawness.

I often wonder what being in Gillian Flynn's mind would be like. I read this book at a time when my mind was clouded with dealing with some of the toughest decisions of my life. It was a time when I questioned by sense of self worth and this book urged me to take control over my life. You know how sometimes knowing people with much more messed up lives than you puts your life into perspective? That's sort of therapeutic. That's what this book did to me. 

Rating: 4.5/5

Verdict: The book hits the right spots if you like dark, raw and gritty subjects. 

Quotes: Rage of Angels

It takes a man to make a woman feel female, Jennifer thought, to make her feel beautiful, to make her feel wanted.

Jennifer about Michael

Time was a swiftly floating river that had no shores, no boundaries. Its seasons were not winter, sorting, fall or summer, but birthdays and joys and troubles and pain.

Sudney Sheldon

Book Review: Rozabal Line

ISBN10: 1780221355

Author : Ashwin Sanghi

Pages  : 359 pages 

Westland, 2007

(Borrowed book no. 1 from ChaiCofi)

Pardon me for being tardy to this blog here, but with life and work all spiraling all over and around me, this is one thing I don't want to let burden me. Hence, I do solemnly affirm that I shall and will write in my time and ease and record my will in this tiny virtual pocket of mine. When it comes to writing about books, the 3rd love of my life, nobody and nothing will ever be allowed to force me to pour my heart out. This is and will be my stress-buster and escape route from reality till I find a time machine! Enough about me now. With that reference to a time machine, let's get on to our task at hand (yes, I said t-a-s-k) at hand, and deal with this book-Rozabal Line.
But before we get into this book, the universe wants us to talk about Dan Brown because the entire universe has been comparing this book with The Da Vinci Code.
Now, Dan Brown is a diligent researcher. Period! I had to read two of his books, The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, to reach this conclusion. Don't get me wrong, but I'm not judging his literary skills here (I'm not up to do that!). I've read the likes of Amish Tripathi and Devdutt Pattnaik, who are better known for their ideas, perspective and stories rather than their literary proficiency, and I have enjoyed their works boundless. So, mythology is not a new genre to me. And yet, my bone of contention with Dan Brown is exactly that. I appreciate both his consistent and diligent research and his dexterity in piecing one and one together to get the story going. And that brings us to Ashwin Sanghi's Rozabal Line.
This story is the saga of the three. It has three storylines merging into one to finally reveal what the whole book is about. There is an American priest, Fr Sinclair whose regressed memories from past lives start emerging causing him much surprise and terror. Then, there is an elite army of 13, who call themselves Lashkar-e-Talatashar, with Armageddon as their agenda. And then there is the Rozabal tomb in Kashmir which holds the key to a riddle that will unfold the Armageddon. The story has enough twists and turns to entangle you into confusion and chaos, much because of the absurdity of the tangents the story goes into defying logic all the while. I cannot deny that the research that went into this book is pretty neat. But that's about it. This book is all research and no story with some fiction that goes all over the place.
But if you like conspiracy theories and history and mythology, like I do, you might like this book here and there. So, it's neither all bad, nor all good. It's just one of those books you like, but not in its entirety.

Rating: 3/5

Verdict: If Dan Brown's  research are your forte, if you hated the way he completely ignored Indian mythological texts in his extrapolated conspiracy theories, and you hate his extremely repetitive plot-lines, then Ashwin Sanghi is most definitely what you had been waiting for. You will L-O-V-E this book.