Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover

Published December 7th 2018 by Hoover Ink, Inc.

Goodreads Synopsis

Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity's notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn't expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen's feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife's words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

A standalone romantic thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover, releasing December 18th.

My Review

“...the things lurking around inside the mind can be just as dangerous as tangible threats.”

I had forgotten how much I like Hoover's writing sometimes. It isn't that her books have some mind boggling plot lines or because they have something new to offer. It's just the way she writes her characters. She makes her characters seem so real and her books read so easily that it's impossible to put them down. It's very easy to connect to her characters because Hoover knows how to get inside her readers' minds and manipulate their emotions. I've always thought that she is one of those authors who writes angst very well. After reading Verity I realized that she can write creepy even better.

Throughout Verity, she creates an eerie atmosphere of foreboding and doubt. I couldn't help but turn page after page, coming up with my own theories as to what might happen next. It was interesting to read about a character who's an author from an author's point of view. 

“A writer should never have the audacity to write about themselves unless they’re willing to separate every layer of protection between the author’s soul and their book. The words should come directly from the center of the gut, tearing through flesh and bone as they break free. Ugly and honest and bloody and a little bit terrifying, but completely exposed.” 

It was also easy to imagine how writing about fucked up characters might fuck up the author's mind in the process. Because, aren't all fictional characters a piece of the author's soul, however small that piece maybe? Don't the events of a book sometimes have an element of wish fulfillment attached to them?

The only issue I had with the book was that even though the plot escalated quickly, the actual climax was a bit meh. The ending felt kind of rushed, almost as if it were an afterthought. It left me feeling dissatisfied and I didn't find it worthy of the buildup.

I had come up with my own crazy little theory that the whole manuscript was written from Verity's husband's POV and he was the actual author in the story, writing under the pseudonym of his wife's name. That would mean that all the crazy things mentioned in the manuscript were his doing and writing them down as though his wife did it was just a way of covering his tracks and putting the blame on her. Yes yes, my mind works in twisted ways.

But overall, it's definitely a great quick one time read that is bound to give you the creeps. Rating: 3/5 stars!

Vicious (Vicious #1)- V.E. Schwab : Review

Published September 24th 2013 by Tor

“Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.” 

Goodreads Synopsis

Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end? 

In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn’t automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question.'

My Review

“The absence of pain led to an absence of fear, and the absence of fear led to a disregard for consequence.” 

There are some books which one often picks up with zero expectations and more than just a hint of trepidation. Nothing can be more satisfactory than these books turning out to be one hell of a roller coaster ride. 

Vicious was one those books. 

It provides a twisted view of the world- where superheroes are the bad guys, friend turns on friend, family members betray each other and no one can be trusted. The whole setting was majorly creeptastic with extremely well crafted prose which made me erupt in goosebumps several times during the course of the book. 

The story starts with two best friends and an apparently harmless research project about superheroes or the 'extra-ordinary' people. Eli and Victor- college roommates and best friends- with wild ambitions and multi layered personalities are the only ones who recognise the more animalistic sides in each other. When they are confronted with the possibility of a major breakthrough in their project, they decide to experiment on themselves to test out their theories about the possible existence of EOs. But things go horribly wrong when jealousy and a thirst for power overcomes rationality. 

Fast forward to 10 years later, when Victor escapes from prison aided by a prisonmate turned friend to go after Eli, his former friend turned foe. Along the way he finds a young girl with an astonishing ability, who has her own bone to pick with Eli and they join alliances to take revenge against the man who changed their lives forever.

The most alluring aspect of the book was the absence of the so called 'good' characters. Every character was layered in shades of grey with wildly contrasting personalities. All of them were equally dangerous, equally deranged and identical in their desire for bloodshed. It was easy to get carried away by the barrage of emotions which was so excellently put forth by the author. It was one those books which would make you question your beliefs. 

Should progress for the progress' sake actually be discouraged?

Is a superpower enough to make someone a 'hero'?

If faced between family, friends, love and the 'greater good'- which one would you choose?

The writing style was flawless and was obviously aimed to shock. The fast paced plot combined with such interesting characterisation along with the whole 'revenge is a dish best served cold' aspect made the book an absolute page turner. 

Highly recommended: 5/5 stars! 

ARC Review: Save Yourself- Kelly Braffet

Goodreads Synopsis

SAVE YOURSELF has the narrative flair of Gillian Flynn and Adam Ross, the scruffy appeal of Donald Ray Pollock, and the addictiveness of Breaking Bad.

Patrick Cusimano is in a bad way. His father is in jail, he works the midnight shift at a grubby convenience store, and his brother's girlfriend, Caro, has taken their friendship to an uncomfortable new level. On top of all that, he can't quite shake the attentions of Layla Elshere, a goth teenager who befriends Patrick for reasons he doesn't understand and doesn't fully trust. The temptations these two women offer are pushing him to his breaking point.

Meanwhile, Layla's little sister, Verna, is suffering through her first year of high school. She's become a prime target for her cruel classmates, not just because of her strange name and her fundamentalist parents: Layla's bad-girl rep proves to be too huge a shadow for Verna, so she falls in with her sister's circle of outcasts and misfits whose world is far darker than she ever imagined.

Kelly Braffet's characters, indelibly portrayed and richly varied, are all on their own twisted paths to finding peace. The result is a novel of unnerving power-darkly compelling, addictively written, and shockingly honest.

My review

**I received a copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

When I interpreted the synopsis I derived some theories on how the book might be. But I certainly wasn’t expecting what Kelly Braffet dished out in Save Yourself. I am in two minds about the book. On one hand I liked the characterization, the writing style and the way the author captured the barrage of emotions so inimitably; and on the other hand the ending left something to be desired and some of the things were majorly creeptastic.

A look at the dysfunctional crew of the book:-

1. Patrick- the pessimist. After packing off his own Dad to jail, being unjustly condemned by the society, losing his job, falling for his brother’s girl and getting involved with a minor, he just wants out. Can’t say I blame the guy…

2. Layla- the gothic teenager on the road to self destruction. Her hobbies include stalking random strangers, giving blow jobs to every other person she meets, getting sliced up by her psycho boyfriend, drinking his blood and so on and so-forth. So not only is she in some really deep shit, she is also attempting vampirization!

3. Caro- the adulterous daughter of a schizophrenic mother with some serious issues. She is looking for stability in life, something that she lost once her mother started talking to non-existent wall-gnomes.

4. Verna- the initially proverbial good girl. Tortured by peers for being the daughter of the man who waged war against sex-ed being taught in schools, she becomes the butt of cruel jokes and not-so-harmless pranks. She finds temporary solace with her sister and her misfit friends only to realize a while later that they are freakin’ crazy.

5. Justinian- the Satanist. He is fond of bloodletting and gives serious competition to the American Psycho. Enough said.

The characterization was pretty awesome. Each person’s pain and frustration could actually be felt beyond the pages of the book. Kelly Braffet flawlessly manages to portray the angst of a teenager tortured by her peers, a man shunned by the society for a crime he didn’t commit, a young girl looking for reason and rationality and the hypocrisy and general cruelty of the society. Loved the writing style- sometimes aloof, sometimes angsty, most of the time creepy….

The plot and ending though were a bit of a let down. The end was painfully ambiguous. 

Did Verna recover from The Great Apocalyptic Showdown?

What happens to her parents?

What becomes of the woefully wronged Mike?

These are some of the unanswered questions that have been bugging me ever since I finished the book. 

All in all a good read, in a gives-you-the-bad-kind-of-Goosebumps kind of way.

Rating:- 3/5 stars!

Review: Dark Places- Gillian Flynn

The Days were a clan that mighta lived long 

But Ben Day’s head got screwed on wrong

That boy craved dark Satan’s power

 So he killed his family in one nasty hour

Little Michelle he strangled in the night 

Then chopped up Debby: a bloody sight

Mother Patty he saved for last

Blew off her head with a shotgun blast

Baby Libby somehow survived 

But to live through that ain’t much a life

Goodreads Synopsis:-
Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost some fingers and toes, but she survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.

The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for details—proof they hope may free Ben—Libby hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee, she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club...and maybe she’ll admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.

As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed family members—including Ben, a loner whose rage over his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer.

My Review:-

I am no more

I am undone

The devil took my soul

I am Satan's son

I'd been wanting to try out something by Gillian Flynn forever and finally decided to give in to the temptation. The book was a psychological thriller through and through. As promised by the synopsis, it was an eerie mix of horror, occult, thriller and some really freaky stuff. Most of the time I alternated between marvelling at Flynn's peculiar trail of thought and wondering if the author has some serious issues.

Most of the characters in the book were positively deranged- be it Libby with her kleptomania and indulgent afternoon daydreaming of committing suicide, the pedophile Ben and his obsession with annihilation, Lyle Wirth with his crime blogs and infatuation with murder mysteries or Diondra with her violent temper and socks fetish. The author was quite unrestrained in her vivid descriptions of murders- which successfully managed to creep me out.

I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it. It’s the Day blood.

I am a liar and a thief. Don’t let me into your house, and if you do, don’t leave me alone. I take things. You can catch me with your string of fine pearls clickering in my greedy little paws, and I’ll tell you they reminded me of my mother’s and I just had to touch them, just for a second, and I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me.

Inspite of the switching of time frames and POVs, the story reads easily, although it does seem a little dragged out somewhere during the middle of the book. It was easy to visualise all the scenarios that the author put forward- even the grotesque ones- and sympathise with the characters' states of mind. Flynn successfully managed to convey the frustration of a teenage boy trapped amidst a house full of women, a shitty job and general mistreatment at the hands of the people. Lack of sufficient food and ribbing by peers only augments this resentment. Libby's near psychotic behaviour can also be easily understood from the fact that she saw her mother's and sisters' diced up entrails all over house when she was merely seven years old.

Annihilation.

The word came from nowhere—his brain was sticky, phrases and snatches of songs were always wedging themselves in there. Annihilation. He saw flashes of Norse barbarians swinging axes. He wondered for a second, only a second, if he’d been reincarnated, and this was some leftover memory, flittering down like ash.

The element of suspense is successfully maintained throughout the book as Libby and the 'Kill Club' try to puzzle out the murder mystery and the ending was wholly unexpected. It's definitely not a book for the faint hearted- as it could dredge up memories of The American Psycho and Carrie ( not the kind I would want to rekindle)- or for those who hit the ceiling over Satan worship, occult practices and animal sacrifice.

But then kudos to Gillian Flynn for writing a truly freaky novel. 3 stars for the plot and engaging characters and another half for the gore!

Rating:- 3.5/5 stars!