_askthebookbug's Reviews (1.34k)

Girls burn brighter.
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Let's be honest for a second. It's often the books with loveliest covers that we tend to buy more. When I spotted this book at @crosswordbookstores last weekend, I knew I had to have it. Partly because of the cover and also because of the title.
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Poornima and Savitha are from a tiny poverty-stricken village called Indravalli in Andhra Pradesh. When Poornima's father hires Savitha for his handloom business, the girls share a bond stronger and thicker than blood. The book shows the life of young girls who are forced to get married as soon as they turn 15 and Poornima was no exception. Her wedding gets fixed to a man whom she will meet only on her wedding day. But tragedy takes place very soon after that.
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When Savitha is raped by Poornima's father, the village elders declare that Savitha will now be Poornima's stepmother. The very next day, Poornima wakes up to find her best friend missing. The book then takes us on a journey about Poornima's miserable marriage as she faces cruelty from her in-laws. She is beat up, abused and then when the time comes, is splashed with hot oil on her face. Poornima then decides to leave her married life behind and goes in search of Savitha.
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The story then talks about Savitha's life after her escape. The traps of prostitution, her life as a forced amputee and her journey to America. This book is painful to go through as the author talks about atrocities that poor village girls are forced to face even today. How people think that dark skinned women are of no worth, how its okay to demand for dowry and how horrible it is to be born a female.
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The characters and friendship that the two girls share is so heartbreaking. The author has an incredible flair in writing her heart out. There were few instances where I had to put the book down to take in deep breathes. Girls burn brighter is everything that the title suggests. It's about fierce women who take fate into their own hands and come out stronger.
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I would rate this book 4.5/5.

My German Brother.
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Thank you for the review copy @fsgbooks :)
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This was my first read by Chico Buarque and I was taken aback by his unabashed style of writing. Chico is a famous Brazilian writer - musician who is considered a democratic hero. His work, My German Brother revolves around his own life and gives us a peek into his complicated family history.
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The protagonist is a man called Ciccio, who is the son of a famous journalist and historian, Sergio Buarque de Holanda (same name as the author's real father). They reside in Sao Paulo where their house is covered with walls of bookshelves, the priced possession of his father. One fine day, hidden inside the pages of a 1922 edition of The Golden Bough, Ciccio discovers a letter from Berlin that reveals the news of his illegitimate brother.
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The life of Ciccio is painted colourfully as he steals cars with his friends and moves from one heartbreak to another. Ciccio, post finding the letter, sets off on a journey to find his half brother. The author talks about Ciccio's own brother who was on a path of wooing all the girls with his good looks. What Ciccio missed on the looks side, he made up with his intelligence. This book is intense with references to Nazi administration, military systems and familial matters.
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It was clever of the author to add parts of his own life in this book including the brother's search as well as few references like how he let his father's name stay the same. This book is not a complete chart of his life yet majority of it does talk about Chico. The language used is not simple ; it's sophisticated, and has the power of leaving an imprint on one's mind. I'm sure I'll be picking up Spilt Milk very soon.
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The book has pictures of the letter that was written to Sergio from his estranged lover, Anne about his son. Though few parts of the story is related to Chico, the fact that how Ciccio never got married and also never became the famous musician and writer like Chico, shows that My German Brother isn't a complete revelation of his own life.
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I would rate this book 3.8/5.

** Book Recommendation **
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I have been wanting to read The chalk man since 2018 and I'm so glad I finally did it.
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The chalk man talks about a series of murder and vandalism that happen in the quiet town of Anderbury which mysteriously involves figures of stickmen drawn everywhere near the murder place. The protagonist is a teenager Eddie who narrates the story under two timelines of1986 and 2016. Eddie and his friends, Hoppo, Metal Mickey and Gav were once carefree kids who indulged in pranks and the game of leaving messages using chalks. A murder changes their lives for good.
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Fast forward to 2016, Ed is still haunted by the murder of the girl Elisa, and has his own secrets to safeguard. His friends hold their skeletons in the closet from rattling but for how long can they keep the secret hidden? This book caused a phenomenal reaction amongst readers and I can clearly see why. The chalk man is the author's debut book but don't let that fool you. Her writing is so perfect that it keeps you hooked till the very last page. This book has suspense, horror, thrill and an aura of mystery around it.
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Concocting a perfect murder mystery is no joke but the author has nailed it just right. The characters are very well constructed and leaves no room for flaws. The story is hauntingly beautiful and I can almost see this book being made into a movie. Glad that I saved this book for 2019.
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I would rate this book 5/5. #thechalkman

Turn on the heat.
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Thank you bloomsburyindia for sending this over.
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Lam and Cool series were well known back in the '40s and this particular book was the second one in the series that Erle Stanley Gardner wrote under the pen name of A. A. Fair. Having heard praises about Donald Lam and Bertha Cool, I couldn't contain my excitement as I began reading this.
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Donald Lam is assigned a case of locating a certain Mrs Lintig's whereabouts, years after she has gone missing. His client, Mr Smith doesn't happen to know much about her but urges Bertha Cool to alert him immediately if they find out her location. What seemed to start as a simple case, Lam finds himself being sidetracked by various factors. Be it the man who leaves him with a bruise all the while warning him to stay away, or the mysterious appearance of a woman posing as Mrs Lintig ; all this seems to be hiding a bigger secret and Lam is hellbent on finding the truth.
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What follows next is a series of wild goose chase as Lam and Bertha uncover the details. I'll admit that the story began on a very interesting note. It has an aura of vintage crime mystery to it as they portray Lam as a guy who doesn't use his fists while confronted by a bulky man but instead uses his words to scooch out of danger. And then there's Bertha, a cool and elegant woman who knows how to let her diamonds talk and also knows how to rough up things. She has the knack of making people confide in her.
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But somewhere along the lines of understanding the plot, the story begins to get a little messy with too many complications being involved. Too many characters and plenty of running around left me mentally exhausted. Having high expectations from the classic detective series, I was let down a bit post reading the book. Probably it's just me but I found this particular book from Lam and Cool series, a little damp. Having said that , if you're into vintage detective reads which involves a lot of focus on the minutest details, this is the one for you.
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Rating - 3.3 / 5.

Everything here is beautiful.
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" Our mother might’ve said this: that immigrants are the strongest, that we leave our homes behind and rebuild. Everywhere we go, we rebuild " - Mira T. Lee.
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What can I say about a book that caresses your heart one minute and then leaves you in a daze in the next. 'Everything here is beautiful' is a stunning novel in which the author addresses several serious issues, be it about health, immigrants, bonding or courage. This is the story of two sisters who inspite of drifting away, somehow always find a way back to each other.
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When Miranda and Lucia move to New Jersey with their mother from China post their father's death, they learn that life isn't always rosy. The girls were always good at what they did, securing good grades in school and finding a stable job. Miranda, being the older sister always looks out for Lucia but things change when Lucia faces her first mental breakdown. The first of many which changes her completely as she struggles to stay sane. She rebels against Miranda as she's forced to take medicines and also for being admitted into a hospital involuntarily.
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Lucia finds love in Yonah but their marriage is short-lived as she suffers another breakdown. She moves on to Manuel, a charming young man who lives in America without any papers. Very soon their daughter Essy is born and Lucia faces another mental disturbance. The author then tries to paint a picture of how real this illness actually is. Lucia explains what happens within her mind and body as she goes through this sickness, unable to explain it to others around her. Rest of the story focuses on the sisters as they strain under familial issues that keep bobbing up to the surface. It talks about Miranda's personal life as well as Lucia's frightening mental imbalance.
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I urge people to read this because it's utterly honest about how difficult it is to handle such illness when your family member gets affected by it. The author also portrays how important families are by bringing up various contexts within the story. It's like a kaleidoscope, a story within every story. A colourful backdrop for a black and white present.
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A solid 5 star read.

{ Book Recommendation}
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Let's go swimming on doomsday.
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The Black and white Kindle cover does not do justice to how pretty the actual book cover is. I have been reading such amazing books lately and this one falls under the bucket of 'Must read' category. Let's go swimming on doomsday is a story that sheds light on how horrible the Somalian refugees' situation has been over the years. But more importantly this book is about Abdi who is the protagonist and goes ahead to break our hearts into a million little pieces.
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When Abdi loses his father to the terrorist group, he faces one tragedy after the other. He has to do unthinkable things to save his family who have been kidnapped. In his pursuit of freeing his family, he becomes part of Al-Shabaab, a ruthless group of young boys who resort to violence to get rid of the Americans. Dahir, his brother is already part of that group who was taken forcefully few years ago and Abdi tries seeking his help to rescue his family. The boys at Al-Shabaab trust Abdi completely and now he has a job of sending messages to the Americans to help them capture the leaders of the group.
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The book is split into NOW and THEN sections, which was initially a little hard to get used to. But few chapters in, I knew I was hooked. Abdi, still a teenager has a tremendously big heart as he takes the burden of releasing his family, freeing his brother and also keep everyone safe around him. The characters in the book are so smartly developed including the Social worker, Sam who sticks around to help Abdi. This is the kind of book that you will feel compelled to finish in just few sittings.
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A lot has been said and read about Somalian refugee scenario but this book helped me in truly understanding how horrendous it is in reality. You read to learn and this book was very educational by also being a splendid read. The world needs more people like Abdi.
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Five stars all the way.

An American Marriage.
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Marriage is no joke. It requires effort, compromise and years of commitment. A single disaster or an event has the power to turn it upside down. An American marriage talks about the lives of Roy and Celestial who are newlyweds, just a year and a half into their wedding when something terrible occurs.
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When Roy is wrongfully convicted of raping a woman, he is sentenced to serve 12 years in prison. Everybody knows he's innocent because Roy isn't the kind of man who'd hurt even a fly but we have all read about how the black community are often falsely acquitted. Celestial promises to fight for his release and wait for him to be set free. But life isn't a piece of cake for the couple and hence years pass by and Roy is still in prison while Celestial runs a booming doll business.
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There's a part of the book where Roy and Celestial exchange letters while he's confined to his cell and this might be my favourite few chapters. Five years later, when Roy is set free, thanks to his lawyer, he knows that his relationship with Celestial might already be over. Stepping outside into a new world after losing his mother, wife and a job, Roy decides to confront Celestial about their marriage. But five years is a long time and Celestial has already moved on with her childhood friend Andre.
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This book is written beautifully. @tayari is a master in penning down real emotions and I don't think anybody else could have done it better than her. She paints a picture of how fragile marriages are, their sensitivity to be protected at all times. When Obama and Oprah suggested this book to all the readers, I knew I had to give it a try. The complex relationship of Roy, Celestial and Andre as they struggle to protect what they have fiercely, taught me a thing or two. Forgiveness and acceptance of pain. But there were few places where I felt the book depressing, predictable and also a bit lengthy. Of course, the book is about a rocky marriage but it could have been crisper.
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Rating - 3.8 / 5.

The silent patient.
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God, I love this book! Perfect murder mysteries are hard to find and this one outdid all the recent books that I read this year. I usually try to figure out the ending of a book and I was so utterly wrong when it came down to this one.
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Alicia, a beautiful young artist is married to an equally talented photographer, Gabriel. Things are going perfectly well for the couple when an unexpected tragedy occurs. Alicia murders Gabriel in cold blood and is found with enough evidence for her to be labeled a criminal. From the minute of Gabriel's murder, Alicia refuses to talk. She simply remains mute as the jury decides she's a murderer and is then admitted to a psychiatric hospital for medical attention.
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Irrespective of how many doctors approach her, she doesn't say a word. That is until she meets her new psychotherapist, Theo Faber. Theo is a man who has only one mission, to take care of Alicia. Inspite of being a psychotherapist, he struggles with his own issues everyday. Alicia opens up to him surprising all the staff of the hospital. It is then the secret of the murder is revealed. This was the point where my mind whirred so fast that I couldn't comprehend what happened next.
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This book is something else. It has been written carefully, pointing out every little detail yet when you read the last couple of chapters, it knocks the wind out of you. It's powerful and extremely gripping. @alex.michaelides is pure genius because writing a crime fiction isn't an easy task. Easily the best gripping book I've read this year.
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5 stars all the way :)

Sometimes it happens.
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Thank you for sending the review copy @thekaran_sharma.
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Age has always been a touchy topic when it comes to relationships and marriages. We see a younger girl dating an older man or the other way around and society starts whispering about their choices. Sometimes it happens is about one such love story that blossoms between a 25 year old guy and a 37 year old woman.
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When Gautam starts dating Roshni, who is her senior at work, little did he know that he'd end up falling in love with her. Roshni, an independent and fierce woman who never married for being too focused on career, finally finds her dream guy in Gautam. The first few months of their relationship is blissful as they soak in all the love and spend hours over calls. Four months into the relationship, Gautam decides to take the plunge and ask Roshni to marry him. But when he breaks the news to his best friend and also to his sister, their opinions leave him astounded.
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What follows next is Gautam and then Roshni's skeptical thinking about their future. As they ponder upon whether their marriage will work considering the huge age gap, they finally decide to tie the knot. Love trumps over everything but will Roshni be able to keep up with Gautam's youthfulness? Or will her age creep in and mess up their compatibility? Read the book to know if they'll actually make it to the end of the race.
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I'd have to say that the concept did intrigue me quite a bit. But there were serious flaws in the story. Firstly, I wasn't too fond of couple of characters, one of them being Rohit, who was Gautam's friend. He was too cocky and arrogant to say the least. The plot was very simple and I already knew how the story would end by just reading few chapters. There wasn't any solid factor that seemed to bring the story together. I was hoping to see some plot twist but couldn't find any till the very end. All this turned the story into a very plain and simple read. Nevertheless, it will make a good beginner's read who are into romance genre. I'd like to applaud the author for his flair in writing.
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Rating - 2 / 5.

Vicious.
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There is nothing Extraordinary about this book. There, I said it. I know I am in the minority here but I can't just get over the feeling of how superbly boring and slow this book was. Vicious is Schwab's well praised work and I was extremely excited to read this but all my expectations fell flat. It's like the book fizzled into nothing. This book about Extraordinary humans simply failed to entice me.
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Eli and Victor are two pre-med students who come up with a plan to make their thesis unique and when Eli chooses the topic of researching about Extraordinary humans, Victor knows he has to get the upper hand in their quest. They come up with a plan to test the research and come out as EOs after coming back from death. They have their own powers and it is then that their friendship turns into something menacing. They turn against each other and Eli makes it his mission to kill all the EOs as he considers them to be an abomination excluding himself.
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The book is split between THEN and NOW, where Victor does most of the narrating. After Eli tries to kill him, Victor finds himself in prison and decides to kill Eli and seek revenge. There are couple of other characters that take some of the attention like the teenager Sydney who teams up with Victor and the big man Mitch who swears loyalty to Victor. And then there's Serena who sides with Eli. This book builds up slowly, gathering all the characters and describing them in detail. What follows is the hunt between Eli and Victor as they slowly circle each other.
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There are couple of things that I did not like about this book. Firstly, it was incredibly slow. It just drags along for half of the book while still describing Eli's character. Secondly, all the built up mystery was just for nothing. It's a simple story being wound up intensely for keeping the readers hooked while few chapters were stretched unnecessarily long. There were couple of interesting points about the book as well. The plot and the details, being one of the positive points. The entire concept of EO was truly impressive. But apart from that, it just didn't impress me much.
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Rating 2.5 / 5.