fathima_ashab's Reviews (159)

You would have seen the blurb everywhere and thought it's a fantasy. Okay I am not sure about you, but I did. I thought it was a high fantasy. I thought it's going to be full of magic, witches, wizards and extracting everyone's memory in a jar and closing it with some dark magic forever. But boi, I was totally wrong and I am happy that it turned out totally unpredictable. I would have been the first one to rise my hand if someone ever volunteered to wipe the worst memories of my life until a couple of days back. But not anymore. I would not trade them for million dollars. Those past memories are the reason who I am today. Pain and mistakes are the part of life, and just wiping them off will not do any good but only more harm. This book really made me think about it so much.
  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The concept was so different from everything I have ever read. It wasn't a fantasy but it does have elements of magical realism in it which was totally mind blowing and it can also come under historical fiction. and the concept doesn't end with binding, it is also a story of two star crossed lovers who are found and lost in different timelines which was heartbreaking, emotional and exquisite. I am not even exaggerating trust me. The pace of the story was neither fast nor slow. It was steady, never faltering and not boring at all. I am definitely going to reread it again soon because it has become one of my favourites now. God, I adored this book so much.
  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Now coming to the promotion part which I am not paid for. You should read this book and I would highly recommend this because
  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Magical realism ✔️ Historical fiction ✔️ Character driven story ✔️ New concept ✔️ Beautiful writing ✔️ Fantastic storytelling ✔️ Thought provoking ✔️ LGBTQ ✔️ ✔️ ✔️
  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I don't want to tell anything else because they will be potential spoilers so just go ahead and read it.

"The noise comes from the centre of her, and I feel it pulling something out of me -- unreasonable and insistent".

This is a story of two sisters. One with Down's syndrome and the other who is trying not to drown herself in her failing marriage. Grace returns to Pondicherry to cremate her mother and there she comes to know that her mother has left behind a property on the beaches of Madras and a sister named Lucy with Down's syndrome for her.

On that property, she finds a new life for her and her sister. It wasn't easy following a routine with someone like that but she wants to do it and make herself worthy of something in this fleeting life. Thereby, she comes to know some secrets of her mother and the life her parents had led without her knowing.

This literary fiction of Grace was lyrical, poetic and heart wrenching. It left me wondering so many things and moved me immensely. It kind of made me feel grateful for all the things I have in my life which I have never noticed before. This is not just an another story to be read. It has to be read again and again to grasp it's meaning and the power it has within the words.

She talks about death : "I am angry too, because there's such easy acceptance of death. The cheapness of it. Those beautiful animals gone. And we chatter here about things I don't comprehend but am somehow part of".

She talks about oppression of women: "You could trace a line from the present all the way back to Mohenjo-daro and there would be women with lots in the curve of their hips, waiting to collect water".

And she talks about feeling you can't name it: "All that had made me feel was that there was a ladder inside me - climbing, conquering, descending, dwindling. But I wanted to explain how sometimes what you wanted was not a ladder but a lake. Something that spread all around you".

She talks about every single thing that is bottled up inside her right from loneliness, happiness, about broken marriage, culture, freedom, and literally everything. I would highly recommend it. Go and read it asap.

This book helped me understand how a publishing house really works inside. (FYI: I don't think every publishing house works that way but mostly the startups) TBH, I would never want to work in a publishing company like the one in this book. Not at all. Not even for billion dollars. The author has made it look so bad that all they ever focused on was the money they are going to get from selling biographies of the already famous actors or by selling eroticas and soppy romances and not bothering to even read the manuscripts of good books. But I guess that's what the author has intended to bring forward from this story.

It's a comical satire which has a protagonist name Akshay Saxena who comes from London to India after losing his job to join in a publishing house which is already losing its name. And this book is all about his journey in this company. Above everything, I loved his mind voices which the author has managed to pull off along with his dialogues. They were very funny because he was cynical, witty and was always at the edge of losing his temper.

Now the things I didn't like about the book was writing and objectification of women. I don't know how many of the readers noticed that but it really bothered me. Knowingly or unknowingly, every female character in this book is plainly whiny, sexual, hot or good for nothing. Like, come on, there is more to female characters than just that. Honestly, that was really irritating and don't even start me on that.

Other than that it's an easy read which you can definitely opt for light reading.

This book was so beautiful. I wasn't expecting anything from this and only knew that it's going to be a story of a dysfunctional family before reading it. But, oh boy! it was hauntingly good and totally unpredictable. The centre of the character was Rachel Kelly who is an artist with bipolar disorder. but it was actually his husband Antony who held up this family together. And the brownie point was that it has stories from multiple perspectives and it was so interesting.

This guy Antony was head over heels in love with Rachel all through his life. He was so crazy about her that he always refers to Rachel as 'SHE'. Her personality was so large and pervasive that she was the first woman who sprang to his mind at the word. None of them ever thought he meant someone else, not even his daughter. Reading that made me smile like come on it is so cute.

He even trained their children to be kind with her no matter how much she loses her mind or get mad about them. He treated her like how she deserved throughout her life. That kind of love is very rare to find.

And before you come into conclusion, it's not just their love story. It's the story of their whole family and how her disorder has affected her children. Especially Morwenna and Petroc. Their stories were not revealed until the last half of the story and when it did, I wasn't expecting such ending. It was so good.

I could have easily moved on without writing a review here but I wanted to. I really want you all to try this book if you like this kind of family based stories.

Each story was unique and different but also they were connected beautifully and that's what made it cool to read. I really enjoyed reading it right from the beginning till the end. This was my first time getting to know about Bene Israel Jews of India and they were fascinating to read about. The writing style and everything was perfect. I would definitely recommend it.

4.5 🌟

I picked this up rather hesitantly because from the blurb I could say that this clearly is not my type but I still went ahead with it. I first read two chapters to get an idea and decide if I want to continue or not. To my surprise, I did continue after that. I would say that the whole plot was clichè with triangle love story, romance, going back to first love, love at first sight and stuffs like that but that didn't bore me because Nikitha has pulled the protagonist's (male) character perfectly. Why that impressed me is because he isn't narcissistic, misogynistic or irrespective towards women. That just blew my mind away because that didn't happen for centuries in Indian literary history (okay, maybe I am exaggerating XD). Because that's what usually happens. But here Siddhant was actually pretty descent and quite understanding of his second girlfriend while she was going through PTSD after her father's death. There were so many places where I was really impressed by his character.

The second theme of the story is 'dealing with mental illness'. so this second girlfriend is abusive, dominant and toxic all because of her PTSD. I guess that one was portrayed as honestly as possible. I wouldn't say that was any way exaggerating. because it wasn't. Anyone who has no one else but only a boyfriend would definitely expect everything from him and there is a high chance of getting anxious for being left alone. I loved how he stood by her side and did whatever he could. But their relationship was toxic and pretty fucked up and there's no future for them. I loved how the author ended it with a message conveying that 'Professional help is very important for illnesses like this'.

There is nothing new about this book but it's still a good read. I really enjoyed reading it. This book could have been so much better without the love triangle trope though.

'Travelogues' has become my recent favourite. I love them for its vividness and the feeling of true experience in the story. The details to everything authors see and write makes me feel it like I have felt everything by myself. In this book, Kavitha with her cousin made a trip to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar which felt less like a pilgrimage and more of a modern perspectives on things which are considered as religious traditions. I am sure this book will inspire anyone to visit there irrespective of their religion because the author has made it simple with spirituality and understanding of the tradition rather than going deep into it. It really inspired me.

I loved how Kavitha has made the story as real as much as possible by even showing her vulnerability during the journey and not hiding them with fake enthusiasm and positivity. Of course everyone will have their doubts and drawbacks during a journey like this and I am glad that she is honest about it to us. That gives me a perspective that not every journey will be easy, there will be ups and downs, highs and lows but what we see as achievement and what we learnt from it makes everything worthy in the end.

I really enjoyed reading this book with Kavitha's writing and her vivid description of things. And I would highly recommend it.

Ash born boy is a prequel to 'The near witch' (which I haven't read yet) and it's a short story of a boy who has a terrible childhood because he is a witch and I guess it's going to affect his character a lot later. Also, I have understood that this is a backstory for the character named 'Cole' from the near witch. I thought this short story has nothing to do with the actual story and read it since it was really short. But it's so shocking to find that it's actually a prequel. I really liked it. So now, I am even more intrigued to continue reading The near witch.

Turning point is the story of four doctors from San Francisco who are the best in their field and these four of them go to Paris for exchange medical venture to learn more about treatments during crisis since Paris has seen more attacks and has survived all through it. There they will have to work with 4 Paris doctors and after a month Paris doctors will have to come to San Francisco to do the same. Somehow all eight of them become friends and get connected in ways they didn't expect to become.
.
The whole setting and introducing us to the characters took more than 100 pages and by then I was really bored because they are Danielle Steel's signature characters. They all somehow have one dimensional personality and equally married to their career.
.
Her writing is too repetitive and 100% predictable. She could have picked any one or two protagonists among them instead of dealing with all eight people's lives at once. It felt like telling the same thing again and again especially when the characters try to introduce them to each one of them. Also, the story was more like DS telling what is happening around and switching from one character to another whenever she felt like instead of letting the readers imagine the story for themselves. There was no time for imagining things everything was happening back to back and I had to just rush and go with the flow. And the ending was classic DS style with perfect happily ever after.
.
This book definitely could have been better. like, it wasn't bad but wasn't the best of her works either. Otherwise, this would be perfect for light reading and for those who just want to kill some time reading a book.

There is not a single time where muslim women were dragged into spotlight without pointing out at her hijab. If they are to be identified, they are first talked about what kind of clothes they are wearing or having wrapped their heads with hijab or not. yes, they are constantly 'talked about' but not really invited in the conversation. I don't know why media is so obsessed with a piece of cloth they have nothing to do with.
.
This book is written exactly to break that stereotype. To tell the world that we are more than what we wear. Inside that burqa, we are just the same as every human being.
.
"Modesty is an instrument of patriarchy, designed to limit women's agency and keep them in line. You can't deny that the modesty of a woman is all anyone obsesses about", says Coco Khan, one of the contributors of the book.
.
This book has given voice to topics like feminism, hijab, sex, divorce, sexuality, identity, faith, race, female pleasure and everything that aren't talked about widely or the things that have been ignored or pushed back for a long time. This is about the struggles muslim women face especially in the west. Their anger and their struggle to live their life as 'Muslims and women' is evident through their words.
.
This is exactly the kind of book that should be read by everyone to get a better perspective of our community. We have been narrowed down to 'oppressed hijabis who can't even open their mouth to ask what they want' for a very long time. We are more than that. Each and every one of us has different story to tell the world and no one can represent us better than us.
.
As Mona Eltahawy says, 'We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the revolution. Be too loud. Swear too much. Go too far." and as Afia Ahmed advices, "We are not what the media tells us to be. We don't have to watch our religion become racialized. we don't need to contribute to the dichotomy. we don't need to ponder to the beauty and fashion industries. we don't need to doubt our identity or our origins. we are more and we will always be more."
.
I think they have covered up almost everything muslim women on the whole struggling to speak out. They are all so brave to open up their wounds to give us a story. These stories need to be read widely to empathize and understand what's important for women especially muslim women other than their piece of cloth (hijab).
.
I would highly-- Highly recommend it. This is for everyone to know and understand and to make this world a better place.