Rashmi bookmarks “Stardust”

Gather around everyone, Neil Gaiman has a story for us! From one of the greatest storytellers of our time comes this tale of the adventures of Tristran Thorn of Wall, whose search for love takes him beyond the borders of his village into the magical land of Faerie.

Following a fallen star, Tristran travels into unknown lands and enters a realm of kings and queens, witches and ghosts, deadly trees, unicorns and cursed silver chains. An 81st Lord trying to choose an heir to the throne; the ancient witches collectively called the Lillim attempting to regain their youth; a young woman named Yvaine who is really the star that fell from the skies ... For me, the truly fascinating part about this story was the way all their stories had a common thread - with events starting long before Tristran's birth - and how everyone and every element finally came brilliantly together.

This was a beautiful love story and a fantastic adventure - and I enjoyed it immensely. Here's to Gaiman's magical imagination ... and to hoping that places like Faerie exist. Somewhere.

Rashmi bookmarks “The Dead Path”

Darkness and insects: two things that absolutely terrify me. So, this story by Stephen M. Irwin was spot on for the fear factor! "At the end of Bymar Street was Carmichael Road, and beyond it, the heavy darkness of the woods." It is here that as a child, Nicholas Close had seen his best friend Tristram killed. And, years later, the little bird with its legs snipped off and its head replaced with a sphere of woven twigs continues to spread a mysterious Evil.

Shortly after his wife's death, a freak fall gives Nicholas the ability to see ghosts. What was fascinating was his ability to see dead people in the final moments leading up to their deaths. That constant replay of unnatural deaths added to the creepy atmosphere of this tale. From there, Nick is led on a terrifying journey replete with ghosts, evil symbols, gigantic spiders, ancient magic, and a distorted version of The Green Man.

I also loved the amazing imagery and sheer poetry in the storytelling - not something I would necessarily associate a horror story with.

Overall, I felt that the storytelling could have been sped up a bit, and although the final reveal was very interesting, it took far too long to get there.

Also, I felt that there was a huge missed opportunity in Suzette, a character who knows magic, yet does nothing more than use it to nurse her son back to health. As someone who professes to have been practicing magic since she was a child, and as the only potential opponent to the immense threat posed by the evil that lurks in the woods, I was expecting her to do a lot more.

Still, it was a good story - with a fantastic ending that I did not see coming!

Rashmi bookmarks “Genocide of One”

Kazuaki Takano's story is about a child who is the next step in human evolution, and whose superior intelligence could well pose a threat to all of humanity. This was an undoubtedly brilliant concept. Conducted some years before, the Heisman Report was about research into extinction of the human race. One of the five possible reasons it outlined was a gene modification that would develop a superior human, an intelligent being that would eradicate lower humans, as it saw animals as detrimental to the growth of humanity. With the news of the birth of the life form known as Akili, that prediction appears to have come true, and various key individuals have to react very quickly.

The narrative was also really interesting, as we follow multiple threads, all of them eventually leading to the birthplace of a new civilization (symbolically, in Africa). Acting under presidential orders, Jonathan Yeager leads an international team of hand-picked operatives into a Congolese jungle to destroy the being. In Japan, Kento receives an email from his father, curiously four days after his death - with very explicit instructions for a secret project with a tight schedule. Meanwhile, in Uganda, Sanyu gets an enormous sum of money to transport a van in a war zone in Congo. Nigel Pierce, who lives amongst pygmies in their natural habitat, appears to be the only one who knows what the truth really is. These parallel events make for very exciting reading.

I also liked the social commentary that certain characters and situations throw light on, chief among which was the true intent behind American-led wars - as Yeager, stationed at Baghdad, says at one point, the war was never about the ideology it claimed, it was always about oil. When the story went into the background of young children recruited into war via the cruellest means possible, it was a brutally scathing comment on war.

Unfortunately, at several points along the way, I lost interest mainly because the story was just too long and a lot of details could have been severely edited. I also did not like the fact that the author's voice kept getting manifested in various characters' lament about how greedy this world has become. After the initial few comments on how people have become more "war ready", the tone got too pedantic, and I felt like I was being preached to a lot. And that really broke my concentration.

Overall, however, this was an enjoyable read. Oh, and I thought the title was really awesome!

Rashmi bookmarks “Bird Box”

There is something terrifying out there. That much we know. What it is, we will never know - for to get a glimpse of whatever is out there, is to be driven to violent insanity. This also we know.

Josh Malerman tells us the story of Malorie and her two young children, who are among the handful of survivors in a world devastated by whatever it is that has driven everyone to brutal murder and suicide. The narrative follows two streams: one, in the present where Malorie embarks upon a journey - blindfolded, downriver, in a rowboat - in hopes of reaching a safe haven, the other, a flashback that starts when this terror first started taking over the world.

The greatest horror stories, for me, are the ones built on psychological suspense, and woven around an inexplicable atmosphere of an unknown fear. And on that score this book was terrifying all the way through! Imagine living your entire life blindfolded. Walking about in the middle of the day, knowing - Knowing - that there is a being (another human? a creature? an alien? a monster?) right in front of you, which has the power, with one brief glimpse to turn you so insane as to make you tear chunks out of yourself. That central concept and an overwhelming suspense moved the narrative along at a fantastic pace - and as it did, it also raised some very interesting concepts revolving around perceptions of sanity and immunity to fear.

I will say this; as I was nearing the ending, I actually thought of an awesome conclusion, which was much better than the way this story ended! That notwithstanding, this was a great read.

Rashmi bookmarks “Innocent Blood”

P. D. James' “Innocent Blood” is about the series of events that are let loose when Philippa Palfrey, on her 18th birthday, applies for the right to see her birth certificate and learn the identity of her birth parents. Her discovery that her mother - who she thought had died - was in fact in jail, convicted of murder, and her decision to form a new life with her, lie at the heart of this story.

I really liked the idea of placing two narratives side by side - concurrently we get to see Philippa search for her mother, and then the two of them search for a new apartment and a new life - as well as Norman Scase, the father of a murdered girl, as he searches for the killer.

But, other than that, I really struggled with this story. A smaller issue I had was with the pace of storytelling. It started off really well, diving into the heart of the narrative very early on. Soon thereafter, it slowed down more and more, till detailed trips to the real estate agents or the farmers' market made this a very tiresome read.

The greater problem I had with this story was that I either just barely tolerated, or immensely disliked, all of the main characters. My biggest issue was with the central character Philippa - I never got why she was so horrible to her adoptive parents ... more shockingly, I really didn’t get why she was so keen to re-connect with her biological mother - knowing full well that she was the woman who had killed a child that had just been raped by her husband. Also, a lot of things that were said by people got me quite angry. Mary Ducton (Philippa's mother) says that the rape of a child wasn’t as bad as one pictures it - and at one point even justifies the murder by saying, "I saved her a life of sadness that comes to a child of early sexual assault". Here’s another gem: Philippa at one point wishes her father had met someone else, for he would then still have been alive - she explains, "It was his bad luck to have met instead Julie Scase, that dangerous mixture of innocence and stupidity". His bad luck?? his Bad Luck?? … At one point when her stepfather tries to dissuade her from going back to her killer mother, she yells at him, saying he never bothered to find out the pressures under which she had had to kill the child. The book ended with a convenient suicide and Philippa's easy return to the home - and also the bed - of her stepfather.

This book was such a letdown; “Death of an Expert Witness” by this author had placed P. D. James in such high esteem in my mind.

Rashmi bookmarks “Red Dragon”

“Red Dragon” by Thomas Harris is the first book in the Hannibal Lecter series, and follows FBI instructor Will Graham whose unique capability of entering criminals' minds makes him the perfect choice to track down the elusive killer, the Tooth Fairy. (Yes, now I see where shows like “Criminal Minds” got their inspiration from!)

Perceptive to the point of being an empath, Will's thinking is what sets the tone for this story, and sets it apart from regular crime stories. Inspired by one of “The Great Red Dragon” paintings by William Blake, a delusional loner aspires to the great Becoming. Driven by ambition, yet snubbed for years to a point beyond humiliation, a sleazy tabloid reporter becomes a focal point in a massive manhunt. Bound and behind bars, a famous killer still manages to dramatically turn the ordinary course of an investigation.

This was more than a search for a killer. This was profiling a person's entire life from a sordid past to a brutal present. And that was what made this such a fantastic read - unique and credible all at once. Every character had shades of hero and villain in them, every incident was fraught with gruesome horror and tragic tones. And that is why I was truly fascinated by the story of the red dragon, as it travelled from mystery to terror to its final denouement.

Rashmi bookmarks “Horns”

“Horns”, a crime / fantasy novel by Joe Hill, is the story of Ignatius Perrish, who - after a drunken night in the forest at the spot where his girlfriend's body was found - wakes up one morning to find horns growing from his head. Frightening as the discovery is, Ig soon learns the power of his horns as he delves into the deepest secrets of everyone from family and close friends to random strangers, and is even able to manipulate people to do his silent bidding.

I really liked that the book jumps into the story with no unnecessary preamble. A drunken night of desecration, turning into an inhuman being, and learning to wield an evil power - all of this happens at the very beginning - and that drew me in very quickly. The story basically follows the lives of Ignatius Perrish, his girlfriend Merrin Williams, his brother Terry Perrish, and their common friend Lee Tourneau.  Tourneau was for me, the most powerful character - wrought out of endless twists and turns and a very disturbing past. Narrated through flashbacks dating back to their early childhood, we see how these friends met, forged relationships, and undertook a horrifying journey.

The book raised some very interesting points about Good and Evil (the title was not arbitrarily chosen!) - one scene that stands out in particular is when Ig gives a sermon to a cave full of snakes about god versus the devil. That whole discourse brought out so powerfully the raw pain and anger that Ig felt at - what he perceived to be - a less than omnipresent god. Not just for a glimpse into his heart, but also for the very interesting points it presented on the concept of God and Satan, this was a fascinating scene.

I was also greatly moved by the Treehouse of the Mind, a mystical tree house that magically appeared in the woods. While it is never fully explained what or where this structure was, it was the very beautiful, very private world of Ig and Merrin which transformed from a safe haven to an ominous foreshadowing of the future, as needed.

I'll end with this awesome quote from the book - “If you were going to live in hell on earth, there was something to be said for being one of the devils.”