Book Review on The Guest List by Lucy Foley

 

The Guest list by Lucy Foley lays us in a trap with the wedding guest and the death mystery which involves chain of events that happens in the lives of the main characters of the novel leads us to the mystery murder. The novel moves with multi- stranded narrative mode that keeps us engaging and reveals the indignation, remorse and anxiety of the narrators.

Will Slater a handsome guy and a rising star, Julia Keegan (Jules) a beautiful woman and an aspiring editor of a magazine, plans their wedding at an Irish Island. Unknown about the tragedy that is waiting for them, they prepare for their wedding with the guest list and all other arrangements for their marriage.

Aoife the wedding planner, Johnno - Will’s friend, Olivia step sister of Jules’s, Hannah wife of Charlie a guest from Jules side are the main narrative characters each possessing some hidden past & dark secrets that they carry throughout the story.

A page turner with so many knots and each removed one by one at each stage of the events are exciting. Yet the story is bit dragging and annoying at some places leaving readers at exasperation.

The novel engages the reader to suspect all the main characters and till the end one is unable to come to a conclusion of who did this murder and why? All remains a mystery till the end and that is how Lucy Foley makes the reader occupied throughout the book.

An exemplary whodunnit, mirroring Agatha Christie’s style with so many twist and turns that leaves the story unpredictable. It makes us guessing the murderer from the beginning till the end and reveals the suspense with an unexpected twist.

My rating is four stars for this agog read.

 

Book Review on The Night of Broken Glass by Feroz Rather

The Night of Broken Glass by Feroz Rather is a debut novel with a collection of inter – related short stories and a heart wrenching work of fiction.

The main concept of the book whirls around chain of stories that happens in the lives of Kashmir’s mankind. The book takes us on a terrific journey of 13 stories with characters that moves in and moves out throughout the tale.  

One can sense a mix of love, lust, blood, bullet, hatred, revenge etc., that makes the reader engaging. Some stories are fast paced and some are bit dragging and yet a book filled with sorrow and death lurking in Kashmiri’s life.

“A living hell” what can be more described about the lives of these peoples. About the characters Inspector Masoodi a man of living danger, Major S a man of horror, Gulam a cobbler who craves for his son’s love faces insult from the Force 10, the army soldiers.  Jamshid son of Gulam ought to be a scholar loves Rosy an upper caste girl who faces a miserable fate of death. And many more characters filled with emotions of remorse and revenge at each story level.

Even during the curfew times people still have faith, love and friendship are some of the best highlights in the book.

Now coming to certain aspect of the book, the cover looks beautiful and the title is intriguing. The language is good and crisp. A warning to readers, this book has a smell of death and sorrow; fragile heart’s please stay away.

My rating is 4 stars for this dark read.

   

Book Review on The Grown Up by Gillian Flynn

Blurb:

A young woman is making a living faking it as a cut-price psychic (with some illegal soft-core sex work on the side). She makes a decent wage mostly by telling people what they want to hear. But then she meets Susan Burke.

Susan moved to the city one year ago with her husband and 15-year-old stepson Miles. They live in a Victorian house called Carterhook Manor. Susan has become convinced that some malevolent spirit is inhabiting their home. The young woman doesn't believe in exorcism or the supernatural. However when she enters the house for the first time, she begins to feel it too, as if the very house is watching her, waiting, biding its time . . .

The Grownup, which originally appeared as 'What Do You Do?' in George R. R. Martin's Rogues short story anthology, proves once again that Gillian Flynn is one of the world's most original and skilled voices in fiction.

My Review:

The Grown Up by Gillian Flynn is a different story line with unpredictability. The beginning is bit slow and the story becomes fast paced when the protangonist meets her client Susan. The book is a short read in which one can experience the chill run through their spine. The book engages the reader throughout the story yet the end is hypothetical where one needs to arrive their own conclusion which leaves the reader under exasperation.

My rating is 3 stars for this minuscule read.