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Saturday 27 June 2015

Book Review: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott





Pages :  170

Read on : Kindle

Review: Most of my book recommendations come from Booktubers and bibliophile bloggers and this was stacked somewhere in my To Be Read pile without much thought given.
So when my TBR jar spits out 'Living Dead Girl', I anticipate a horror or dark comedy. Something morbid but funny and I get into it blindly.

It felt like I was hit by a bus.

Unputdownable is a mild way of saying it, but I don't think I have ever come across something as horrific as the Living Dead Girl. The story is about 10 year old 'Alice'  held captive by a man named Ray who refers to himself as her father. Alice is a name Ray prefers to call his victims while he sexually and mentally abuses them and also physically tortures them. 'Alice' has been in captivity for 5 years with the fear that if she ever manages to escape, bad things will happen to her parents as it happened to the 'Alice' before her. The neighborhood is such that no one seems to notice anything unusual happening nor do they seem to care. In order to escape Ray, 'Alice' needs to look for a new girl who will take her place as 'Annabelle' and the terror never seems to end.

Oh boy. For people who might be wanting to read this, please be warned this book will scar you for sure; Till a point where you just might have nightmares and wouldn't want to let your kids out of your sight even for a minute. Elizabeth Scott is one gutsy lady who has not spared a single detail to our imagination. The graphic description will assault any idea of innocence that you may hold as it's more of a running yet passive narrative of a child facing abuse from the age of 10 to 15. What pained me the most in the book was that she thought one day she would reach out for the knife and plunge it into her own chest - her only route to 'freedom'. Ray doesn't even feed her adequately, the point being that Alice remain small and as child-likeas possible. The perfect ruthless Pedophile profile was created in the form of Ray.  Even now as I write this review and think about that book I fight back tears and the fear in my heart. How many innocent children might have been taken from their families and subject to a kind of tortured that will disturb even the most strong-willed. Are children really that safe?

There's no bright-side to the book. Yes, you will know of the dangers lurking outside for the young ones and what possible can happen to them. Knowing that is vital, however if you are a mom, you just might have a hard time to fathom the concept and still look at your children the way you always did. I have no clue as to why 'Living Dead Girl' is deemed as YA. The recommendation doesn't even extend to teenagers or sensitive adults. Everything in the book was so wrong, it manages to rip your heart out. You'll end up feeling sore and tender. The sense of helplessness will takeover your mind and body. I didn't know whether to cry or scream or do both.

This is one of those situations where the book is absolutely terrible at the same time manages to be highly rated.


Final Rating : 5/5

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Saturday 13 June 2015

Book Review: Fasting Feasting by Anita Desai




Pages :  240

Read on : Paperback

Review: A bit disappointed by Ms Desai. I didn't expect a book so closely missed for the Man Booker Prize 1999 to be such a drag. In all fairness, I picked Fasting Feasting for that nomination as a vouch for it's credibility and the assumption that it might be her best to almost attain such an esteemed tittle. Near miss nominations must not be exempted. You never know what treasures it might hold. This however was a let down of a whole new level.

As per the description, the story is of two siblings, Uneducated Uma and her brother , Arun who is sent to Massachusetts for University. Uma is stated as dull, not very pretty and unmarried. Her lack of any appeal has made it difficult to find an suitors thus she is now spending her existence on serving her parents. Arun is the promising child in the family. Under the burden of his parent's aspirations, poor Arun is shipped off to USA for college where one summer he has a strange encounter with the Pattons. Other than Uma and Arun, there's Aruna, the middle daughter- pretty, married and distraught. Caught in her own tides of having everything perfect. 

I'm not going to go into much detail about the story because honestly I really didn't understand what was the whole point of the book. Harsh but true. At several stages we do understand that this book is a direct hit to the kind of society India used to have. Uma was pushed and pulled by her family for their whims and fancy and there Arun was the only semi-liberated one with the easy access to high-quality education. Aruna was as pointless as a doormat. She was there, she was pretty , she was in demand and she was married off. The end. 

Even though I have come across books that lack a definite plot, at least the characters manage to salvage it. However here if anything I felt Uma was constantly made a mockery of. In no way were there any good things about her mentioned which saddened me. Surely she must have had something to her or someone who went close to understanding her. With way too many things happening in Uma's share of the book, it was impossible for me to draw any connection with any character.  On the other hand, there's Arun who encounters all kinds of absurdity in the Pattons house. New to the American 'culture'  but he could see the imbalance in both the households despite the cultural difference. The only part that I somewhat liked and also a marginally better ending than Uma's tale.

Desai's writing is simplistic to where she is to the point yet the whole concept has gone completely amiss. She opens her chapters sharply and quickly with no dilly-dally. That is the only reason I rated it as such. If you were intending to read 'Fasting, Feasting', don't bother. You aren't missing out on much.

Final Rating : 2/5

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