Schizo - Book Review

Schizo 

(Psychological thriller) 

Authors: Aditya Mishra & Arya Shukla

Pages : 177

"His mind remained entangled in the entrapment of his thoughts, torn between the realms of reality and delusion"

Before reading this book, one must go through the Author's note and disclaimer for better understanding. The story starts with David meeting up with a psychiatrist, where we get to know that David is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenic, episodes of delusions collided with reality making it impossible to believe which one is happening in real. David hearing voices in his mind is definitely not doing any good to him, as it convinces him to be worthless and created some self-hatred. The voice he's hearing is none other than his own mother, spewing hatred in his delusions. 

David's goal is to avenge Richard right from the beginning, he believes that his mother's disappearance has something to do with him. And also the voice that he's hearing, made him belive all his delusions. He clung onto that voice instead of taking pills. 

Going in, know that this book is about a paranoid schizophrenic man, I knew he probably wasn't going to be a reliable character, but I found the story sad more than anything else, maybe a bit of horrific events. Watching him go through his episodes, listening to him and his thought process, (the voice he's hearing) knowing that others were afraid of him especially Richard at the end, was just so sad. 

"He had been both puppet and puppeteer in his own tragic story, an instrument of his own descent into darkness."

He is constantly worrying about he couldn't do anything to avenue his mother disappearance, he's upset, he wants to fix everything, but his illness won't allow him peace, and watching him go through everything, only to realize that some of his most important person he wants in the world would never be realized, were never alive, never spilled any love towards him, well, that was rather difficult for me as a reader. I can't imagine living with this kind of illness, and David's character really wore me down.

Killing and dissecting rats, oh boy that's not what normal people do. It makes me realize that he's not even a person anymore. But as the story develops only from David's point - which, I think was both a blessing and a curse, with the end result, the story of his childhood are left hanging a little bit, something that I despise when I read a story, it'd be great if we get to know some flashbacks instead of just one of a visual about it. Yet, I found myself compelled to read this book to the end and yes, it is a good solid read. 

Rating : 8/10

Till God Wakes - White Falcon Publishing

𝐓𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬

𝐈𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐨-𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐚𝐫 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐄𝐅𝐀

Author : Paramjit Kumar & Monica sood

Pages : 378

Published by White Falcon Publishing

Description:

Paramjit Kumar, an Indian-born author, philosopher, and economist, possessed the gift of speaking multiple languages and had explored numerous corners of the world. In 1945, during his youth, he established connections with Mahatma Gandhi and engaged in peaceful discussions with leaders of the Muslim League and Lord Wavell in concerted effort to prevent the partition of India.

As time went on, Kumar's life mission expanded to encompass the pursuit of global peace and the liberation of Tibet. His endeavours in this direction were blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who appointed him as his special envoy for the cause of Tibetan freedom. Kumar adeptly cultivated international relationships, fostering a shared resonance of ideas among people from diverse races, cultures, and nationalities across the globe. In addition to his socio-cultural activities aimed at promoting unity and national cohesion within India, he conducted extensive campaigns in the name of the world peace.

Among Mr. Kumar's noteworthy prior publications were "Lull before the Red Typhoon," "Scourge From The Sky," and "Lest We Become Slaves," published in 1953. The latter was an exceptional work in which he presciently foresaw Red China's future attack on India. Another notable work was "Roll Call of Death," published in New York. In 1966, while serving as the Secretary General of the Forum for Facts on Tibet and Vietnam, he had the opportunity to inspect the war zone in Vietnam, and his personal experiences there formed the basis for some of the incidents recounted in "Roll Call of Death." Additionally, he published "The People's Guardian," a weekly magazine dedicated to unveiling social injustices and political corruption in India during those years.

Review :

The book is quite informative, long, moving at a pace that allows readers to think and imagine the scenarios that happened in the war period, and definitely it needs a lot of time to focus as it is extremely well researched. Unexpected attack from China, no one has suspected at that time that they'd launch a war against India, now we call it the Sino- Indian War. 

The book is also very well written -- completely absorbing to read, and it gave good, but brief, descriptions of all the major events. While it doesn't attempt to be the definitive description of everything that occurred during that episode, it did shed a large amount of light on some important aspects.

It's a must read for readers who are interested in learning about Indian wars and also for historians. 

Rating - 10/10

The Bloodstained Key - Review

The Bloodstained Key

By Charity Rau

Pages  : 322

Book Description: 

Eighteen-year-old Marianna and her family live in luxury, attending balls every night. Despite being haunted by the death of her mother and the disappearance of her fiancé, Will, she tries to remain cheerful for her sister's sake. When their father falls ill, she discovers her family is in financial ruin and fears her world is falling apart.

An offer of salvation comes from the mysterious nobleman who lives isolated from the rest of the world in his extravagant, yet menacing mansion. Lord Bludington invites Marianna, her sister, and all their friends to his home for a week full of entertainment. He impresses everyone with his charm and wit, but Marianna can’t shake the feeling he is not all he claims to be. However, when her family cannot afford the medicine needed to save her father’s life, she reluctantly accepts Bludington’s proposal of marriage and moves into the manor.Now isolated from her friends and family, she no longer feels welcome in the eerie house. The housekeeper is abrupt, the maids spread gossip and fear her, and the butler appears to be spying on her. Then she discovers a secret that puts her life in danger, and unless Marianna can find the courage to fight for herself, she won’t make it out of Bludington’s manor alive.

Book Review: 

The story is chilling and tragic. This book was set in crazy atmospheric and is guaranteed to raise goose bumps at any rate. This was a very quick read. It's slow going at first, but engaging and towards the ending, I felt, was rather bizarre. I couldn't do anything until I completed this.

The author is great at creating a creepy atmosphere and then wrenching it into something even darker as the page turns with such patience and brooding, quaint characters living a simple life. 

The book reminds me of The beauty and the beast, but it got me gasping at the end. The second book in the series got many more surprises, can't wait to read it too. 

I love Betsy the most, aside from Marianna. Some of the characters are morbidly abnormal. When the tension builds in and the real drama occurs, makes it a compulsive read. The author shows small town dynamics with her unerring writing style. 

Overall, this is an enthralling, if somewhat disturbing, story . This is one of those novels that just draws you in and never lets you out. 

Rating : 8/10