PLOT: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 3/5 CHARACTERS: 3.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 What is the storyline? “The Wickerman Chronicles” is a series of hilarious short stories chronicling the various adventures of a character named Vikraman. While the adventures are not continuous, in that they do not follow a sequence of timelines or similar settings, but are all […]
Blood in the Paradise | Madhav Mahidhar | Book Review
PLOT: 4/5 CHARACTERS: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 2.5/5 CLIMAX: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 A murder mystery is always an interesting story to read. There is a lot of intrigue and mystery in a whodunit plot, with the reader always left guessing who the real culprit is and the motives behind the crime. And it is perhaps […]
A Time to Burnish | Radhika Nathan | Book Review
PLOT: 4/5 CHARACTERS: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 4.5/5 CLIMAX: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4/5 Historical thrillers have a peculiar charm to them. Not only do they give you a historical perspective and information about the past, but there is also a certain thrill in the anticipation that something built or written hundreds of years ago can still […]
The Line Reader | Agni Tripathi | Book Review
PLOT: 3.5/5 CHARACTERS: 3.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 CLIMAX: 3.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 Short stories can be a very tricky form of telling tales. There is no scope for elaborate backstories or time to build characters. The time is limited and the impact that the author needs to have on the reader has to be that […]
Stillness and Speed | Dennis Bergkamp | Book Review
SUBJECT: 4.5/5 RESEARCH: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 4.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4.5/5 If you ask fans of Arsenal football club who they think their best player was, Dennis Bergkamp would certainly be in most peoples’ top 5. The Dutch international was a player that was in the mould of the great Johan Cryuff, someone who wanted to […]
The Hammer of Eden | Ken Follett | Book Review
PLOT: 3/5 CHARACTERS: 4.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 3.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 Equality has never been mankind’s forte, ever, and social rules have always more or less tried to segregate different classes of people. While the idea was to keep the inequality so that people would want to strive to better themselves and do great […]
The Modigliani Scandal | Ken Follett | Book Review
PLOT: 3/5 CHARACTERS: 3/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 Whenever you see either Sotheby’s or Christie’s in the news, it is more than likely because they sold another multimillion-dollar painting of a famous painter that has been dead for a very long time. The art-world is a place where the dealers rule […]
Tales from the Secret Footballer | The Secret Footballer | Book Review
SUBJECT: 4/5 RESEARCH: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4.5/5 Football is one of the most-watched sports in the world and has millions of fans in multiple countries. And the English Premier League is one of the most popular leagues in the world, with fans around the globe waking up at ungodly hours to watch […]
Masturbating With Strangers | Bodhi Alvarez | Book Review
PLOT: 4/5 CHARACTERS: 3.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 CLIMAX: 3.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5 For most of us, it takes a long time to figure out what we really want to do, what we are capable of doing, and what society will allow us to do. By the time we do make head or tail of the […]
Revival | Stephen King | Book Review
PLOT: 4/5 CHARACTERS: 4/5 WRITING STYLE: 4.5/5 CLIMAX: 5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4.5/5 Stephen King is a well-known author, prolifically writing horror stories, suspense and fantasy novels. When you find out that Mr. King has come out with another book, you mostly tend to think it is yet another story that is going to scare the […]
City Times and Other Poems | Vihang A. Naik | Book Review
WRITING STYLE: 3.5/5 CONTENT: 4/5 CONCEPT: 3.5/5 Poetry is one of the beautiful art forms that can truly capture what the artist is imagining or going through. While minimalistic in terms of the words used, the beauty lies in being able to send the message across in a few short lines. While novels and short […]
Moriarty | Anthony Horowitz | Book Review
PLOT: 4.5/5 CHARACTERS: 3.5/5 WRITING STYLE: 4/5 CLIMAX: 4.5/5 ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 4.5/5 Sherlock Holmes is one of the most beloved characters in fiction and is a world-famous detective. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s hero has captured the imagination of people then and now, and if the movies and TV series that keep coming out are any […]