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6 Mind-Boggling Books To Kick Start 2019 A guide by Suryansh Gaur
1. The Silent Companions Laura Purcell’s gothic novel, The Silent Companions, centers around a newly widowed woman who goes to live in her late husband’s country estate. After his death and the end of a short marriage, Elsie goes to see her pregnancy through at the dilapidated old house. With only her husband strange and awkward cousin Sarah for company, she finds that there’s more to fear than the resentful servants and hostile village locals. The ladies discover a diary filled with accounts of death and despair, and a strange wooden figure – the silent companion. Soon, new figures start to appear. Are the ladies seeing things or something is going on? The Silent Companions is a genuinely unsettling novel with its fair share of spirits, mysterious doors and spooky night-time noises that will have you jumping out of your skin. Residing in Colchester, the oldest recorded town in England, Purcell has previously written Queen of Bedlam and Mistress of the Court. She is also known for her spine-tingling Victorian Gothic fiction. If you are a fan of all things spooky, then this is the book for you. The well thought-out, richly developed plot and well-written storyline put it on high on the list of this season’s must reads. Author: Laura Purcell Published By: Bloomsbury Publishing Price: ₹599
2. The Secrets Of My Life This is the memoir of a one-time Olympic champion and American television personality, Bruce Jenner, who later transitioned into womanhood and was as Caitlyn. The book helps you look at gender in a new light. One of the famous transgender women out there, Jenner’s journey helps you understand the struggle she faced but doesn’t beg for sympathy or pity. She talks about growing up as a male in a conservative family and the joy she got from dressing as a woman in private. She also touches upon her three marriages and her regrets when it comes to her children. For fans of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, this memoir also offers an interesting behind-the-scenes take on the life of Bruce Jenner and his relationship with wife, Kris. Though it’s a memoir, the book does a good job of telling a bigger story about transgenders and gender dysphoria. And even though it lags in some places, The Secrets Of My Life offers a great perspective if you stick with it.
3. Carnivore: Let the Villain Win The protagonist (21-year-old Leander) is a druggie and a manipulator. He also has a rare condition called synesthesia, which causes the sufferer to see sounds, taste colors, and perceive numbers as having particular hues. Leander experiences constant pain, which he attempts to counter by renting himself out for some BDSM sex. He explains that he does this only to feel something different. The reader is thrown into this primal world. Leander’s condition means that at times the text is influenced by the narrator’s clash of senses. This makes the narrative intense and the reader knows if what is described is real or not. It is almost impossible to read the book at a stretch. And even if the reader manages to keep up, there are points where you don’t know what is happening or who is talking to whom. The content is sexually explicit and there is a gruesome amount of violence. The writing is unapologetic and yet somehow you feel for this anti-hero, a feat that makes the book worth picking up. Author: Caitlyn Jenner Published By: HarperCollins India Price: ₹399
4. Every Last Lie Clara Solberg has a loving husband Nick, an adorable daughter Maisie, and a newborn Felix, whose birth completes her family. One afternoon, her husband and her four-year-old get into a car crash, where Nick dies. She is left to grieve for her dead husband and care for their two young children. Then Maisie begins talking about a bad man and a black car that followed them that afternoon. So, was Nick’s death an accident or was he murdered? Thus begins Clara’s journey in search of the truth. Mary Kubica, whose earlier works include the bestseller The Good Girl and Don’t You Cry, has managed to weave a gripping tale that will have you hooked. There are enough lies and betrayals to keep you turning pages. The story is told from two perspectives: Nick takes you through the days leading up to the accident, while Clara deals with the aftermath. You never see the whole picture until the end. Every Last Lie is a quick weekend read. The writing is lucid and succinct, but the author’s strength lies in her ability to keep her characters real. This could be anyone’s story. After all, one never knows what goes inside the dark recesses of our minds.
5. Ginny Moon Fourteen-year-old Ginny must eat exactly nine grapes at breakfast, has to have her watch tell the exact time, and carries a secret she can’t talk to anyone about. Benjamin Ludwig’s debut fiction novel, Ginny Moon, is about a wonderfully quirky world of an autistic child who doesn’t fully comprehend most of the things she does and yet feels compelled to carry them out. After years of emotional and physical abuse by her drug addict mother, Ginny is passed around foster homes until Social Services finally finds her ‘forever parents’ in Brian and Maura Moon who live in what will come to be known as the Blue House. Here, Ginny experiences a sense of stability. Things, however, take a drastic turn when Maura gives birth to a baby girl and this triggers disturbing memories for Ginny. It takes her back to when she was living with her birth mother and results in her obsessing over the ‘Baby Doll’ that she left behind. Ludwig, himself the adoptive parent of an autistic child, brings his own keen experiences to the well-written and engaging book. As a reader, one can’t help but feel drawn into this confusing yet beautiful world.
6. Tin Man British actor and author Sarah Winman’s novel opens with Dora winning and painting in a raffle, an incident that ignites something in her. The narrative then moves forward in time to see her son Ellis. The story is essentially one of love, loss, and grief, and is told from two viewpoints, that of Ellis, a lonely boy who is rejected by his father, and his friend, and his friend Michael, who pens his side of the story in his diary. A quick read, Tin Man is about two teenagers growing up between the 1970s and 1990s around a car plant in working-class Oxford. Michael arrives in Ellis and Dora’s life and fits in perfectly, forging deep connections with both mother and son. While the story is largely sad, it’s interspersed with moments of joy and happiness. As the adult Ellis remembers his past loves, he begins to start the process of accepting and loving himself, something that he’d stopped doing years ago. Revisiting the ghosts of his past makes him more aware and appreciative of the present. Beautifully written with well-etched characters, the book makes you ponder over your own ideas of love, loss, and longing. Winman, who made her writing debut in 2011 with the International bestseller When God Was a Rabbit, seems to have made her mark as an author to reckon with.
