Carrie - Stephen King

When I was a teenager, I used to read The Princess Diaries series. And I distinctly remember a reference to Carrie that the main character made in the first book. As a result, I was aware of the plot even before I read the book. Now, if you're a horror enthusiast, you'd know that once you're aware of the plot, the intensity and the suspense diminishes by a considerable amount. However, in this case, even though I was aware of the plot, Carrie kept me on the edge of my seat.

The book alternates between two time periods - the past and the present. The format of the book is epistolary - it includes newspaper clippings, excerpts from published autobiographies of people who witnessed the "incident" that occurred, published articles by scholars researching about the "incident" along with regular narration in third person of the events leading up to the "incident", thereby, building up the suspense.

Carrie is a 17 year old girl who is bullied by her classmates in school for being a social outcast. Growing up in an overly-protected environment thanks to her fanatically religious mother, she does not understand social norms and as a result, is an easy target for bullies. After a particularly nasty bullying session, one of the girls involved, Sue Snell, feels guilty and convinces her boyfriend to take Carrie to their senior prom instead of her. The act, though done out of good intention, turns out to be the final straw in the humiliation of Carrie. I will not reveal anything further than that as this is one of those books where it's better to go in without much prior knowledge.

The primary complain that I usually have with horror novels is their one-dimensional characters. However, Carrie deeply explores the backstory of all of the significant characters. This book also touches on some disturbing subjects like marital rape which leaves a lasting impact on the victim in the book.

Apart from an engaging plot, Carrie also manages to keep you emotionally engaged without heavily relying on flowery prose. You can feel Sue Snell's guilt as deeply as you can feel Carrie's alienation and distress. You can also tell that the mixed and contradictory messages from her peers and her mother really confuses her and further alienates her from the society.

"Jesus watches from the wall,
But His face is cold as stone,
And if He loves me,
Why do I feel so all alone?"
- An excerpt from Carrie's journal

Another thing that I really liked was the actual horror element. Carrie offers a mixture of supernatural and psychological horror. Her plight is almost horrifying to contemplate. I'm not saying that this book will give you nightmares but, it will make you question a lot of things that you see happening around you. For example - sometimes, bullies are unaware/wilfully ignorant of the deep psychological impact that they leave on their victims. This book makes you wonder how easily avoidable the entire incident could have been if only people were a little more nice and accepting of others.

Overall, I'd like to say that if you want to sample Stephen King's writing before jumping into some of his larger sized novels, Carrie is a good book to start as it is fairly short and fast-paced. You can also check out View from the Bar on YouTube who is really good at discussing the finer points of Stephen King's novels or the movie adaptation starring John Travolta (if you don't want to read the book).

A random playlist of songs mentioned in the book -
Just Like A Woman - Bob Dylan
Tombstone Blues - Bob Dylan

Coraline - Neil Gaiman

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

I was almost sceptical about this book because of it being a children's book, a genre that I can't seem to enjoy much lately. However, Coraline was a pleasant surprise. It was not because the plot blew me away. There wasn't much of a shock value to it. However, the story worked well with the atmosphere of the book. It has Neil Gaiman's trademark humour and simplistic writing style along with badass characters who leave a lasting impression on you.

In this story, Coraline and her family move to a new flat. As soon as she moves there, her explorer instincts start working and she discovers a locked door in the dining room and finds a brick wall upon opening it. When she tries again a second time, she is surprised to find a corridor at the end of which she finds a flat resembling her own. In this other world, she meets her "other parents" who are a perfect version of her own parents, i.e., attentive to her every need. They even look alike - with the exception of their button-like eyes. However, Coraline is able to see through the charming facade and realises that they mean to keep her as their own child forever. She manages to escape and returns to her actual flat only to discover that her real parents are trapped in a mirror and that she must go back to the other world in order to rescue them. And there begins her adventure in the "other world" as she tries to rescue her parents while trying to keep herself from falling for the evil traps of her "other mother". As the plot progresses, the book gets creepier and you're drawn into this intense suspense where you're trying to figure out whether Coraline will be successful or not. As a reader, you feel engaged to the events occurring in the book. For example - when Coraline gets locked in a dark room, you can almost feel her fear in anticipation of what she might find there.

Apart from that, Coraline is filled with fascinating characters. Coraline's character is almost nostalgic as she reminds you of your childhood, when the world was fascinating and full of wonder and when moving to a new place meant exploring every nook and cranny with almost as much enthusiasm as a pirate in search of a lost treasure. Her natural curiosity and quick wit makes her a fascinating character to read about. That, combined with the plot and the way she deals with the situations she finds herself in, makes her a truly unforgettable character.  She exhibits a level of maturity that most adults strive to achieve. For example, this is what she says when her "other mother" tries to lure her by providing her with everything that she could ever want -
“I don't want whatever I want. Nobody does. Not really. What kind of fun would it be if I just got everything I ever wanted just like that, and it didn't mean anything? What then?”
 
One might argue that most children of her age do not have the maturity to understand this and that it is an unrealistic portrayal of kids of her age. However, I personally think that Coraline is a great role model for the impressionable children who are the targeted audience of the book. In fact, even adults can learn a lot from her.

So, in conclusion,  Coraline is a short but wonderfully dark and creepy book that will genuinely end up surprising you. There is also a movie adaptation which I've heard is almost as good as the book (which you can check out if you still feel unsure about the book).

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

As someone who is suffering from a Stranger Things hangover, Neverwhere was the perfect book to go back into the world of alternate universes. Dark, witty and imaginative, Neverwhere was a delight through and through.

The story follows Richard Mayhew, who leads a dull, predictable regular adult life whose idea of "injecting a little personality into his working world" is to place a troll figure on his computer monitor. However, his life turns around when he finds himself in the midst of chaos when he decides to help a wounded girl. He finds out that the girl, Door, is from London Below, an alternative world with rules quite different from our own. Door is on the run from two hired professionals, Mr. Vandemar and Mr. Croup. As Richard starts getting involved in Door's alternate world, he becomes almost invisible in our own. Helpless and desperate to be noticed again, he decides to follow Door to London Below where he goes on an unbelievable and almost life-threatening adventure exploring London Below, interacting with "rat speakers" and seeing a real-life angel for the first time. One thing is certain - life will never go back to normal for Richard or for any of us, for that matter.

“Richard wrote a diary entry in his head. Dear Diary, he began. On Friday I had a job, a fiancée, a home, and a life that made sense. (Well, as much as any life makes sense). Then I found an injured girl bleeding on the pavement, and I tried to be a Good Samaritan. Now I've got no fiancée, no home, no job, and I'm walking around a couple of hundred feet under the streets of London with the projected life expectancy of a suicidal fruitfly.”  

The most wonderful thing about this book is that even though it is technically an "adult" fantasy, it has the imaginative quality of a children's fiction. It creates an atmosphere which almost fools you into thinking that you're a part of the adventures in London Below. 

Then there's the characterization - Richard's as mundane as a man can ever be. He does not strike you as particularly heroic. Yet, when push comes to shove, he surprises you with what an ordinary man can achieve when he puts his mind to it. Another character who leaves a lasting impression is Hunter. She's beautiful and physically strong and a very focused individual, in general. She defies so many gender stereotypes that it's hard not to like her.

In conclusion, this was one of the most fascinating and engaging books that I have ever read. I would definitely recommend it to everyone. Also, this book was released as a companion novel to a BBC miniseries of the same name. I would recommend checking it out (although, I've never seen it myself so I can't really comment on it).

Men Explain Things To Me - Rebecca Solnit

Men Explain Things to Me is a collection of essays focusing on feminism and the need for it. And no, this is not one of those feminist books that delves into the border of misandry. I wasn't aware of this but apparently the first essay (i.e. the first chapter of the book) was originally published as a blog post which went viral which then encouraged the author to write this book.

From the title of the book, you'd think that this book would be mainly about incidents of mansplaining. However, the author only brings that up in the first chapter of the book. The rest of the book focuses on sexism, incidents of rape, increasing sexual assault against women, domestic violence and the effects of patriarchy. It is apparent that the author has put in a lot of research as she uses data, statistics and current events to emphasise her point. And because of that, one cannot deny that while much has been accomplished, the struggle does not end here and there's still a long way to go - a point specially emphasised in her chapter "The Longest War". She also dedicates a chapter on how people in a position of power exploit others emphasising her point by bringing up the incident of Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The book does lose its flow in between and that's the only criticism that I have of this book.
Overall, as someone who is trying to understand feminism and the need for it in the modern day, this book was insightful and informative and it put forth a strong conviction.

Easy - Tammara Webber

In the month of February, I ended up reading books that I never imagined I would read (Easy by Tammara Webber, being one of them).

Why didn't I want to read this book with glowing Goodreads reviews?
 Because I thought it was a romance novel judging by the cover. (Inserted below to justify my thinking so)

SPOILER ALERT!!! - It did turn out to be a Romance novel.

Now, coming to the book, it starts out as a conventional unrealistic romance novel. (I would like to clarify that this book is technically considered to be within the "Contemporary" and "New Adult" genre.) The main character, Jacquelyn enrols herself in her long-time boyfriend's college just to "be with him" (sacrificing her own dreams in the process). However, aforementioned ex-boyfriend, Kennedy, decides that he wants to sleep with other girls and doesn't want to be tied down to one girl. So he breaks up with Jacquelyn and justifies himself by saying -

"Look, everyone knows that one of the worst things a political candidate or elected representative can do is to become embroiled in some sexual scandal. I'm only human, Jackie, and if I have these desires to sow my wild oats or whatever and I repress it, I'll probably have the same desire later, even worse. But acting on it then would be a career-killer. I have no choice but to get it out of my system while I can do it without annihilating my future professional standing."

You can already tell that he'd make a great politician. Discretion is clearly his strong suit, after all.(Note the sarcasm)

 Jacquelyn's life takes a turn when a new guy enters in her life (who saves her from a possible sexual assault by a fellow college student, Buck). But, it turns out New Guy aka Lucas has secrets of his own. (Am I the only one who is tired of the mysterious guy with a troubled past trope?)

Anyway, coming to the only good part of the book - it heavily stresses on the importance of reporting sexual assaults and possibly that rape is never the fault of the victim. The book's heavy anti-victim blaming message is possibly the reason behind its popularity among readers. I acknowledge that it is an important message to put out there but, the book was problematic. And no amount of good message can erase that. 

First of all, it was unrealistic - from Jacquelyn's lack of reaction after being assaulted to the fact that Lucas is instantly obsessed with her even before they've had an interaction (there's literally a conversation between him and Jacquelyn where he reveals that he had wanted to "take her away" from her ex-boyfriend when he first met her because he was "inexplicably" drawn to her).

Then there was the issue of the characters lacking depth and the awkward timings of character backstory. The entire thing felt like it was a bait for the readers to pity Lucas. The author wanted you to sympathise with her main characters while, hating everyone else in the process. For example: In Jacquelyn's college, only a few people were genuinely nice. Everyone else, specially the fellow girls of her college, seemed to passionately hate Jacquelyn for no reason whatsoever. And this is honestly something I'm tired of seeing. Not to mention, the justifications that some of the characters gave for their actions irritated me.

So, in conclusion, I was not a huge fan of this book despite its content and message. It was an important message but I'd rather read something else with a similar message, to be very frank.