Life as I know It

The Testaments is a 2019 novel by Margaret Atwood, the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale (1985).  The novel has three narrators: Aunt Lydia (who doesn't remember her from The Handmaid's Tale?), Agnes (the elder daughter of the Handmaid growing up in Gilead) and Daisy (or Nicole, the younger daughter of the Handmaid, who was smuggled out of Gilead as an infant and is growing up in Canada with her adoptive parents). The novel is fast-paced and doesn't waste any time. We are quickly introduced to the current-day Gilead and the rot that has set in society. What nobody knows is that Aunt Lydia is gleaning the evidence of all the wrongdoings by the Commanders and their Wives, and the other men in power. Aunt Lydia - what a transformation she undergoes while remaining true to character. We are given plenty of backstory about her beginning in Gilead and how she came to become an Aunt, the friends she betrayed and the crimes she committed to save herself. She is a tough, conniving c...

Career of Evil is the third novel in the Cormoran Strike series by J. K. Rowling, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.  More than the gripping first chapter from the POV of the serial killer who wants to kill women and chop their bodies, more than the shocking object Robin Ellacott receives by courier, more than the gruesome backstories of the three prime suspects, more than the serial murders we witness from the POV of the murderer - what I enjoyed the most about this highly entertaining novel is the evolution of the relationship between the two primary characters, Cormoran Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott. It's the one uniting thread between all the novels in the series and the way their relationship evolves from the first novel to the subsequent novels has been depicted in a most delightful and engaging way.  Without giving away any spoilers, the real clues about the identity of the serial killer are hidden in the events of the story, amongst the re...

The Maze Runner is the first novel in the Maze Runner series by James Dashner.   From page one, the novel is a gripping, adrenalin-pumping, roller-coaster of an adventure in a dystopian science fiction setting. The protagonist, Thomas, finds himself in a metallic box that brings him to the Glade, a sort of an encampment in the middle of a massive, unsolvable maze. If you've guessed correctly that the Maze is a dangerous place inhabited by blood-thirsty creatures that are half-animal and half-machine, you're right. The Grievers always come out at night and sometimes during the day too. The Gladers, boys between twelve to seventeen years old, have established "order" to survive. They grow vegetables, rear animals for slaughter, build residential structures, bury their dead and they run. The best of the best become the Runners, who go into the dangerous maze each day, every day to find a way out, a way back into the normal world where Mom and Dad and normal things like s...