The Fiction Freak Reviews

Book Review: The Handmaid's Tale Author: Margaret Atwood   “ Nolite te bastardes carborundorum. Don't let the bastards grind you down.”      To be perfectly honest, it was the tv series that made me pick this book out and I am glad that I had the pleasure of both reading the book and watching the series. Rarely it happens that a book is perfectly adapted into visual platform of story-telling and in this case not only the tv series covers almost everything that happens along in the book but it has something more to offer, something to tie up the loose ends in the book which, I am sure, is going to and has been giving the readers nightmares.   “ But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.”     Now lets talk about the book. The Republic of Gilead or loosely a major part of United States of America where t...

Book Review: Holy Fools Author: Joanne Harris   “From a certain height, everyone looks the same - men, women, villains, kings - as if rank and fortune were simply an accident of perspective.”   I remember I was kind of skeptical to pick up my first Joanne Harris' book Chocolat. By the time I turned over the last page of that book, I was an adherent Joanne Harris fan. And since then I have had collected all her books. This one, "Holy Fools", came as a surprise (which I shall eventually explain) and proved it that Joanne Harris is one of the best storyteller ever. 'Holy Fools' has every bit of expertise storytelling with every page that one can't miss oneself to amuse over the simplicity yet powerful narrative.   “Love not often, but forever.”   The premise of this book is set in 17th century France, there is the murder of Henri IV which resulted into massive upheaval in the country, a time where witch trails, regicide and religious frenzy was ...

Book Review: The Shining Author: Stephen King "Redrum"   Alright this is the second time I am reading the absolute classic from Stephen King,  The Shining . It was many years back when I first watched the movie and was so captivated by the story which was when I got myself introduced to Stephen King and the first book of his that I picked up was The Shining. I was instantly in love with his style and the way he brings spine-chilling horror to every single page of his books in the most simple yet brilliant way. Years later, now, while I was watching an episode of Friends, when I saw Joey 'Matt leBlanc' stating that how The Shining was his favorite book and how it terrifies him that he has to put the book in his freezer, I made up my mind to read it once again.   "They were a party of settlers in covered-wagon times. They got snowbound one winter in the mountains. They had to resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive."   The Shining revolves a...

Book Review: Into the Water Author: Paula Hawkins Beware a calm surface—you never know what lies beneath. I should state that I haven't read the phenomenal book (so as it is claimed) "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins which is her debut novel. Rather absentmindedly I grabbed her second book "Into the Water" and I must say once again I was skeptical about it in the beginning but gradually through and over the latter part of the book, I was glad that I had pickup up this one.  The horrors conjured up by the mind are always so much worse than what is. Nel Abbot is dead. She went over the cliff into the drowning pool leaving a daughter, Lena, back in the mortal world.Following the unexplained death of her sister, Nel Abbot, Jules Abbott returns to Beckford, a town in Northumberland, to take care of her niece, Lena. Now Jules has been dragged back to the one place she never ever dreamt of returning, the last thing on her mind was to face back the horrors of her...