Kaushal Angara

Gone Girl penned by Gillian Flynn is a surprisingly tremendous book. It is a feast for readers who like to read thriller books with shades of the psychological thriller genre. It is also written in dark shades of the crime that is happening in the book. The book is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the couple, Nick and Amy’s poor financial situations and Amy disappearing on their fifth anniversary. While investigating, Nick gets to know some secrets like Amy being pregnant. The second part focuses on Nick and Amy being unreliable narrators and that Nick was cheating Amy. It was revealed that Amy was alive and planned her disappearance. She planned everything so that it could be against Nick. Nick “apologizes” for being a bad husband to Amy on live news. Investigators find evidence that is against Nick and arrests him. Amy sees the news and is impressed by him. She leaves her hiding place and creates a new story to tell the investigators and Nick (even though they know it’s a lie). In the third and final part, Nick and Amy get back together. Nick tries to sell a book on the plans made by Amy. Amy finds out about this and blackmails him with her unborn baby. In the end, Nick tries out to be a perfect husband. This is a really good book because it has all the elements a crime thriller book needs. This book contains unreliable narrators, suspense, and a lot of plot twists to surprise the reader. These plot devices have made the book more interesting and made the plot creepier and bone-chilling. The dark shades of Amy’s nature have also made the book and the plot creepy. The anti-social nature, sociopath traits, and the skills where Amy can manipulate others have made this book a psychological thriller partially. I also feel that the book, The Girl on the Train written by Paula Hawkins is similar because of the unreliable narrators and plot twists. In the end, this book can definitely worth a read

Lockdown is a one-time read crime thriller. The book picked up with an interesting storyline and elements but it didn't reach up to the mark as the perfect thriller for me. The idea of this book was good but the execution and the writing of the story were quite let down. The story is about a group of investigators trying to solve the murder of a girl committed by a horrific murderer who is on loose. The story drops a pandemic as a backdrop. Elements such as the pandemic, the murder, and parts of the investigation made me fly through the pages. As I kept reading, the book seemed to be not compelling anymore. The book trailed off for me and it wasn't gripping to me anymore as I was done with a little more than half of the book. The book was going in a straightforward format and did not give me any surprises or twists. The reason for the origin of the pandemic was quite illogical. The book was only about the investigation of the murder, the book didn’t talk about the solutions to get rid of the pandemic. Even though the pandemic was misused or was not explored as much, the investigation and other elements weren't good enough to read. The story needed more detailing and it didn't have the spark every crime thriller novel needs to have. Plus, the ending of the story was disastrous. The ending didn't make any sense and it was unconvincing. The ending was not thought of properly. In the end, the story was illogical and unconvincing and is one of my least favorites of all time.

Into The Water penned by Paula Hawkins starts with high expectations with an interesting storyline but misfires with the entangled writing. I was excited about this second book by Paula Hawkins but it was quite disappointing. It’s not as good as the first book. To be honest, I felt that this book was written by a different author. The book is about a pool where mysterious deaths occur and all characters in the book are somehow connected to the deaths that take place in the river. It didn’t create the same aura, the same suspense as it did for The Girl On The Train. I really liked nothing except for the fact that it was written by Paula Hawkins and the characters revealed secrets as the book progressed. There were a lot of characters and it was hard to keep track of who did what. There were so many points of view that it failed to write more about the characters and it was confusing while I was reading the book. If there were few characters and would have created separate characteristics, I would have easily identified the characters. It was quite overwhelming and could have eliminated the characters. Reading this book made me bored. Coming to the writing aspects, the writing was really inconsistent because of the number of characters there were. The character development was really low and could have written refreshing twists. The storyline was pretty good and has set up the mood for readers. The author was troubled keeping the story straight. The author was focused more on the characters and making ties, connecting those characters to the mysterious death that took place. The climax was also not really satisfying. If you compare this to the book, The Girl On The Train, The Girl On The Train had few important characters and those characters had a lot of characterization and were focusing on their behavior. It also had pretty good twists but Into The Water was totally opposite. In conclusion, the storyline and the plot were interesting to read but the book switched with many characters and points of view, and doing this made the plot confusing and hazy.

The Girl on the Train is one of the best psychological thrillers that came out in the following years. It is also one of the best debut novels ever given. This book is a who dun it story with multiple characters coming into the role. The plot is told in a first-person perspective with three different narrators, Megan Hipwell, Rachel Watson, and Anna Boyd. The book has used a theme, unreliable narrators, which has been a huge plus to the plot of the book. The story is about the disappearance of a woman, Megan Hipwell and how does it involve the three narrators in the disappearance. As you flip the pages, the book begins to be more interesting and you start to doubt every character because each character has complicated relationships and secrets and each character has committed a mistake in the book. Every character has been given a detailed description and arc, which makes them very unique. Rachel Watson is an alcoholic who is trying to “recover” from her failed marriage. She watches Megan’s couple every day on the train, comparing her past life to theirs. She also tries to visit Tom’s new family and bothers them. She tries to recover her memories because of her blackouts from being an alcoholic. Megan Hipwell is the total opposite of what Rachel thinks she is. She has no happiness because of the abusive husband and is guilty of her dead baby. She starts to have an affair with Tom. This is similar to what happened with Rachel, as Tom and Anna are married. When Megan finds out she is pregnant, she wants to start a new chapter but Tom kills Megan to the affair a secret. Anna is a protective woman for her family. She takes care of her family and looks out for them. She is both an unreliable narrator and victim because she cheated on Tom and was being cheated by Tom. She views herself as a perfect parent and views herself above both Megan and Rachel. In conclusion, this book is a perfect thriller and a must-read with an age restriction. This book is a book that needs to be on the top list for every reader.