15 December 2016

Review #573: Dark Things by Sukanya Venkatraghavan



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“A pure heart faces the worst kind of evil in this world. But as it sleeps it's blessed, and it wakes up cleansed and a little bit stronger.”

----Gregor Collins



Sukanya Venkatraghavan, an Indian author, has penned a delectable fantasy story, Dark Things that revolves around an immortal maiden without a heart and a thrust to seduce and steal the darkest secrets from her chosen men thereby killing them, in order to serve the queen of her realm, but when one of her mortal victims survives her power, the queen venges to kill the maiden and so the mortal, but the maiden must get answers before she give up her life blindly and not to mention, when the monster-slayer in on her trail, she must protect herself at any cost.


Synopsis:

Somewhere on Prithvi, a mortal survives a supernatural attack. In the dark realm of Atala, an evil goddess prepares to do the Unspeakable. And a Yakshi finds herself at the heart of an other-worldly storm. Ardra has only known life as a Yakshi, designed to seduce and kill men after drawing out their deepest, darkest secrets for her evil mistress Hera, queen of the forsaken realm of Atala. Then, on one strange blood moon night, her chosen victim, Dwai, survives, and her world spins out of control. Now Ardra must escape the wrath of Hera, who is plotting to throw the universe into chaos. To stop her, Ardra needs to find answers to questions she hasn't dared to ask before. What power does the blood moon hold? Is the sky city of Aakasha as much a myth as its inhabitants - the ethereal and seductive Gandharvas and Apsaras? Who is Dara, the mysterious monster-slayer, and what makes Dwai impervious to her powers? A heady concoction of fantasy and romance, Dark Things conjures up a unique world wrought of love and sacrifice, of shadows and secrets, of evil and those who battle it.


Ardra, a Yakshi (a magical siren) from the realm of Atala has landed upon Prithvi (Earth) to seduce and kill her human prey in order to steal their secrets which she is going to provide to her powerful evil goddess and the queen of Atala, Hera. But Ardra's prey survives mysteriously and she must do something before Hera finds out about it. And that is when things begin to fall apart as the balance between the realms and the Prithvi begins to get disrupted by the chaos began by Hera who wants to gain power and control over the whole universe, and when a powerful queen like Hera embarks upon a path to revenge, enemies like a monster slayer and a simple Yakshi can become a big hurdle for her.

After reading this book, I was left utterly mystified by the intensity of the author's story-telling power and the way the story grasped me and drowned me into its darkness and depth that I lost the sense of time and place. This is a story that is based on age-old Indian mythological tales and folklore that the author modified with some spice and unique world building that has a distinctive charm found rarely in the fantasy books now-a-days. I swear, I've haven't read this good Indian fantasy story ever before. Hats off to the author for pulling off the story so realistically and also in a non-cliched manner!

The author's writing style is exquisite, laced and balanced perfectly with emotions and gripping tension to make the tale intriguing in the eyes of the readers. The narrative style is articulate but at times, I felt like the flow of the story line is bit rushed, especially near the end. Yet right from the beginning, this story had a firm grip onto my mind and soul and did not once let me turn my eyes away from this book. Well actually I could not afford to do so, as the twists kept bugging me to turn the next page and keep unraveling the underlining mystery of this story.

The characters are well defined and well crafted out with honesty and enough sensitivity to make them look humble in the eyes of the readers. The main protagonist, Ardra is unlike any damsel-in-distress kind of character, instead she is bold, brave and beautiful and her curiosity, wisdom and the power to analyse situations make her stand out among the hoards of fantastical and supernatural characters. Her demeanor is clam, controlled, thoughtful and very much real, even though she is a supernatural being, yet her projection is thoroughly human-like. The rest of the supporting cast are also quite interesting enough and holds the power to keep the fire burning till the very end of the story.

The world building is strikingly and flawlessly done by the author. The author's writing about this fictional and mystical universe is detailed and the visual imagery is very evident with the way she has projected the scenes from her book. The backdrop is charming, dark, scary yet enchanting enough to give that magical feel to the readers.

In a nutshell, this is a must read fantasy book book for all Indian contemporary readers, and a gem like Sukanya Venkatraghavan is rarely found in the Indian literature's modern days.

Verdict: Highly engrossing, bewitching and enlightening part-mythological-part-fantasy read!

Courtesy: Thanks to the dear author, Sukanya Venkatraghavan, for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.
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Author Info:
Sukanya Venkat is an Indian writer, partial to the fantasy genre of fiction.
Currently based in Mumbai, Sukanya lives with her husband and a large congregation of cat and owl figurines collected from all over the world.
Sukanya’s first brush with fantasy was as a film journalist in Mumbai, covering the glamourous, yet daunting world of Bollywood with publications like Filmfare and Marie-Claire.
Having grown up listening to tales of Indian mythology and folklore narrated by her grandfather, as well as reading western classics from the library in the attic of her childhood home in Kerala, it was but natural that her progression to life as a writer would revolve around gods, apsaras, rakshasas and the like.
These days, her waking hours are spent trying to balance out the magical and the mundane. Between painting, tarot reading and writing, she enjoys toeing the fine line between fantasy and reality.
She slips through the veil sometimes and brings back tales from elsewhere.
Dark Things is the first one.­­­­­
Visit her here


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2 comments:

  1. I ve already read few of ur reccos. This one is quite a fantastical & detailed review. Added to my tbr~2017 ��

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