The Psychopath, The Cannibal, The Lover

Why do you think a person becomes a murderer? Are they born as inhuman monsters or things change later? Tushagra (the psycopath) is sent to a boarding school despite his reluctance and his bitter experiences allow him to nurture the evil inside him. In due course of time, he crosses path with Aaina (the cannibal) whose tragic childhood led her to become a barbaric and bloodthirsty hunter. Ajay, apparently a potential victim of Tushagra urges his best friend Raj (the lover), an aspiring author, to document a story. Raj’s curiosity and obsession with the story takes him to places, and reveals gut wrenching truths. This novel claims to be a horror thriller but the horror aspect is not due to ghosts, witches or spirits. Rather, it is produced by flesh and blood humans who are capable of doing unimaginable things. The plot involves three very dark characters whom I sometimes admired, sometimes sympathised with and sometimes I totally despised them. This books clearly showed me why we should not allow evil to conquer our own goodness, despite facing terrible situations. As the novel proceeded, I noticed an improvement in the writing style. The language is lucid and the occasional usage of Hindi dialogues (of course English translations are provided in parentheses) made it really relatable and life like. Some scenes were gory and a few descriptions made me feel uncomfortable, but that’s how life too often is – uncomfortable and unfair. The titles of individual chapters are very catchy and a lot of them are wittily inspired by various songs and movie titles. I liked the thrill as much as I liked exploring the psyche of the serial killers. This is a brilliant and very out of the box attempt by a debut author and I recommend this book to everyone who has a taste for thrillers and crime fiction.

—Tanisha