A Bizarre Captive's Diary

by Anusha Devi Harish

29 years old Tara’s monotonous routine is interrupted when a strange man enters her life and claims that he will cause bomb blasts and terrorize the religious city of Schedoty in order to exterminate those who believe in the creator and have blind faith. When Tara ignores his claims, the strange man goes ahead with his mission. Will Tara feel guilty? Did she commit a crime of letting the terror attacks occur by not taking an action against the warnings given to her? Or will nihilism prevail and crime she has not have committed as she perceives that imposing religion is in itself a grave sin. Simultaneously, Tara is tormented when her past surfaces in the form of emotions and a close one gets affected with schizophrenia. Can Tara’s philosophical attitude pave way for survival? This story attempts the exposition of existentialism, religious fundamentalism, nihilism, finding what is real in the unreal, and the wrath of sanity and insanity.

262 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 31, 2016

Reviews

[Anu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay, full disclosure, I only read this book because I know the author. She's an old friend, and well, so, yeah. As my rating clearly shows, this does not in anyway affect the review of the book.

This has to be the most depressing book I have ever read in my life. Ever. I will also go out on a limb here and say that I probably will not be reading anything as depressing in the future, so this is also probably the most depressing book I will ever read in my lifetime. I got the book on 5th November, and in comparison to books I've read/am reading, it's tiny, but I swear to you, it took everything I had to make it to the end, because in the name of all that is holy, every single line was punctuated with thoughts a la "death is the best, it's the only solution". Add to this blatant thesaurus violations and characters that I hate with the passion of a thousand burning suns, well, you guys here have been reading my reviews for a while now, so you know where this is going.

Let me start off by talking about Tara, the MC of this book. She is, for the lack of a better word, a Mary Sue. A speshul snowflake. Tary Sue, if you will. Tary Sue is a little different from the other Mary Sues, because she's TBTL rather than TSTL (B is for bitchy). Note the speshul spelling of the word special, because she is that special. Tary Sue is a professor, though we don't really see her doing much teaching during the course of the book. What we do see her doing, is namely three things:
a) Hate the world for being lower than her;
b) Complain about everyone and everything, because she knows she's better than them; and
c) Be rude to every other living entity in her vicinity.
I swear, if I have to be sujected to her incessant, inane inner monologue again, ever, I will go insane. Her proclivity to look down on others isn't just irritating, it's a complete mood killer. I'm not one for being put off my what people think about me, but Tary Sue's views on humanity downright depressed me. I could hear her judging me through the pages, and in very florid language too, because she talks like she's swallowed a fucking thesaurus.

I may be nitpicking here, but I don't like the name Crysti/Crysty (I don't really know which one the correct spelling is, seeing as both are used almost alternately). She could've just been called Christy, ya know? Because, lesser room for error.

This is going to take time, so I'm going to continue tomorrow...

[Floyd Fernandes · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first the book looks very thought provoking. The title does complete justice to the content. Every single thought of the main character has been explained in detail by the author although it does have an over dose of vocabulary. The story starts rather slowly but progresses quickly later on. Some mysteries within the book could have been given more attention.
This is not your typical "princess-gets-rescued" novel and that's what makes it a bit different than the rest. I wouldn't be surprised if a sequel to the book came out. Would love to know what happened to the main character after the end.

[Subramanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is self published and the grammatical errors in the book make it evident that the story lacks an editor. That being said, the story is extremely thought provoking. Of course there is excessive use of lofty language but that doesn't deny the fact that the author has blended in some beautiful poetry while unfolding the story. It's simply metaphorical from the first page to the last. Though the writing style and the story in itself is dark and slightly cynical, the author has tried hard to leave it open for interpretation. The book is definitely worth a read if one enjoys reading philosophical notions such as existentialism and nihilism. Not bad for a debut novel.

[Pooja D'Souza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written book for a rather young first timer. Loved the way the characters and their idiosyncrasies have been woven together with a certain consistency till the end. The fact that it is on the darker tells me that the author has made an attempt to not write instantly likable and cliche material. Looking forward to more from Anusha.