Halloween Read-A-Thon Book Review: Dark Things by Sukanya Venkatraghavan

Dark Things by Sukanya Venkatraghavan

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?

I liked Ardra. She was a well rounded character and highly relatable. She knows her capabilities and weaknesses. She isn't Miss.Perfect and she never pretends to be one either. She makes for a really good protagonist. At times she reminded me of Rose Hathaway from the Vampire Academy series.

I preferred Dara to Dwai. To me, Dara seemed more realistic somehow. But both characters add a well crafted dimension to the story.

I even liked Hera. (Allow me to explain!) I liked her because she was written so well that I hated her. (Does that make sense to you?)

All the other characters from Mantri to Vina were perfect. Each character in the book is there for a reason. Their being there adds to the plot and makes it all the more interesting.

I love the concept to Yakshis, Apsaras and Ghandharvas. I like the shadow creatures and the various other creatures the author talks about in the book. I love the creatures within the mirrors(One of my favourite concepts; reading about mirrors as actual living characters.). Overall I am in awe of the world building of Atala and Aakasha.

Can we talk about the twists? In the middle of the story I thought i'd figure it all out. I thought I knew what had happened. But let me tell you I've never been more wrong! When the questions are answered and the doubts were cleared, I believe I looked something like this...



and



Like trust me, the truth is unbelievable.

The plot was like nothing I've ever read before and it was pretty awesome :)

The author creates quite powerful imagery. As I read I could see Atala in my mind. I could imagine exactly how Vishara looked like. The writing is descriptive but not an overkill. Though at times the shift in timeline through me off guard but I quickly got used to it and after that the writing was pretty fluid.

There were certain quotes I really loved, more so when their meanings become more clear as the story progresses.

"Like the difference between a dream and its memory"

For some reason, It's one of my favourites.

- The freaking awesome and unique plot

- The fact that Indian mythology has been used with a modern twist

- The characters

-Hmmm, the shifts in the timeline maybe?

If you haven't picked up the book, please do so as soon as possible. It is unique with compelling characters and great twists. On the back cover it says, "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."
And that is exactly what Dark Things is.

(P.S. A shoutout to Diana from Book Reviews by Di for helping me with some HTML coding. Thank you Di :) )

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