Graceling by Kristin Cashore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Book " Graceling" tells the story of Katsa who is born into the Middluns one of the seven kingdoms. In the seven kingdoms, some people are born with an exceptional skill known as Grace (Almost like Mutation in X-men series). The protagonist Katsa carries the Grace of Killing, making her most feared among her fellow beings. Since her Uncle Randa is the king of Middluns,Instead of killing her off, he uses her as a soldier for special purposes such as assassinations etc. Katsa can easily fight 10 to 20 armoured soldiers simulataneously without receiving a scratch. Feared by most and shunned by all, Katsa remains defiant, forming a council to do humane activities.

The story starts with Katsa and her fellow council Members Oll, Giddon, rescuing the father of King of Lienid. After drugging almost all of the soldiers at the prison in Sunder, she comes across the Seventh Prince of Lienid (Po) who came in search of his Grandfather and who is graced with fighting. Knocking him down, she reurns to middluns with the Father of the King of Lienid. Po comes to Lienid and becomes friends with Katsa. They together tries to work out the mystery -"Who would want to kidnap the old man, and why? ". Later Katsa comes to a realisation that she no longer wants to kills or do the dirty work of Randa. She defies Randa and then leaves Middluns with Po to pursue the mystery of the kidnapping, to finally learn that something insidious lurks behind the mystery.

The story offers steady flow of suspense, romance and a variety of characters and a very likable protagonist. But the overall plot seems to be meagre in content even though its highly entertaining and a very excellent read.

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The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The sequel of "The Sea of Monsters" starts with Percy, Annabeth and Thalia (Daugter of Zeus, Resurrected from the Pine Tree in the "The Sea of Monsters"), acting as a backup for Grover who has scouted 2 Demi-gods, two siblings named Nico and Bianca di Angelo. But things turns out to be nasty when the monster who has been pretending to be the instructor, Dr. Thorne turns out to be a manticore. With the help of Artemis, the goddess of Hunt, and her hunters (incl.Zoe Nightshade), they are able to fend of the manticore but Annabeth is kidnapped in the process. From Dr.Thorne, they come to know about the search for a dangerous creature which if sacrificed gives the person power even obliterate the Olympus. Artemis goes on the search for this mysterious creature but is captured, according to Percy's and Zoe's dream. and Percy comes to know from the dream that Annabeth and Artemis are at the same place & that Luke is responsible for their Present Fate.

Percy and his friends must look for Artemis before the winter solstice meeting of the Olympian council (which is within a week or so), when the goddess's influence could change their view on the awakening of the Titans which they continue to ignore. Percy joins Thalia, Zoe, Bianca di Angelo, and Grover on their dangerous quest. They also are searching for a rare monster that Artemis was trying to hunt down when she went missing which is so strong that it can obliterate Olympus.

They embark on an adventure during which they come to know about the shocking real identities of some of characters and engages on much more enthralling battle with mighty villians & monsters with the help of cool gods, than the previous books.

The book takes the Percy Jackson series to a higher level. The Titan's Curse is the far better than the 1st and 2nd book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series - delivering fast- paced, action packed adventures with mythological touch and the promise of more thrilling adventures & a mightier all-powerful war to ensue.

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The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars




The Second book of the “Percy Jackson and The Olympians” Series is almost as interesting as the first one. Riordan has successfully introduced many new characters and braided a sensational story with humour, little bit of romance, adventure, peril and mythology into his “Percy Jackson and The Sea Monsters”. Same as the previous one, PJ&SM is an insomnia-inflicting page turner.



After a huge adventurous journey saving the world from war among Gods, Percy Jackson returns to school having a trivial silent school life. In his new school, he makes acquaints and later becomes best friends with homeless Tyson who is little slow brained and really muscular and big. After wrecking the whole school gym to fight cannibalistic monsters with the help of Annabeth and Tyson, Percy goes on the run, returning to camp-half blood to find it in peril. The Zeus’s Daughter-who-became-a-pine-tree, Thailia, has been poisoned thereby making the magical boundary that protects Camp Half-Blood enervated, and mortal danger befalls the demigods at the hand of deadly monsters. Percy dreams about his satyr friend Grover being in trouble and comes to know that Grover had created an empathy-link with Percy to let Percy know about his fate (So if Grover dies, Percy also dies). He also comes to know that Grover is detained by a Cyclops and it also has the Golden Fleece which if brought to the camp can save Thalia’s Tree.



In order to save the camp and his best friend, Grover, who has been taken prisoner on an island somewhere in the dangerous Sea of Monsters, presently known as The Bermuda Triangle, Along with his friends Tyson & Annabeth, Percy embarks on a adventurous journey to the Sea of Monsters encountering many Mythological characters. Before that Percy learns that he has a half-brother.





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Divergent by Veronica Roth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Divergent has an ingenious plot even though there seems to be many similarities to Hunger Games (according to many other people, not me). There are some minor faults in the plot (such as Tris getting transformed into a badass fighter within weeks of training) which can be attributed to the fact that this book is Veronica Roth’s debut work. The first half of the story is kinda devoted to character building and may seem little slow but it is fun to read how Beatrice Adapts to her new faction. And the second part is what you call “tense, surging and insomnia- inflicting”. Overall Divergent is a terrific book even if you are or are not a fan of Dystopian Thriller Genre and I hope the second part of this trilogy “Insurgent” (release date May 1, 2012) really pulls it off.



Divergent is written in Singular First-Person Narrative (in present tense) in the perspective of Beatrice Prior, a girl in her early teens. Divergent is set in a future dystopian Chicago, which is divided into five factions, each dedicated to celebrating and cultivating a single character trait: Abnegation (Selflessness), Amity (Peace), Candor (Honesty), Dauntless (Bravery), and Erudite (Knowledge). The book starts with Beatrice despite being in Abnegation, is perplexed about choosing one of the five factions on the choosing ceremony. Everyone is supposed to participate in the aptitude test before the choosing ceremony, where you will be provided simulation serum and you will undergo mental simulations to figure out which faction you may belong (but choosing the factions only depends on your interest and If you choose a faction & fail in the initiation of that faction, then you will be faction less.). Beatrice then undergoes this simulation but receives a unexpected result which further confuses her in the choosing. Further the story is about Beatrice undergoing the Initiation and subsequently learning a plot to Coup d'état. From this point on the story become tense and thrilling.





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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Idea of using Greek Mythology, the-all-powerful-gods-of-Olympus-ruling-over-mortals, still existing in the modern world seemed pretty cool to me. I finished the series in a single stretch since I’m so into the whole super natural-superhero-fantasy kind of thing. Seriously i captivated by the tinge of comedy and romance in the atmosphere of the whole story. Overall the series is a fantastic read for all fun loving-thriller-fantasy fans.

Percy Jackson is a typical American Kid with a bad boy streak (Not the ordinary kind) which leads to him getting expelled from multiple schools. He also faces problems like dyslexia, ADHD and also he has to put up with his stepdad who is a screw-up. Finally his whole world transmogrifies when he learns that he is a Half-blood which means one of his parent is a God (The Gods transforms into ordinary mortal like and fall in love with mortals, hence the off springs being Half God - Half Human making them Mortal half-blood who are powerful than the normal people in their own way depending on the powers of their parents). Reaching 12 years of age, the half-bloods give out a scent which makes them target to monsters which apparently the normal people can’t see and they interpret the destruction caused according to own normal thinking . And Percy goes to this Camp-Half Blood where Half-blood are trained where he lives, and finally learns that he is the son of one of the Three Major Gods who had vowed not to have kids since world war II putting him in harm’s way and he learns that he is being suspected for the Stealing of the Lightning rod of Zeus which is going to lead to war between the Olympians, if the rod is not found in a week. Percy then goes on a journey to find the rod with his half-blood friends in order to retrieve the rod which he suspects is in the underworld.

The entire book is about His journey which was really great.

One final thing, Please don't watch the movie 'Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)'. After reading the book, i watched the movie -Let me say this -" The Movie is a Piece of Crap" which ruined the entire story of the book. Pathetic portrayal of Hades, Grover, even Annabeth. They even showed Persepone who is Hades's Wife stabbing him with the lighting rod and they didn’t even show Ares, thereby colossally ruining the story.

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