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Book title – Tales with a twist
Publisher – Amazon E Book Pages 64 pages –Language – English
Author – Varadharajan Ramesh
Price – ₹ 49 for the E-book and ₹0/- on kindle unlimited
Available on – Amazon.
Purchase link – https://www.amazon.in/Tales-Twist-Varadharajan-Ramesh-ebook/dp/B07N1T5YT9/ref=sr_1_2?crid=14EYGL7FWNYW0&dchild=1&keywords=tales+with+a+twist&qid=1599971456&sprefix=tales+with+a+twist%2Caps%2C324&sr=8-2
I had been meaning to read this book for some time now. I love ‘pull the rug’ endings in stories. To me, they constitute a key component in making the story linger in the minds of the readers. And, not every writer can pull the ‘rug off’ in a gobsmacking manner. Nope! It takes talent to do that. It takes talent to lead the reader down a certain path and then do a U-turn in the end. This book promised that and that is why I was keen to immerse myself in it.
Now, very often we come across fantastic stories. They have a beautiful introduction that sucks the reader in right away. They also contain a fantastic build up of conflict and are backed by powerful characters. Those characters remain in the readers’ memory – Their quirks, their idiosyncrasies and their endearing habits. However, when it comes to conflict resolution and the denouement, many times, even such fantastic stories fail.
I was not disappointed in Tales with a twist. They do deliver what they promise.
VR writes with an easy command on language that is backed by some powerful characterization. He does not ‘tell’ us about his characters but instead ‘shows’ us via his words and dialogue tags. To me, that was quite the high point of the stories.
It often happens with most anthologies that they centre on a theme. So, as you read more stories in the book, you kind of start expecting certain things to happen in the succeeding stories. That takes away some of the reading pleasure, at least for me. However, in this book, that is another thing that I enjoyed. The book may be a compilation of short stories but they do not revolve around any particular theme. The stories are also not a particular word limit; some are shorter than the others. They are a mix of different genres and themes and that is why you never know what to expect in the next story. That was refreshing because as I read one story, I found myself looking forward to the next.
VR explores a plethora of themes in this book. The stories are ‘slice if life’, ‘drama’ , ‘time travel’, ‘Sci-fi’, ‘animal POV’, etc, to name a few. But, if I had to pick my favourite from among all the stories, I would say – repairing cushions (erm…coz I have been there and had that kind of thing done to me), the troubles of time travel and perfection.
This book is not a lengthy compilation so it is perfect for some late night reading or even as a companion on a rain sodden evening whilst you sip a cuppa.
Thanks for the book review vil surely read
Its a lovely book.