Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 276

The Chef & The Yakuza Review

I stumbled across a “photo-comic” book called ‘The Chef & The Yakuza” on Twitter via independent author Sho Okumoto’s Twitter handle. As a graphic novel and comic enthusiast, it took me less than a minute to get the book on my kindle and what an entertaining book it turned out to be – half the book made me very hungry, the other half had me laughing out loud!

It was a super quick comical read about a chef versus a Yakuza boss. The chef owes money to the baddie and they decide to play a game of poker, if the chef loses the game – he loses his life too; but if he wins, he walks out a debt-free man. The comic begins with the two men talking about food and the chef preparing salmon sashimi. Those fish illustrations had me craving for fish so bad! I like it when books are able to stir up such strong emotions in the reader.

Think it took me less than 15 minutes to finish the rest of the book, that gets funny before the poker game starts. It’s a pretty random but fun read and I don’t really have any complains, except that there could’ve been more story. It’s only January and I think ‘The Chef & The Yakuza’ is gonna be the most random AF books I’ve read this year. But randoms things make life more interesting.

I am going with a 4 on 5 stars for this super-quick read.

Your Name Engraved Herein Review

Directed by Kuang-Hui Liu, the 2020 Taiwanese film ‘Your Name Engraved Herein’ takes you back to 1987, when a martial law has just been lifted in the country, but that doesn’t mean a change in the toxic masculinity that permeates the society. In the very first scene, we see a bleeding teen asking a priest how he plans to counsel him while a dramatic trumpet music flourishes in the background.

The story then unfolds in flashbacks, where we see the blossoming friendship between two school-boys Jia Han (a dashing Edward Chen) and Birdy (Jing-Hua Tseng) growing into something more. But they are surrounded by homophobic classmates who do not bat an eyelid before beating gay peers to pulp.

The colors and ambiance of the film is very artistically done and a nostalgic jazz era kind of music adds a layer of depth to the confusing feelings the two teen protagonists undergo. However, the pace might test the patience of viewers who look for gritty story-telling. “Your Name Engrave Herein” is slow, but the kinds that some viewers might savour as they watch the leads battle their emotions. The story itself is quite standard territory, however director Kuang-Hui Liu tenderly captures the despair of youth in some memorable scenes.

What really works for this film is the fact that the two lead actors are very good looking and are able to slip into their roles effortlessly. Let’s face it – aesthetics matter. Had these two actors not been as charming, this movie would have crumbled like a pile of cards sitting on the seaside.

Towards the climax, the film fast-forwards to the present, perhaps 2018 or 19, where the two men meet for the first time in 30 years and we get an open-ended close to their story. “Who knew the future would’ve been like this” one of them exclaims, referring to the rights the LGBT community enjoys in their present world. The director however is not able to bring out the stark contrast between a homophobic restrained era of the 80s and a more sexually liberated 21st century.

However, ‘Your Name Engraved Herein’ has it’s emotional high-points and despite a dragged out climax, it’s worth a watch for the earnest performances and efforts by the entire team of the film. It’s a 7.5/10 for me.

Doab Dil Graphic Novel Review

Finished reading Doab Dil, a graphic novel by Sarnath Banerjee. I was browsing through a book site and it’s calming blue hardback cover caught my eye. A woman is sitting atop a hill, sipping a hot drink, looking at the vast sky ahead of her, as if ruminating on life. I assumed it was a fiction novel & bought it due to a great discount.

To my surprise, it turned out to be a non-fiction book, that is a random compilation of wisdom/information the author came across while reading non-fiction books. For example, the first few pages are about Gardening & landscaping, two topics I have very little interest in.

In a nicely written introduction to the book, the author does inform the reader that the book is a compilation of murals he had drawn in London, which were supposed to read like a book. “Doab Dil brings together drawing & text like two converging rivers” he says. However, they don’t flow smoothly.

While the artwork in Doab Dil is worth treasuring, the text accompanying them are pretty forgettable. Banerjee jumps from one topic to another very abruptly, leaving the reader dazed & unsatisfied. Like there is just one page on why the Japanese can fall asleep comfortably in public places. As a reader I had more expectations from the book as far as content is concerned, but I liked the artwork. The art is colourful, quirky and cute. Some of it reminded me of Raina Telegeimeir’s style of drawing, who has written several popular graphic novels for teens & children.

If you are looking for some random intellectual trivia with lively illustrations accompanying them, you might enjoy this book. Doab Dil is a 3/5 for me.

Domain Name Change

To all those who have been following bloggingbeebleeds.com, the site/blog has been renamed as AbstractAF.in But the tag line remains the same – About Everything & Nothing.

I tried getting AbstractAF.com, and even though it’s not a website, the domain name has already been bought by a site that sells domain names. I think AbstractAF is a more suited title for this site since the content is pretty wide ranging, even though most posts are either book reviews or movie reviews. We have the occasional poetry, travelogues and random rants.

My mother asked me what the ‘AF’ meant, and I softly told her ‘as fuck’ and she started laughing.

“It could also mean ‘and fun’, so it would be ‘Abstract & Fun’, up to the readers,” I added.

Keep reading and keep writing.

Hope the new year is looking better.

Carmilla – Gothic Novella Review

Finished reading the first book of 2021 – Carmilla by J Sheridan Le Fanu, the vampire novella which came out almost three decades before Bram Stoker’s wildly popular Dracula.

First off – How is this lesbian vampire novella not more famous than Count Drac?! I mean, I didn’t even know it was a lesbian vampire novella until I began reading it and then told my husband who was sitting across me “I think I am reading a lesbian themed book!”. Just because I haven’t read many lesbian themed books.

When I read Dracula in 2002 as a school-girl, the novel was fascinating to say the least. Stephanie Meyer still hadn’t dreamt up the Twilight series. Bram Stoker seemed like the first master story-teller of the Vampire realm. But Sheridan’s Carmilla, though now too old for the imagination of readers saturated with blood-sucker stories, is still a gripping read.

Told from the perspective of a young girl who almost falls to her death at the hands of a lady vampire, Carmilla is a straightforward tale that has all the charms of a gothic classic. The narrator recalls meeting a stranger, who is left under the care of her father when their carriage meets with an accident. The stranger is called Carmilla and both the girls are immediately drawn to each other. What caught me by surprise was the LGBT theme in the novella, considering it came out in 1872, that’s more than 250 years ago!

It’s a strange gripping tale of friendship, love and the supernatural. Since it’s novella sized and written in a conversational manner, it gets over pretty quickly and there aren’t any dull pages in between. While reading it did make me wonder if Bram Stoker was inspired by it, there is no evidence to suggest that he did. Although some critics do believe that he may have read Carmilla before he wrote his epistolary novel. One thing I do know – Carmilla is an easier, breezier read!

Coolest bit I learnt from this – The main antagonist of the animated Netflix series Castlevania is based on this book – she is also called Carmilla and is from Styria, where Sheridan’s story unfolds.

‘Bad Town Kids’ A ‘Bestseller’?

Amazon updates its bestsellers list for fiction books every hour and my debut novel ‘Bad Town Kids’ managed to stay in the top 10 list under ‘Literature and Fiction’ for two days (the weekend). So technically, my book is a bestseller, even if it was temporary glory.

‘Bad Town Kids’ tracks the lives of four friends and how their lives changes over the course of a decade. While their childhood was about spending idyllic evenings by a pond and swapping silly tales, adulthood wasn’t as simple. A death pushes them all to unwittingly make decisions about their future, even as they try to reconcile with the unexpected loss – both of a friend and their innocence.

If the novel sounds like something you would like to read get a copy now. And reviews will be appreciated wholeheartedly, it means a LOT to independent writers like me. Dropping a few country-wise links (it’s also available on Kindle Unlimited) –

Amazon US

Amazon India

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Australia

AK vs AK Netflix Film Review – Pretentious AF

I took two days to watch the 2020 Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap-starrer ‘AK VS AK’.

The first attempt ended within 20 minutes for my husband and me, thanks to an exciting start which petered out just as fast. It was slow and pretentious as fuck (AF) and if “fuck” made you take a pause, then this movie is definitely not for you.

I forced myself to give a chance to the movie – hope always reigns supreme. Surprisingly, it did get more interesting but story and pace swung wildly between entertaining and extreme depths of boredom. Disclaimer: We fast-forwarded. A LOT.

The plot is pretty simple, even if far-fetched – Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap play themselves in the movie and are supposed to hate each other. The film opens with the two of them having a public spat that’s hilariously blown up by the media. Anurag Kashyap then decides on getting back at the older actor. So he kidnaps his daughter Sonam Kapoor and decides to shoot a movie in real-time and blackmails Anil Kapoor into finding his daughter while the cameras keep rolling.

While the idea might have sounded great on paper, it gets choppy on screen. Far from being ‘raw’/’real’, a lot of scenes come off as insincere. The makers try too hard to be cool. There is an almost 20 minute long chase sequence of Anil Kapoor running around Mumbai, which was just so unnecessary. Anurag Kashyap should perhaps stick to directing, because his acting is sloppy; he just comes across as a smug schmuck. Although Anil really gets into the role and is the saving grace of this film. But putting the burden of carrying an entire film on just one actor is sort of unfair. It’s like asking two people to move a heavy corpse, but only one of them does it, while the other one smokes circles in a corner. Anurag Kashyap is the smoker. Sonam Kapoor had some three minute screen-time and she managed to be hammy even in those few seconds.

Anil Kapoor deserves better.

The Handmaid’s Tale – Graphic Novel Review

Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ in the Graphic Novel format was the last book I read in 2020. While I haven’t read the original long-form, yet, as a reader I could feel that a lot of the story was missing from the graphic novel. Some of the initial pages were slightly confusing as to what is happening. However, the art by Renee Nault is stunning through and through.

Honestly, I didn’t like the story much. Written in the 1980s, it’s set in a futuristic America, where democracy has been replaced by a totalitarian regime and women are treated like properties. They are just birthing/pleasuring machines. The narrative flits between the protagonist’s depressing current life as a handmaid & her former/happier life when democracy still existed. As the story unfolds, the readers are explained that ‘handmaids’ are government properties and are used as birthing bodies for high-ranking men whose wives can’t get pregnant.

When the book started, I thought that the scenes were from some concentration camp, but it was actually a training centre for handmaids, where there are trained to be slaves and birthing machines. I know the tale supposed to be a cautionary tale against patriarchy, but I just couldn’t enjoy it much. The lead character is pitiable and doesn’t do much to remedy her plight. Maybe I’ll have to read the full novel to appreciate it better.

Visit To Bekal Fort

Spread over a beautifully maintained 40 acres, the fortified walls of Bekal form the remains of the largest standing fort in the state of Kerala, India. Since we were visiting Mangalore, a trip to this historical site, which is just a two hour drive from there was a given.

The roads are fantastic and the green cover and backwaters on the Kerala side are a treat for the eyes. Before we reached the fort, I was already exclaiming “I don’t know how the fort is going to be, but this trip is already worth it because of the drive”. Maintained by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India), the fort is open to the public from 8 am to 5.30 pm. Due to the Covid19 pandemic, the entry tickets have to be booked virtually and can be done on the spot. There were very few visitors inside and there wasn’t much to see except for walking around the fort walls and it’s several strategic check-posts that offered stunning views of the sea below. Yes, it’s right by the sea.

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It’s hard to imagine the kind of hard-work it would have taken to build this fort in the 1650 AD. It was commissioned by the deccan ruler Shivappa Nayaka of the Keladi Nayaka kingdom, which used to be under the more famous Vijayanagar empire until it’s fall in 1565 AD. Years later, the Nayakas were defeated by Mysore rulers and Tipu Sultan came into its possession. It played a crucial role in the Sultan’s endeavors to conquer the Malabar coast. In the end, like most strategic places in India, the fort finally fell into the hands of the notorious British East India Company and eventually lost its importance, both as a port and as a military base for defence.

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This is a picture of a well that was built inside the fort during Tipu Sultan’s rule.

We spent a good hour exploring all the parts of the fort and would’ve probably spent more time if hadn’t been very hot. There is a descending flight of stairs at one corner of the fort that overlooks the sea and is an amazing view-point. We were there on December 27th and despite being a winter month, it was quite warm. Easy to imagine that it must be quite an experience to go there when it rains!

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If you plan to visit the place, do it either in the winter months or monsoon and carry some water, it could get a little exhausting, Oh and some sunscreen and sun-glasses wouldn’t hurt.

New Year Free New Book Giveaway

My debut contemporary fiction novel ‘Bad Town Kids’ is FREE for 48 hours (Jan 1st & 2nd) across all kindle stores, so grab a copy. And just in case you were wondering – it is available for free for everybody and not just Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

The novel released on December 26, 2020. Here’s an excerpt from the first Amazon review of the book, the reader had given it a five star –

Where do I start?

Wow

*whew*

I don’t read a lot of non-fantasy-genre books. I like my books to be neatly packaged with a couple of quests, the good and bad guys clearly identified, witty repartee galore and rounded off with all the nice folks getting their happy endings.

Bad Town Kids was NONE.OF.THAT.

Anita, Saira, Maadesh and Mokshit’s coming-of-age journey starts off soft — like ambling along a lazy, idyllic river — an innocent childhood, childish pranks, tall stories and scary-but-exciting discoveries. The author does not romanticize the Indian small-town setting with some Enid Blyton-esque picturization — Jaiswal firmly disabuses the reader of any such notions from the first sentence itself.

Then, my dear reader, the idyllic river of childhood crashes down as a wild and uncontrollable waterfall. The pace builds rapidly — scattered incidents that interlock in the end. The reality of Indian society — its patriarchy, toxicity, abuse — is conveyed in blunt, honest prose.

Amazon Reviewer

Full disclosure – the reviewer is a friend, but they had given my last book a 4 star rating, so even if there was some bias in their review, it doesn’t change the fact that they read the novel in one go and loved it.

If ‘Bad Town Kids’ sounds like something you would like to read get the free copy now. And reviews will be appreciated wholeheartedly, it means a LOT to independent writers like me. Dropping a few country-wise links –

Amazon US

Amazon India

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Australia

Happy reading and hope you have a good new year.