Author: Richa Lakhera

Richa Lakhera Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Contemporary Fiction Paperback: 204 pages

204 pages Publisher: Rupa Publications India (20 July 2018)

Rupa Publications India (20 July 2018) Language: English

SYNOPSIS

A body of a woman beaten and raped terribly is lost, never to be found again. The perpetrators believe that they have removed all traces of their cruel act. However, they left a witness behind. The story enters a different scene where there is rape, excessive sexuality, horrible techniques, money, fame, glam, and the addiction that surpasses all. There is a girl Etsie whose life slit our hearts. After years, the superstar Valentine and the perverted and sinister minded Dr. Ranga come face to face with the results of what they committed long back. Their nemesis burning in the fire of vengeance bewilders them. Who is it? What was the crime? How the revenge would be taken? Will these gods of greed be exposed?

BOOK YOUR COPY The Hungry Gods by Richa Lakhera

My reading pile has recently been full of mystery and thrillers. All of them were enigmatic and stupefying in their own ways. But Hungry Gods topped the charts by being the darkest of all. It left me wordless and cringing each time something unexpected happened. Above everything, it brought me closer to something truly fantasizing – the dark world of hidden truth.

The book kickstarts with a woman who is beaten and raped brutally. You know why? Because she held the secrets which were not to be revealed. She was audacious in a way a woman is not expected to me. And her very stubbornness cost her life and dignity. This incident took me back to the stories I read before – of women treated as objects and toyed with when they attempt to raise their voice, when they desire to stand for what they find true and right. It then moves to give more details in order to build the backdrop. As soon as the ground is set, the story hops to an entirely different setting. There’s this superstar Valentine who is obsessed with himself. He is keen on experimenting with various ways to derive orgasmic pleasure. He believes in giving pain, an utterly painful pain, to fulfill the air of frustration he is breathing. Dr. Ranga is a pervert who exploits the young boys to satisfy himself. There is Dinesh Thackray whose sudden death brings restless days and nights to Inspector Silva. There’s Rathi Thackray who vents his anger for his father, Dinesh, by indulging in dirty sex with Valentine. A long distance away, there’s Hiri and Etsie who are living in the squalid lanes, amidst the filth of everything considered condemnable by the ‘sophisticated’ society.

Revenge runs through the book. It is the only emotion that twists and turns the characters meddling with their lives in the goriest manner bringing the readers breath to an abrupt halt. I couldn’t agree more that this is one of those books where sex is not served as soft porn, just to garnish the content. Rather, it is an intrinsic and inevitable part of the narrative described subtly and emphatically. The details of the incidents, were indeed, deeply unsettling. And not to forget, the grim reality behind the drugs and addiction are dealt with in a fantastic manner. The truth of Medici reveals the ugly truth pervading our society.

The cover is heavily terrifying. Well, it completely complements the story that has everything ghastly to offer you. The title is again chosen well to add an extra ounce of fear to the book. And the themes discussed are sex, lust, revenge, drug, crime, and objectification of women. The hard take on the hush topics renders this book a beautiful effect, a terribly beautiful one. The heart aches when Etsie speaks indifferently about the pain impregnating her life, when Rathi confronts a bitter truth, when a woman is killed for taking a stand.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly for its narration and an entirely different concept – a hard to swallow one. You feed on this book and the venom would grip you so hard that it would actually be difficult to free yourself from it. For something to blow your mind, Read this amazingly and ruthlessly woven book!

MY RATING: 5/ 5

This book review is a part of “The Readers Cosmos Book Review Program and Blog Tours, for details log on to thereaderscosmos.blogspot.in“