Title: Cold Blooded Love
Author: Girish Dutt Shukla
Genre: Psychotic Thriller
Pages: 285
I received this Review Copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you Girish Dutt Shukla and Rupa Publications for this amazing opportunity!
“If I truly wanted to move on, I couldn’t afford to become stagnant. I need to flow like a river, even if that meant going through hell.”
BLURB
Having separated from her husband Om, Ziva keeps wondering: can there be a happy forever family? Her new neighbours—Ovya and Aadit—appear to be a perfect couple, and they make her reminisce the good times she spent with her once loving husband.
Soon, however, Ziva discovers that everything is not so rosy with the couple. As Ovya starts sharing her views about Aadit, the myth of perfection begins to crumble. One night, Ziva hears a penetrating scream and then Ovya goes missing.
Caught in the middle of a family scandal, Ziva finds herself in a fix as she struggles with a simple question. Should she pursue her heart, or give up on her dreams and finally accept that family bliss is perhaps a misnomer?
“Anxiety for me has become some kind of background noise. It’s like an alarm system of sorts, always ready to sound even when there is no impending danger.”
REVIEW
Cold Blooded Love is a psychological thriller by Girish Dutt Shukla. Cold Blooded Love is the story of a woman, Ziva, who is separated from her dear husband. Her traumatic childhood and her present situation with her husband push Ziva into an emotionally unstable state. These personal experiences make Ziva not believe in a happy family and healthy relationships. Ziva’s hopelessness in relationships and happy family slightly changes after meeting her new neighbours, Ovya and Aadit. This couple’s love for each other and everything about them makes Ziva adore this couple. Suddenly, one night Ziva hears a loud scream from her neighbour’s house and from the next onward Ovya goes missing. In no time, Ziva gets entangled in this fiasco. What happened to Ovya? Will Ziva escapes from this unlikely situation? It is the story of Cold Blooded Love.
This is a meticulously written psychological thriller. The writing style of the author was fast pacing, simple and captivating. The prologue itself will send a striking chill down your spine. Every single page in the book was engaging and with each passing page, the author beautifully built the plot line and completed it with the perfection of a jigsaw puzzle.
“It’s always better to be authentic and alone than change yourself to fit in.”
The book juggles between the protagonist’s past and the present. The author hasn’t specifically divided these two plot lines with alternate chapters but rather within the same chapter. For example, a chapter in this book is a combination of both present and past. The beauty of this book is, the author doesn’t announce when he is talking about the present and past but the shift is rather felt by the readers the moment they start reading a line. This book has such clarity. One of the main reasons being the author has built the protagonist’s character in such a strong manner and he has also showcased the character change and development between the Ziva in the past and the Ziva in the present.
The entire set-up of the book was good. The clues and the twists were really amazing but there were certain deliberate misleading clues which have been needlessly included in the book for the sake of misleading the readers in not guessing the the plot line. This could’ve been avoided or rather an authentic misleading clue could’ve been included.
Psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators have the tendency to push the readers to the edge of their seats and pray that they come across one reliable character and this book just did that. And that is the success of this book.
On the whole, it is an amazing psychological thriller which will disturb your mind as a psychological thriller should. It is a must-read for thriller lovers.
“We have a false notion that we have enough time to do things, but time soon begins to dissolve into itself, as hapless as sand, leaving us with no way to hold on to it.”
MY VIEWS
First of all, I’m so glad I read this book because it personally helped me in picking up my reading pace after a long time. I was able to complete this book in two sittings, I wouldn’t have taken that break also if not for my reality which annoyingly screamed for my attention (I’m talking about sleep and work, lol)
I’m a big fan of psychological thrillers and it has been written by an Indian author, wow! You know I would love it. And, yes! I completely enjoyed this book. The simplicity and clarity in the author’s writing are the best I liked about this book.
“There are common threads that bind one person to another and common words that separate them.”
I happened to notice a couple of things which could have been avoided, one, as I mentioned earlier, the unnecessarily misleading clues could’ve been avoided. Certain clues weren’t addressed at the end and I felt like it was hanging midway. But nevertheless, those clues actually scared the hell out of me, so that’s a win, I guess. The second thing is a tiny-winy matter where the author had described Ziva’s eyes, in one place, it was mentioned as black and in the other it was brown. It was a little bit confusing. It kind of showed the author himself wasn’t sure what the protagonist looks like. But the characterisation of Ziva was on point. The third thing is the author could have dwelled a little bit about what the characters’ professions are, it is mentioned, Ziva is a Graphic Designed but it wasn’t clear how she is sustaining without going to work for a longer period of time and her husband owns a Benz and there is no mention of his profession as well. Other than these little things, the book was completely awesome.
I also liked the fact the author talked about how our childhood trauma shapes us and he has also spoken about drinking problems and how it might affect one’s life and the people around them. He also slightly touched on depression here and there.
“Part of maturing was forgiving and moving on because unresolved situations give rise to hostility. It never helps.
I personally loved the way the author has written the book, it felt like the words were flowing, and there was no coercion or artificiality in the book. The took an amazing storyline and has honestly done justice to it. I can say this is one of the best books I have read by an Indian author in recent times.
I cared so much about this Ziva while reading the book. I could’ve screamed whenever she was marching towards danger or given the benefit of doubt to other characters whom I presume were dangerous. I just wanted her to be safe and this care doesn’t come to me naturally which means the author had made me care for his protagonist. Ta-da! What else does an author need in life? He made a reader care for the character he built out of scratch. This book is hit!
My rating for this book would be 3.8 out of 5 stars.
I would like to recommend this book to all the thriller lovers. Especially if a psychological thriller lover, you should definitely check this book out. This book can be read by beginners as well, the language and writing style was simple, which will help them in enjoying and completing this book. If you are someone who is looking for a quick, fast pace read or looking to get out of reader’s slump. This book will definitely help you.
“Fear is always vanquished when we have woken to the truth”
Go buy this book here!
Happy Reading Folks!
~ Meenu
