Annie Kapur
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I am:
🙋🏽♀️ Annie
📚 Avid Reader
📝 Reviewer and Commentator
🎓 Post-Grad Millennial (M.A)
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📖 280K+ reads on Vocal
🫶🏼 Love for reading & research
🦋/X @AnnieWithBooks
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🏡 UK
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Book Review: "The Age of Diagnosis" by Suzanne O'Sullivan
I think the only problem I've ever had with the 'Age of Diagnosis' was the fact that people are definitely starting to diagnose themselves. Those who aren't doctors or mental health professionals should not be diagnosing conditions on themselves such as depression, anxiety and/or autism. When it comes to medical professionals making those diagnoses for themselves, I am on the side of it. I understand that these diagnoses can, at times, be upsetting or cause anxiety in especially younger people. But, I think we know more about these disorders today and so, that is why doctors are diagnosing them more often. Let's have a look at what our author has to say about this...
By Annie Kapur6 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "You Invited It In" by Sarah Jules
I was quite surprised to find this on Kindle Unlimited because it looks and feels very similar to a book I read by Sara Gran called Come Closer and that, when I read it, didn't come cheap. You Invited It In is probably not your run-of-the-mill possession horror, but definitely has some familiar tropes to keep the reader involved with the text. One thing Sarah Jules gets right is that, especially with something that is based within folklore, it has to be familiar to the reader - for example: most of us know that vampires suck blood and/or kill people doing it. If you're doing a demonic possession horror and you're planning to be original about it - it is also best to formulate some back-and-forth with the reader so that they don't feel as though you're making it up as you go along. The lore is there to use.
By Annie Kapur6 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over" by Anne De Marcken
I didn't think I'd read any book that I could possibly compare to The Wall by Marlen Haushofer but this one seems like a good idea when it comes to alternate realities. This book however deals less with the landscape and more with the visceral experience of realities changing. There's something less 'utopian vs. dystopian' about this book and something a bit more 'apocalyptical'. Now, usually I'm not one for apocalypse fiction, I am a firm believer that there are only so many possibilities that we can come up with for that happening. But here, I have been proven wrong...
By Annie Kapur6 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Drinking Den" by Émile Zola
I've read countless books by Emile Zola, including the famed Therese Raquin which is basically a really messed up dark romance novel. But I think my favourite novel by this particular writer has to be The Beast Within because of the psychological terror it insinuates. I wrote about it about five years' ago in my 'reading experiences' series which has been turned slowly into 'why it's a masterpiece' and so, expect it to return soon since I loved it so much. The book The Drinking Den is written in this same psychological style even though it is not obvious straight away. Emile Zola uses descriptions, especially those concerning poverty and squalor to force the reader to confront the atmosphere and realities of those who do not have. It's more rustic and gritty than Dickens, I believe. So, let's get on with what makes this novel so great.
By Annie Kapur6 months ago in Geeks
A Way of Life, Like Any Other by Darcy O'Brien
Darcy O’Brien’s A Way of Life, Like Any Other was first published in 1977, drawing heavily on the author’s personal experiences. O’Brien was born into a Hollywood dynasty: his father, George O’Brien, was a silent film star, and his mother, Marguerite Churchill, was a leading actress in early talkies. The novel is widely regarded as a thinly veiled autobiographical account of his unconventional upbringing in the glamorous yet turbulent world of mid-20th-century Los Angeles.
By Annie Kapur6 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "The Only Story" by Julian Barnes
I've read quite a bit by Julian Barnes and every time I pick up a book by him I just know it is going to contain a big moral and philosophical question that we never really get entirely answered. Instead, we have about three or four different ways of thinking about it. In Before She Met Me we are forced to confront this through dark humour and narcissism. The Lemon Table definitely has many of these questions alongside characters who are friends with rather odd conditions from time to time. However, this book being reviewed does not change the fact that Julian Barnes' magnum opus in all respects is still The Man in the Red Coat. A book which to this day, I have not been able to forget.
By Annie Kapur6 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Immaculate Conception" by Ling Ling Huang
Ling Ling Huang might be one of the most exciting names in modern horror at the moment. The term 'wellness horror' was basically born out of her novel Natural Beauty - a novel I thought was incredible. There is another book by her which takes the idea of technology, wellness, class divide and the intrusion of capital on to our real lives, to a whole new extreme. Immaculate Conception has the same amount of body horror but also mixes it in with a question about whether a technology can be helpful or parasitic. It feels so modern and appropriate for our own times. Let's take a look at what it entails.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Thus Were Their Faces" by Silvina Ocampo
I've been back to the library looking for books I haven't really heard of. I have, however, heard of this author before even though I haven't read much of her work. Silvina Ocampo was an Argentinian writer and poet from Buenos Aires. She often wrote in this almost Angela Carter-mixed-with-a-hint-of-realism sort of way. One of the biggest authors of surrealism, Ocampo created entire worlds inside of characters' heads. I found this book almost by accident and was surprised to read that the introduction was by Helen Oyeyemi, the writer of the book Gingerbread. There's also a short preface by Jorge Luis Borges. It's completely on-brand for this author to have those other greats within.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Strange Pictures" by Uketsu
I'd heard of this book before and when I did I'm not going to lie, it didn't really sound that interesting. Eventually, I caved and got it on my Kindle because I couldn't find it in the library. For a book with pictures, this was really well formatted on the Kindle, which is surprising. Apart from this though, I have an awkward opinion about this book. The beginning of the story seems very interesting but, as the story starts connecting and becoming more and more repetitive with all the drawings and stuff apparently have some 'secret' buried in them, I lost a lot of my original enthusiasm. It was a good concept, but perhaps it could have been executed better. It didn't feel as visceral and conceptually terrifying as the author perhaps intended.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Book Review: "Perfection" by Vincenzo Latronico
There are probably too many books about the millennial experience, and many that really miss the mark because they are hyper specific to a certain group of middle-class, white, 30-something year old women who's biggest problem is (in a toddler's voice) 'I'm not her friend anymore'. It's tiring. But Vincenzo Latronico seems to have hit the nail on the head with his very satirical book about what it is really like to be a millennial living in the city. Witty, often dark and incredible dystopian, this book sure is an eye-opener to the absolute dismal plain that is life for my generation. I would say if you're going to read a book about millennials then this one is probably as close as you're going to get to what it is actually like.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
Jure Grando Alilović: Vampire
The story of Jure Grando Alilović is one of the earliest recorded cases of vampirism in European history. From the small Istrian village of Kringa, in present-day Croatia, Grando’s legend dates back to the 17th century. Unlike the fictional vampires of modern literature, Jure Grando was a real person, documented in historical accounts as a "strigoi": a creature of folklore believed to be a revenant, or an undead being that rises from the grave to torment the living.
By Annie Kapur7 months ago in Geeks
