6 reviews for Second Lives
You must be logged in to post a review.
Second Lives
by Anish Sarkar
Description:
Three old friends Sara, Neel and Omar reunite in Goa after the sudden death of Rachel Fernandes, a member of their group. Discovering that Rachel, a sports journalist, had been doing a story on the brutal killing of a foreign tourist, they are puzzled by her interest in such a grisly crime. It emerges that Rachel’s investigation went far beyond a single murder, and their lives are soon under threat too. With a traumatic event from their teenage years coming back to haunt them, the trio realises that the mystery has its roots in their own past. In the midst of battling their personal demons, they make a desperate plan to flush out a sadistic killer in the sylvan setting of their old boarding school in the Himalayan foothills. With the body count rising and long-buried secrets tumbling out, will they succeed?
About The Author
Anish Sarkar is a part-time author and full-time corporate slave. He works for a multinational consulting firm and lives in Mumbai. His interests include travelling, cricket and wildlife. Second Lives is his second book.
Skryf Review
“Excellent Reading”
Sejal
I had no intention of reading this book as most of my friends who are into thrillers, (which I love), dissed it, giving it 1-2 star ratings. But then my friends who are not that into thrillers, but like good fiction, started to read it and they were giving, for the most part, ratings of 4 stars. One friend, who loves both thrillers and nonthrillers gave it 5 stars! At that point I was strongly encouraged by a couple of Goodreads friends to see for myself what this book is all about. I now thank them for doing so as, surprisingly, I found Second Life to be a compelling read that I finished off in 3 days (very fast for me).There are several provocative themes running through Second Life. We are given an eye-opening look at the dangers of the cyberworld. Really quite frightening. Another prominent subject is whom can we trust implicitly? Our spouse? Our lover? Our best friend? Our siblings? Who? Anyone? No one? And again, we are shown how an addictive personality can take one down a road no one wants to go. It becomes clear that addiction trumps intelligence, addiction trumps judgment.There are differing opinions on the ending of Second Life. I came to that last paragraph and was dumbfounded. But after thinking about it, I do think Mr. Watson ended the tale the only way it could have ended.The only things I didn’t like about the story were the reliance on coincidence once or twice for plot purposes and a couple of the twists that felt a little improbable to me.
Anmol
From the author of Before I Go to Sleep, comes a novel of death and discovery. When Julia hears of her sisters death in Paris, she feels a mixture of relief and loss. Julia had adopted Kates son when it became obvious her sister could not provide the stable environment he needed. But lately Kate had been demanding to return of her teenage son. The bittersweet relief of her sisters death is only momentary, and Julia begins to doubt that the death was an accident. Gaining access to Kates online activity, she stumbles across the world of online dating and the ability to lead a second life. Soon she is hooked. The excitement of secret online liaisons becomes addictive and common sense is thrown out the window. But how long can one maintain a double life before someone gets hurt?This book seems to have a bit of the ‘Gone Girl effect’ about it. You either love it or hate it. I think the main reason for the way people feel about a character. Some readers cannot enjoy a book where they feel uncomfortable with the protagonist, others need a more defined line between a ‘nice’ person in a novel and a ‘distasteful’ one. I tend to go with my gut instincts and if I find myself turning the pages with great speed, it means I’m going along for the ride. The whole concept of a second life has become more common with the accessibility of the internet in all of our lives. While, years ago, people had to place adverts in specialised magazines or be part of secret networks of similar minded folk, now anyone can just click a button and become whomever one wants. The current Graham Dwyer trial, in Ireland, has shown how easy it is to lead two lives independent of each other. In SJ Watson’s novel he shows how a middle aged, respectable mother and wife can slip so easily into a new role. The role of a sexy, single, adventurous woman who is up for anything. One day a week Kate can escape the mundane and ordinary life she has led for years and return to her pre-marriage days of drink and drug fueled excitement and sexual abandonment. Her sleuthing into her sister’s life has opened a Pandora’s Box and she is soon sucked in…
Kalgi
I have read some others reviews after I had read this book for myself. I have nothing to compare it to as this is the first book I have read by S J Watson although I already have a couple of her others. I just haven’t got around to reading them yet and saw this on Net Galley which I requested and thanks to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers who gave me auto approval I was able to get it for reading and reviewing.I have to say, I was thrown off course several times by the author during the time I was trying to ‘solve’ it all, so that means she has done a superb job. The ending is unpredictable, or at least, it was for me. The quality of the writing is superb, which means I really cannot wait to read more books by this author and I will certainly be bumping up the ones I already have.
Kahaan
The 2nd and much anticipated novel by author S.J.Watson. I was slightly put off by the other reviews I read on Goodreads regarding this book but I found this book got better as I made my way through it. Well before the end I was impelled to continue reading whenever possible to find out what was going to happen. Maybe in reflection it is not to the same very high standard as his first novel but I found it a very good read.
Anupama
Well, there was I thinking that this book was a definite four/five star read, happily gripped and absorbed by this tale of grief, deception and adultery – and then the big plot twist hove into view. In fact, it didn’t so much hove into view as signal I AM A BIG, THUNDERINGLY OBVIOUS PLOT TWIST in neon flashing lights. And once that disappointment had happened, it was nothing but downhill from there, I’m afraid. What had been a page-turner became more and more implausibly silly until the final slap in the face that was that ridiculous ending. Almost as bad as the one in Harriet Lane’s ‘Her’, if I’m honest.As other reviewers have pointed out, it doesn’t help that the central character, Julia, doesn’t so much wallow in guilt and self-pity as leap into it, holding her nose for the plunge. I can’t be the only one who thought ‘Best get back on the gear, love. At least you’ll feel a bit more cheerful.”