Book Review – Along Came A Spyder by Apeksha Rao

Book Blurb

At 17, Samira Joshi has only one dream in life.
She wants to be a spy. And why not?
Spying runs in the Joshi genes. Her great-grandmother was famous for sticking her nose in everyone’s business. Her grandmother had a flourishing side-business of tracking down errant husbands and missing servants. Samira’s parents are elite intelligence agents for RAW. Yet, they want their only daughter to become a doctor. When she sees a college friend being trapped by a pimp, Samira does some spying of her own and discovers the existence of a secret sisterhood of teen spies — The Spyders. And, she wants in!
The question is, do they want her?

Meet the Author – Apeksha Rao

Apeksha Rao is a homeopathic doctor by profession and a writer by passion. A polyglot, fluent in six languages by the age of five, she fell in love with words very early in life. She wrote her first story at the age of seven, and her stories and plays won many accolades in school and college. She is also an amateur sitar player.

A Mumbaikar, born and bred, Apeksha comes from a family of doctors. At the ripe age of thirty-four, she wound up her practice and moved to Bengaluru, and as she explored her new city, she was inspired to start a food blog, in addition to her already-popular fiction blog.

Apeksha has been lauded for her taut and gripping stories that always come with a twist at the end. She is a keen observer of human nature, something that is reflected in her stories.

Book Review – Along Came A Spyder by Apeksha Rao

When I first agreed to be a part of the book reviewer’s program by Blogchatter, it was because I did not want to say NO. Blogchatter has given me a lot, and by merely agreeing to the campaign, I wanted to collaborate with them in return.

Among the very first few books, I read in the program were Itsy Bitsy Spyder. Once I picked that book up, it was hard to keep down. But many of my questions about the book were unanswered and it left me with such a hollow! I felt agitated by not knowing those answers. That is when I learned, that Itsy Bitsy Spyder was actually a prequel to the already popular ‘Along Came A Spyder’ by Apeksha Rao – talk about living under a rock!

I had to get my hands on this book. I needed my answers. But read another book?

I Did get my copy and here’s what my experience with the writing and the story has been:

  • The book comes with some invisible glue. It’s hard to put the book away, even if you are a non-reader of sorts.
  • The story is  an extremely creative take, especially when you realize that such a world only exists in the brain of the author. Teens? Undercover spies? Unsolved crime? Yes please!
  • The story is from the perspective of a 16-17-year-old girl – who desperately wants to be a spy, has been trained to be a spy, but her parents suddenly get the e[i[hany that she should now be a doctor. Did you just say the W.T.F. thing in your head?
  • You feel for the teen – the world is hard for a teen, but this teen’s world is a very different kind of hard. the story takes you into that world with such ease, You become Samira (and hate her parents)
  • The story also beautifully ping pongs between the choices a teen has to make – and how bravery and stupidly daring can often be confused with each other.

 

The story unfolds little by little. The author reveals a tiny bit of a clue, then keeps you wanting for more before she gives you the next bite. It is a wonderful story with real twists and turns, real danger, real emotions (wait, what, it isn’t real? Sure felt like it!)

 

Some books need you to be in a certain mood or frame of mind to be reading them. But this one is your mathri with chai. If you have mathri, you want chai and if you have chai, you want mathri. So if you have any mood – this book is a good read. You can conveniently binge read it and have a ball of a time lost in the world of Samira and the eccentric Joshis.

I absolutely loved the book and would recommend all readers to enjoy this real feeling fiction!

This post is a part of the #Letsblogwithpri campaign.

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