Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

Rebecca is a classic tale of romance, revenge and suspense. I was quite sure from the start that we were receiving a one-sided account of Rebecca and there was more to her, but finding out that Maxim murdered her and never loved her had my jaw on the floor. The end was so abrupt and the prologue only leaves more questions than answers. Reading the end of the story in the first chapter keeps one in a constant mind-game trying to connect the events of the story to the end.

Here's my booktions for Rebecca de Winter's final game:

1. How did they not notice the bullet wound on her chest or the bullet-hole in her clothes?
2. Who lit Manderly on fire? I assume it to be either Mr Favell from his threat or Mrs Danvers judging by her sudden disappearance. 
3. I don't understand how the entire estate can be finished by a single person. Which make me wonder if the surrounding townspeople had any part to play?
4. Even if the house was burnt, why couldn't they just rebuild it and go back? The prologue indicates that the narrator and Maxim have never gone back and Manderly is just a memory.
5. Maxim is so fantastically rich. Why does he have to live in hotels after Manderly is gone?

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A literary classic and one of my favourites! F. Scott Fitzgerald lets you go wild with your imagination and leaves you pondering over the story line hours after finishing. This book has many booktions which have been argued upon by the literary society, past and present. I, however, am interested in only four major ones:

1. What happened to Daisy? Did she leave by her own choice or was she coerced into fleeing like a criminal by her husband?
2. Who exactly is the Man with the Owl Eyed glasses? He seemed to have an inkling of Gatsby's fake stories and was the only other person to attend Gatsby's funeral.
3. Why couldn't Gatsby ask Nick directly to invite Daisy for tea? Was there a reason for going through Jordan Baker who was notably a notorious liar?
4. The day of Daisy's wedding, she has a letter in hand which she "squeezes up into a wet ball" and makes her to want to cancel her impending marriage. One would assume that this letter has some connection with Gatsby, but Fitzgerald does not explicitly tell us what's in that letter.

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman is famous for movies and books like Beowulf, Coraline and Stardust. I've never read any of his books before, but have loved his movies. The ocean at the end of the lane (what a long title) was "interesting" and swayed between being a children's book and an adult's. It turned out to be one of those books on magic and mysticism in which the author doesn't bother explaining the elements of magic. I have to clarify that I would never have voted this as Book of the Year at the British National Awards 2013; It's good, but not that good.

So, let's get started on some booktions:

1. Who's funeral does the protagonist attend in the beginning? I'm guessing its one of his parents.
2. OK, so if the Lempstocks aren't witches what supernatural beings are they?  Are they somehow involved in the creation of the universe?
3. "Lempstock women are the pure thing", says Ginnie Lempstock. Where do they come from? Why the discrepancies between the level of knowledge and experience between all three.
4. Why can't the other Lempstock women leave the farm? Although Ginnie does end up dropping the protoganist at his house towards the end.
5. Ursula Monkter is giving everybody what makes them happy. Why is that a crime?
6. The opal miner's suicide sparks this series of events because he somehow pleaded the flapping rags monster for love and help. I wish this part of the story had been more elaborated, like how did he find her? what does it have to do with his suicide? how did it enable her to enter people's dreams?
7. I didn't notice this until I started writing this post, but what on earth was the name of the narrator!

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

I got this book free with our first Kindle. It was just one of those books which my mind didn't find interesting enough to go past the first page. Several years later, I pulled this book out of the abyss of my kindle library, swiped off layers of electronic dust and read and read.

The reason I didn't find it appealing is because of Ishiguro's haphazard and non-explanatory writing style. It's not that he didn't explain key concepts of the book's ideology, it's just that he'd make up a chapter of memories to actually get to the point. And truthfully, most of the memories were trivial and disappointing once you got to them. However, after reading a third of the book, you have enough clues to understand what's going on in Kathy's world, without Miss Emily's big revelation at the end.

This book is just one those stories raining with the booktions when you reach the end:

1. Where do the "students" get money from? - Money which they spend on cars, fuel, trips, Judy Bridgewater's cassette.
2. Why oh why can't the clones just run away?! Why don't they ever think of leaving and starting a revolution.
3. Miss Emily mentions much worse places than Hailsham and similar institutes for the clones. How come the protagonist nor her friends ever mention or encounter people from these places, at centers or The Cottages?
4. How old are the "students" when they they start donating? What organs are taken at each donation? What does the timing and procedure depend on?
5. I really wish Ishiguro had added more detail on the whole cloning process. Who are the possibles? How else are clones different from us (apart from the kid thing)?
6. Speaking of which, why can't they have kids? Are they modified at birth or in their DNA?
7. What's with Ruth loosing certain memories? In the final chapter, Kathy also mentions loosing some of her memories. Is it a clone thing?
8. Miss Lucy tells Tommy that she was wrong and being creative is very important just before she leaves. From the final revelations, it's clear that individual talents don't matter. It's just about the best total output.
9. Who really took Kathy's lost cassette?
10. What exactly does a carer do? Is it just another name for nurse? Why is she always driving to the centers? Why can't she just stay at one?

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

The Husband's secret has been topping the NY Times Bestseller List for months now. The book description didn't appeal much to me, but I'm glad I took the plunge because I enjoyed reading about an interesting week of three families in Sydney. For me, the epilogue was the icing on the cake and gave a fresh take on how subjective life is.

I didn't garner much booktions as Moriarty gave complete endings to characters in the final chapters. This may be the least booktions I have after a book:

1. Whether the pathologist had a flu or not, Janie's death was a criminal case ensuring a full autopsy. How could the police be satisfied by a limited autopsy?
2. Will Rachel turn John-Paul in?
3. If Conner's alibi for him was a lie, where was he actually at the time of Janie's death?

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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Bombshell by Catherine Coulter

This book is simply a narration of an FBI investigation. Although the large number of characters and personas left me confused at moments, the new discoveries by the chapter leading to the fast pace of the story kept me going. As thorough as an FBI case can be, this book was still open to some booktions:

1. How was Anna's murdered partner really exposed by Salazar and Gabrielle? The reason for the murder taking place at Delsey's apartment was never confirmed. We only have Anna's assumption to go on, even though it baffles her.
2. What happens to Salazar after he recovers?
3. In chapter 63, how were they able to tip the gang that Delsey would be at the Bonhomie Club that night?
4. Stony's suicide: In what way does finding out that the photo was uploaded from his computer, indicate that Tommy's murderer is his father? Is this the real reason for his suicide? or did he know more.  
5. If Mrs Hart wanted her husband to be blamed for Peter's death, why did she so strongly cover for him asked about for his alibi?
6. Sherlock and Savich know that a person tells the truth when in shock, and hence wrung out all the details from Melissa Ivy at Peter's apartment. So then, why does she abruptly remember a person she can't describe a day later, and if she did it for the publicity as assumed and mocked for, why did the FBI take it seriously enough to pin it on to Mrs Hart?
7. The reason for Tommy's mothers suicide was never brought forward. 

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Wow. Just wow.. This is one of those books which makes you leave the world behind and act like a page turning addict, hungry to know what's next. I fell in love with the story and the authoress, Gillian Flynn, and just had to start reading her other two books immediately.

Nick's murderous thoughts, his affair and Amy's diary wrongly leads you to believe that he is responsible for Amy's disappearance, but any reader of crime fiction knows that the culprit is never the supposed "bad guy" with the mass of evidence piled against him. So when reading I was sure that Nick had nothing to do with it, but when the tables turned at the start of part two and Amy's alter ego is revealed.. . Whoa!

This book can not leave you without any booktions. Here's my list:

1. The book's cliffhanger ending has left everybody asking "What happens to Nick and Amy? Who kills who?!" Amy goes unpunished and Nick happily stays on to parent a child with his psycho wife. Personally I loved the ending; It describes their relationship perfectly. However it still doesn't give us a definitive "ending" to the story.
2. Nick's father. Why did Amy pull that trick on him? I don't understand how Nick's escapee father from his nursing home plays a part in Amy's elaborate plan.
3. If amazing Amy was able to think of every little detail in all her schemes, how come she wasn't wise enough to have a back-up plan when she was robbed?
4. What are the visions Nick sees of Amy crying out to him in pain with blood in her hair, scrapping herself across the kitchen floor? 
5. Desi? That was so unfair what happens to him and his mother.
6. If Amy's anger at everyone is stemmed from her hatred towards her parents, why are they the only ones going back to their normal life without any repercussions?

Have the answers or more questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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