• Genre: Romantic thriller
• Number of pages: 339
• Literature: Erotic
• Awards: Golden Book Award for 2024

“Love is not about possession. It’s about appreciation and understanding.”

The book “Killer Queen” by Vijhay Sundar K. G. is a blend of romance, eroticism, and a touch of thrilling mystery. This book is my first review project with partner “Kharidobechobooks.” So, I was very intrigued and excited to start with it.

The first 30% of the book  felt repetitive with the same kind of emotions and erotic scenes, which may have slowed down the reading pace. Though I wanted to read it thoroughly and do justice to the author’s effort, imagination, and fluid writing. It picked up the pace after finishing the first 30%. An Author takes you on the intrigued, mysterious, and emotional ride by integrating Indian literature, renowned classic authors, American poets, classic singers, Greek mythology, and many more beautiful references. This approach to writing invokes a range of emotions in the reader, as it brings together the familiar and the mysterious, the ancient and the modern, enriching the reading journey with depth and curiosity.

The book is inspired by one of the incidents from the author’s dream. It is a love and romantic journey of two psychologically complex characters, Vijay and Zariah. The story starts in the cafe with a casual encounter of Vijay, who is engrossed reading a book of Rabindranath Tagore and notices the beautiful woman in black saree, Zariah. This casual encounter quickly evolves into a deep and passionate connection, depicting intense and fast-paced romance. It explores the theme of love, romance, intimacy, and desires by capturing the unpredictable nature of attraction. The author has challenged society’s demeaning outlook towards prostitutes by creating an intellectual and artistic character like Zariah, who is working as an escort. The role of escort has been looked down on and often met with judgement in Indian society. However, this character alters the perception of Indian conservatism by demonstrating traits like intellect, reading the books, admiration of renowned authors, poetry, and her artistic talent in the erotic paintings.

What I liked more about this story is that it addresses one of the under-discussed issues of rape, which doesn’t only affect women but men or can impact any human being. It broadly highlights the torture, emotional trauma, and the darkest phase of loneliness and despair that person goes through.The book kept on redefining the concept of love beautifully with poetic sense. All in all, it is a wonderful read!