Book Review: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

 

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Book: I Am Pilgrim

Author: Terry Hayes

No. of Pages: 624

Genre: Fiction, Thriller

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books

 

A deeply entwined story with various facets

The author delves deep into the psyche of the protagonist and the villain - other characters have their significant role to play and hardly anyone is marginalized but the author spends so much time (and words) on the two central characters that by the end of the book - you feel for them, you feel with them and you feel like them.

The book starts off with a murder - an almost perfect murder - and it is seems like a murder mystery ... which it isn't

the story veers towards the life of an ex secret service agent - our protagonist ... and we feel that the story might go down the path of another Jason Bourne ... but it doesn't

the story also begins to follow the life and times of the 'villain' giving us an in-depth view of his life through the words of the protagonist ... we feel this book is simply going to establish the characters pitting against each other to set up a trilogy or a series ... but it doesn't

What unfolds then is a an extremely simply and audacious terror attack plan which can wipe our millions (or maybe actually over a Billion) people off the face of the earth - most of them being Americans of course since that is the primary target

Unfortunately the villain does not even hate US so much or has anything 'directly' against it. He wants to destroy someone else .. something else ... and he is soooo furious that he is ready to get rid of a nation ... the most powerful on earth ... to fulfill his conviction.

If this review has begun to confuse you ... imagine what I felt reading the book.

The book is deeply engrossing and it can be termed as an unputdownable. I hate reading a book on the tiny mobile screen (even if it is 4/5 inches) ... and I read this one entirely on my mobile - often with low battery and the charging cord connected with me leaving the comfort of the bed and sitting on a chair or sofa near the charging plug point. It is that level of unputdownbale.

The finger-print cover design gave me the impression of it being a CSI / murder mystery based story and as I have clarified above, it is not a murder mystery that you are reading (yes there is murder, there is a mystery and there is even the mystery behind the murder … but that's not the core of the book). So in the end, the cover kind of feels irrelevant. BUT, its an attractive cover design nevertheless and it appeals to a casual reader. The name, the cover design and the back blurb would have definitely made me pick the book in a book-store.

 

Ratings on Book Review Parameters:

Cover Design: 3.5 / 5

Writing Style: 4.5 / 5

Characters:     4.5 / 5

Story / Plot:     4.5 / 5

Climax:            4.5 / 5

Overall:           4.5 / 5