I Hear You by Nidhi Upadhyay
Genre: Medical Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Mystery, Fiction
Published: April 2023, Penguin India
Verdict: 4/5
About the Book:
Most expectant mothers talk to their unborn. But what if the unborn starts to respond?
Mahika is hoping that a baby will breathe new life into her dead marriage. But all her pregnancies meet the same fate, because no baby is perfect for Shivam, her genius geneticist husband. Until there is one. Rudra, the world’s first genetically altered foetus, is Shivam’s perfect creation and Mahika’s last hope.
The six-week-pregnant Mahika has just walked into her fertility clinic when she discovers an anonymous note that discloses the ugly truth behind her pregnancy. Before Mahika can come to terms with the fact that her husband’s quest for perfection has marked its territory in her womb, she finds herself locked in her own house. But then she discovers that her unborn son has extraordinary powers. As weeks pass by, Rudra calibrates and recalibrates his powers with one aim-Mahika’s freedom.
But Rudra needs more than his newly acquired powers to free his mother. He needs to betray his creator, his father. And he must do it before it’s too late.
Thoughts:
If you’re someone who enjoys medical thriller, you would want to try I Hear You. What vivid imagination and an equally eloquent vocabulary to support her story. I’ve been fan of this author’s debut and am surprised to see her next story is very unique and completely different from her first. Bold move ma’am.
The story follows Mahi being pregnant with her first child and goes back to her scientist father and how she met her brilliant genicist husband years ago. What started as a lovely marriage soon turned into something controlling and sad and dysfunctional, now that she begins to unravel truths about her harmless, perfectionist husband.
We have a little romantic backstory that soon morphes into a thrilling one with several unreliable, unlikeable characters and an unknown narrator whose revelations will shock your core.
As a mother and a woman, I found myself shivering at times, and thanked the almighty that I am not pregnant anymore. This book is not for the light-hearted. Otherwise, I’d highly recommended it for readers who love a unique premise and a beautiful Singapore setting and a story with several cliffhangers.
About the Author:
Nidhi is the bestselling author of That Night. She is an engineer, a headhunter, and a consumer of black coffee and dark chocolates. But her greatest interests are her children, her husband who is disillusioned that her writing career is his retirement plan, and a puppy who thinks he owns her.
She is often found hiding her current search history from her boys. If not busy researching a way to kill, drown or dispose of bodies, Nidhi can be found reading thrillers or screaming at her boys.
