"Maya, the girl of blinding brightness. My friend, my girlhood chum. Until she wasn’t. Maya, the girl who had died mysteriously. Her death Shogie’s darkest, most damning mystery. Maya, whose ghost had come calling fourteen years later."
I am an avid reader and in fiction thrillers specially mystery or psycho thrillers is my go to genre. I’ve always loved reading thrillers.
They keep me hooked, leave me restless, and make me want to finish the book in one sitting just to know what really happened.
Maya, Dead and Dreaming instantly caught my attention. The title itself felt like a whisper, unsettling and surreal. Was Maya really dead? Or just forgotten? The cover added to the mystery with a haunting, almost hypnotic aura. I couldn’t help but wonder-
Was this Maya watching us, or were we being pulled into her dream?💭
The story begins years after Maya Hickman, a stunning and mysterious teenager, drowns in a town that has since gone quiet. But Maya’s childhood friend, Munna Dhingra, now an Indian academic living in the US, starts having unsettling dreams of Maya.
Then comes an anonymous letter asking, “Why did Maya have to die?” What follows is a slow unraveling of truths, memories, and long-buried guilt. Munna joins hands with Karenina, a sharp, insightful psychoanalyst, and they start digging into the past. What they find is a tangled mess of envy, small-town silence, and secrets no one wants to revisit.
There are many reasons this book gripped me, but here are five that stood out:
The setting of a fog-laced, sleepy town is so vividly described that I felt like I was walking those cold, silent streets myself. Its raining for few days here in my city and I was totally able to feel the story immerse me in it.
The story unfolds slowly, but with just the right tension like peeling layers off a truth no one wants to face.
Munna, the protagonist, isn’t your usual detective, she's quiet, conflicted, and emotionally real, which made her journey all the more powerful.
The writing is beautifully haunting. Simple lines stay with you long after you’ve turned the page.
It’s not just a mystery it’s about memory, loss, friendship, and how the past never really leaves us.
I would absolutely recommend Maya, Dead and Dreaming to all mystery lovers, especially those who enjoy literary thrillers that feel like a slow dance with the truth.
I bought the Kindle copy, and the storytelling felt smooth and easy to navigate.
A calm, immersive read I could carry with me anywhere.