Book Review #73: ‘I’m So Hacked’ by Gautam Mayekar

‘I’m So Hacked’ by Gautam Mayekar (C) Aishwary Mehta.

The story behind this photograph – I loved the way Author gave the name to this book. The way the reader will feel after completing this epic thriller, ‘I’m So Hacked’. Thus, I used the computer screen to depict the image with the text ‘YOU HAVE BEEN HACKED!’. Computer and mobiles being the easiest way to Hack into someone’s life.

Author – Gautam Mayekar | Genre – Thriller

Publisher – Leadstart Publishing Pvt Ltd

Source – Publisher | ASIN – B07RQ47XLQ

Published in – May 2019

Format – Paperback | Pages – 198

Quote from the book I Liked –

‘Trust is the most exploitable and vulnerable trait a person can have.’ (Page no. 36)

‘And these days, the coolest people are the ones who break the rules and go against the system. Ironically, they are also the ones who are – hurt, betrayed and lied to. They are the ones to get beaten up; they are the ones who get laughed at.’ (Page no. 122)

Stars – 5 Stars

Plot Summary –

@v! is a hacker who spends his days working in India’s number one anti-virus company as a security researcher and his nights, crawling through underground hacking forums.

He is completely unmotivated and lacks purpose until he receives a letter from M@dR1; a mysterious revolutionary who wants to create a “change” in the world. M@dR1 uses @v!’s horrific past to motivate him, and guides him through various tasks, starting with shutting down the internet services of the entire city.

A series of mayhem, manipulation and mystery ensues as @v! begins hallucinating various events and people from his former life, before he became a reclusive hacker. He is thrown into a barrage of uncertainty and confusion as his perception of reality begins to shift out of focus.

Meanwhile, M@dR1 and @v! prepare for a major cyber-attack that will rock the foundation of the country’s technological unit, with the help of @v!’s friends, $@m and K!LL3R. Will they accomplish their goals? Or will @v!’s increasing delusion lead to their downfall?

About the Author –

Gautam Mayekar is a certified ethical hacker who works for the American IT company TIBCO Software Inc. as a member of the Technical Staff (Product Security). He has previously worked for Quick Heal Technologies Ltd, a security solutions provider and an American software company called Qualys, Inc. which provides cloud security.

Born and brought up in Goa, he earned his bachelor’s degree in Engineering from PCCE, South Goa. He hails from a family of teachers, writers and librarians, and grew up reading books of every genre. His interest in hacking came much later, after witnessing an Orkut community of the Late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam being hacked by hackers from a neighbouring country.

It was during his time with Quick Heal that he came across an unknown hacker, who later became the inspiration for !m S0 H@cK3D. When he isn’t writing or hacking, he enjoys playing and watching football games, and going to the gym.

He has won various prizes in online writing prompts, most recently in a contest held by Half Baked Beans.

!m S0 H@cK3D is his debut novel.

My Review –

So before giving my reaction to this book let me tell you briefly about it. In this book, our poignant is a Hacker named Avi, he is a recent recruit at India’s largest Antivirus firm QuickBit. He describes as to how he got the job. As he’s a hacker he explains in the language he masters in that is Hacking. He is a complete Introvert and loves to hack into people’s computer and ultimately into their lives. He is so good at it that many times he just does it for his timepass and nobody gets a hint of it. He is the one narrating the whole story. He starts from his present and gradually takes us to his past as being an ex-Army man. Who served in Indian Army but after one brutally unsuccessful mission, left the army. He later joined in the above firm and now works as an employee during the day and dwells in the darkest corners of Dark web at night. One day out of blues, he receives a later from an unknown person named Madri who feeds his brain with the tasks which generate his curiosity and interest. What happens next is a mind-bending story to dive into.

Well my views after reading this book, I’m so Hacked. Literally, the book is such a treat for the readers that after completing it, I felt numb. The climax left me blank. What did I read? Was it all true? Was the story I just read made any sense? Or did I just got Hacked? were the few questions I still feel even after a few days of completing the book. The story seems so real, so authentic, yet the ending claims to be something you could never expect it to be. In between the pages, I too guessed a lot of different theories regarding this story and the character but I had to dump them all out when I read the last chapter. Kudos to the author for writing such a mind-boggling thriller. And the way the author described each event and every Hacking he did was too easy to understand by a ‘not so into Computer language‘ person like me. This is the book I’ll highly recommend to all my dear readers, to just grab this book and dive into it. This book is a Bestseller we all wanted to read.

What I liked – The character buildup, the actual scheme of hacking and ending the most.

What could’ve been better – Everything was fine.

Writing Style – Self-narration by the poignant, which will make you unsure whether to trust him or not until and even after you finish the book.

Conclusion – The ending will leave you kept thinking of what actually transpired.

25th BOOK of 2019 (109th book overall)

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