A Haunting Debut: Hands on the Lever by Jyothi Gupta

Editorial Review - Hands On The Lever

Hands on the Lever is a haunting debut that blurs the boundaries between history, psychology, and human obsession.

The story opens with an object of silence and dread. An execution lever, heavy with memory and power. From this starting point, Gupta draws us into the inner world of Mira, a character whose fascination with the relic becomes at once a mirror and a prison. Across fifteen chapters, the book unfolds less as a conventional narrative and more as a layered meditation on guilt, legacy, and the uneasy intimacy between power and conscience.

The prose is immersive and finely tuned and lyrical without excess. Gupta shows a rare ability to balance atmosphere with restraint: a rusted lever becomes a living presence, a chamber transforms into a stage of memory, and Mira’s thoughts shift between dread and desire with disturbing clarity. Each chapter leaves an aftertaste of unease, lingering long after it ends.

What makes the novel remarkable is its refusal to simplify. Instead of easy answers, Gupta offers piercing questions: How do we bear the weight of history? When does fascination turn into obsession? And perhaps most unsettling of all: "what does it mean to inherit a legacy of death, not by choice but by bloodline and circumstance?"

Beyond its central metaphor, Hands on the Lever resonates as a commentary on society’s complicity in systems of violence. The hangman’s lever is both object and symbol — a reminder of how institutions enforce justice, and how individuals struggle with morality when confronted by the machinery of punishment.

As a debut, it is bold and uncompromising. Jyothi Gupta emerges as a storyteller unafraid of shadows, probing deeply into the fault lines of psychology and history. Readers of literary fiction, psychological thrillers, and dark historical narratives will find themselves compelled, unsettled, and transformed.

Verdict: Hands on the Lever is not just a novel — it is an experience. Disturbing, thought-provoking, and unforgettable.

Chief Editor, ShowzUp Publications