Skip to main content
Chaptra
Cover of Hiraeth: First Love First Contact

Hiraeth: First Love First Contact

Written by Taksh Gupta & Akhil Ahuja

Not rated yet — tap a star to review it

256 pages, about 5 hours of reading

Chaptra reads alongside you — AI insights, chapter breakdowns and reader discussions for every book. Join free

About this book

What supposedly troubles man the most is the fear of the unknown. However, what transcends that is a nightmare, where things are so incredibly frightening that you hope that it was just that – a nightmare – but there’s a part of you which knows that it is a part of your existence. Nikhil, a young guy loaded with responsibilities, and his girlfriend, Saesha, are trapped in this unenviable situation. Eerily, their worst nightmare is essentially the same: A cold-blooded, red-eyed freak chasing them, with a resolute obsession to slay their souls. The two try to pass this as coincidence, until the day things start falling apart. In a bizzare turn of events, Saesha gets abducted and returns with no memory of Nikhil. Weighing the odds of Saesha teaming up with the aliens, Nikhil has to make a choice between his beliefs and the world’s, which is under siege. Biological weapons are unleashed, as a 623-year-old intergalactic rivalry is revived. Governments brainstorm together, there are UN meets and nuclear weapons are aggregated. Eventually, war breaks. The novel depicts Nikhil’s journey as he sets out to save his love, which may also be the key to saving the world.

Read it with a club

Chaptra's fiction clubs — small groups reading the same books and talking as they go.

All clubs
Two people writing and talking across a table

CraxMe Readers Book Club

Fiction

  • 385 members
  • 227 discussions
  • Started December 2025

Welcome to the Readers Book Club. This is an informal group for like-minded people, where you can discuss books, share and recommend, track your reading progress, and lots more. Discuss Books — all about books. Discuss a particular book or genre, share your favourite quotes. Book Reviews — loved a book and highly recommend it? Or was it just average? Share your review and discuss with fellow readers. (May contain spoilers.) Group Reads — what is a book club without a group read! Buddy Reads — planning to read a book and looking for someone to read it with? Post in the Buddy Read request thread, find a reading buddy, and start discussing.

Read Hiraeth: First Love First Contact alongside people who are reading it too.

Chaptra Prime — paid clubs, every club feature, and unlimited reading support, for $5 a month or $60 once.

See Prime

Reading guide

Themes, characters and key ideas in Hiraeth: First Love First Contact, written by Chaptra AI.

A reading guide for this book hasn't been written yet. Chaptra builds one the first time a reader opens it.

Chapter-by-chapter breakdowns, character arcs and the full thematic analysis come with a free account.

Discussions

No one has started one yet

Join

No discussions yet

Be the first to start a discussion about this book!

Sign up to start the discussion

Reviews

No reviews yet

Be the first to review this book!