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[CLOSED] 🥳 !!! ISSA GIVEAWAY TIME !!! 🥳
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Dear reader,
Weren’t expecting me, huh? Well, bread-pakode ki kasam, I had almost given up on sending out this issue. Not because I have a lot on my plate these days. Nor have I been vacationing.
(Psst! I did go on a teeny-weeny weekend getaway, only to end up at a bookstore hehe!)
I kept putting off writing this until the last minute. Because, apparently, my dil goes mmm when it comes to planning. However, the execution part makes me freeze up. 🥶
Psychology calls this our ‘lizard brain’ 🦎- the impulse that stages an internal resistance against any disruption in routine. So, I overcame both my ‘monkey mind’ 🐒 and my ‘lizard brain’, all in order to deliver this to you!
I wonder if there’s even a human brain 🧠 left in there, or did evolution completely skip me over?? 🤯
Anyway, I really don’t mind the effort. In fact, I am grateful for it. Because you, reader, and all the 56 others in our chhota parivaar-sukhi parivaar, have been godsends in allowing me ek tukda dhoop ka in your inboxes!
This issue is dedicated to all our newest members, including Mansi, Sanjana, Shivangi, Pulkit, Yashwanth, and Nikhil.
Now, I know welcoming someone with a horror-themed issue sounds strange. But this genre is one of my favorites. I have a ravenous appetite for everything horror- from ghosts, demons, witches to were-tigers (remember Kaal?) and naagins.
I eagerly await this time of the year when the slightest of chills creeps into the air. Almost like the movement of a planchette on an Ouija board!
You don’t need a lihaaf or a gilaf or even padosi ke chulhe se aag, yet, as Gulzar sahab wrote of winters in the song Beedi. But I like to believe that the sudden spike in cold corresponds to heightened paranormal activity during this period. I simply refuse to acknowledge any logical explanation for it.😤
I guess my fascination with horror started when, as a kid, I’d binge-watch Aahat and Ssshhhh… Koi Hai, without parental supervision! Daayans, besides rajas and ranis, were also a regular feature in my Daadi's bedtime stories. I lapped it all up, though I did learn the Hanuman Chalisa 🕉 by heart, just in case!
What I have gleaned from consuming horror is that it isn’t just a ‘spooks and scares’ fest. It is an exploration of the unknown. It makes you confront your fears and anxieties, but only to get you thinking, to help you process. It puts you through a lot, but always comes to an end. 😌
If it doesn’t, picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost!
On that note, it's time I roll in the recs!
CAUTION ⚠️ - you won't find King/Koontz/Jackson/Lovecraft et al in here. My goal this Spooktober was to expand my horror repertoire beyond the legends. But rest assured, you'll find something you like.
Kasam paida karne wale ki!
🎃🎃 1.
I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
If your brand of horror is the original Bhoot, directed by Ram Gopal Varma in 2003, then this is the book for you. Bhoot is a simple but effectively delivered ghost story about isolation and revenge.
The mere thought of Manjeet makes my blood run cold. I can still feel the murderous rage her angry spirit radiated on-screen. 😰
Not to mention, the child ghost, Manjeet’s poor little son- there’s something so unsettling about children as ghosts that makes the spook factor ratchet up.😰
Similarly, I Remember You is the quintessential ghost story, which blends together with strong mystery, and results into something so goosebump-inducing that you’ll feel the dread dripping off its pages. ☠
There are two parallel plotlines- one about three friends renovating a haunted house in an isolated village, and the other about a lonely doctor in a nearby town, plagued with relentless anxiety over his missing son.
The two tracks are woven together in a captivating way. Almost right off the bat, a growing sense of an unidentifiable presence pervades the book. This feeling only simmers at a measured pace, so much so that I had to keep the lights on while reading, even as I tore through it in a day ‼
📚📚Reader, treat yourself to this intensely terrifying but absolutely entertaining tale of Scandinavian horror!
🎃🎃 2.
Revenge by Yoko Ogawa
If your brand of horror is Darna Mana Hai, another glorious feather in RGV's cap, then you cannot not check out this Japanese goth collection by Ogawa!
Recall that none of the Darna Mana Hai stories are exactly 'scary'. In fact, some deserve a big fat LOL. However, they are tremendously thrilling takes on mundane things such as juicy red apples 🍎, timely homework 📖, eerie hotels with daunting no-smoking boards 🚭, a hitchhiker's ride gone awry 🚘, etc.
Revenge, too, follows a similar approach. It consists of eleven interconnected stories, which don't really feature actual ghosts. They are woven around a macabre thread of thought, even as they explore the ordinary, and leave behind a lasting aftertaste.
For instance- the story titled ‘Afternoon in the Bakery’ - about a mother unable to cope with the death of her young son- made me uneasy 😥 even in my cozy reading nook. Another one called ‘Lab Coats’ - about the deadly desperation of a mistress when her lover backtracks from his promises- blindsided me enough to give it a re-read (and scribble a series of wtf??!!! 🤯🤯 in my notes).
A particular favorite ‘Old Mrs. J’ - about an old landlady who grows hand-shaped carrots in her garden, right where she murdered and buried her husband- earned a “BHAI F*CK” 😱 from me (yes, in bold capitals)!
I also loved its inventive structure. The link between stories is so intricately established that it makes one wonder what’s real, and what’s just a figment of warped imagination.
📚📚 Reader, why don’t you just grab this one, and thank me later? Kasam ki kasam hai kasam se this is unlike anything you’ve read before! 😤
🎃🎃 3.
My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
If your brand of horror is the William Peter Blatty classic The Exorcist, here is the book to your tastes! Should you choose to read this one (and you must, I insist😤), what you sign up for is nothing like the usual depiction of demonic possession.
It's a book about exorcism. So, it abounds in very graphic, very horrifying scenes 🔞. We see the possessed undergo a vile physical transformation, throw up crow feathers and worms 🐛, spider-walk 🕷 down the stairs in The Grudge fashion, and speak in a foreign tongue in the demon's own guttural voice 👹.
But at its heart, this remains a coming-of-age story of two teenage girls, Abby and Gretchen 👭, whose friendship manages to weather the test of time, and supernatural occurrences. Their bond, as pure as a pinky-promise , not only plucked at my heartstrings but also coaxed a few tears out of me in the end 😢.
Hendrix's unique style is such that this turns out to be gore horror/tongue-in-cheek comedy/emotional rollercoaster/nostalgia galore, all in one! A thorough genre-bender!
📚📚 Reader, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I command thee! Leave everything else, and read this, at once!
THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!!!
🎃🎃 4.
The Houseguest and Other Stories by Amparo Dávila
If your kind of horror traverses from the real to the fantastical and back, I have got you covered. The Houseguest is a Mexican collection rooted in the everyday fears in a woman's life.
It dissects a woman's inability to break free from a socially oppressive situation, stretches it to the point of insanity, and paints an unnerving picture.
For instance- in the titular story The Houseguest, an uncaring husband brings home a mysterious guest who begins to terrorize the lady of the house. Now, it's unclear if the houseguest is even human or a creature of some other kind. But the fear of this unwanted entity drives the wife to an unbelievably drastic step 😱!
Similarly, another story, The Cell, revolves around the fear of assault or domestic abuse. But who’s the perpetrator? The narrator’s father? Her suitor? Something other-wordly ☠?
Let your imagination run amok and spook you out!
In Musique Concrete a woman is harassed by her husband’s mistress, who is also somehow a toad??!! Complete with bulging eyes, swollen neck and a deafening croak??!!! 🐸🐸
📚📚 Reader, want something that will mess with your head? This book is your chance! Seize it, won't you?
What have you been reading?
I’m currently reading Alexis Henderson’s The Year of the Witching. 🧙♀️🧹
Wanna gush about something you read recently? Wanna pull it apart? Either way, drop by in the comments 💬 👇 and let’s have a chat!
Although, I usually don't like the 'Horror' genre, this month's edition is my favorite. The descriptions are intriguing and exciting, especially 'The Houseguest'- Makes me want to try out the horror segment for the first time in my life!