Book Review #95: The Empty House - Collected by Ruskin Bond

Title: The Empty House

Collected and Compiled by: Ruskin Bond

Author: Various authors

Publishers: Rupa Publications India

Genre: Supernatural/Horror/Children Stories

Pages: 158 (Paperback)

Source: Early review copy from Publishers

Stories that are horror and supernatural are always a fascinating experience. These kinds of books intrigue any reader, and especially the fans of horror stories. The mild horror slowly seeps into your mind and makes you wonder at length. Being a huge fan of horror stories, I definitely enjoyed reading this collection of 11 short stories by Ruskin Bond. Ruskin Bond never fails to amuse his readers. Be it his own stories or collected stories like “The Empty House”.

“The Empty House” is a book of short stories collected and compiled by Ruskin Bond that includes his own story “Gone Fishing”. Among the collected stories, the story of Empty House by Algernon Blackwood adorns the title of this book. The book has other stories like “Mrs. Raeburn’s waxwork” by Lady Eleanor Smith, “Thurnley Abbey” by Perecval London, Chunia Ayah by Alice Perrin and so on.

The book beings by the story of one of my favorite author Rudyard Kipling titled “The Return of Imray”. This is an interesting story that holds the suspense till the end. Imray is disappeared and despite many attempts to find the whereabouts of him, the result was in dismay. After few months, Imray’s bungalow was rented by Strickland of police and the narrator of the story is now inside this bungalow. During the stay in that bungalow, the narrator experiences some strange movements of figures. Even Strickland’s dog is quite disturbed. The very next day, Strickland and the narrator finds a snake up by the corner of ceiling cloth, which is disappearing into the roof space. When Strickland climbs up to see, to his horror, he finds Imray’s dead body up there with its throat cut. Upon interrogating the servant of Imray, the servant confesses to the crime citing the reason for which there is no rational explanation.

The next story that I liked the most is, The Empty House. It’s a story of a supposedly haunted house. The main characters of this story are Jim Shorthouse and his aunt Julia. One day, Shorthouse arrives to see his aunt for a weekend visit. He had received telegram from his aunt only that morning and he arrived soon with excitement and mystery. The moment he embraced her, he felt a surge of electrical shock like condition. Julia, a maniac of psychical research was all excited to visit that Empty House as she got the keys.

As the two enter the old house, Aunt Julia relates a brief history of the brutal crime that initiated the haunting. “’It has to do with a murder committed by a jealous stableman who had some affair with a servant in the house. One night he managed to secrete himself in the cellar, and when everyone was asleep, he crept upstairs to the servants' quarters, chased the girl down to the next landing, and before anyone could come to the rescue threw her bodily over the banisters into the hall below.’"

The tension continues to build as Shorthouse and Julia are certain they hear a man sneeze next to them. Then it happens, with a sudden jolt as powerful as the one that accompanies the first appearance of the old woman in “House on Haunted Hill,” “Facing them, directly in their way between the doorposts, stood the figure of a woman. She had dishevelled hair and wildly staring eyes, and her face was terrified and white as death. “She stood there motionless for the space of a single second. Then the candle flickered and she was gone—gone utterly— and the door framed nothing but empty darkness.”

And the third story that I liked from the collection is, “The white Wolf of the Hartz Mountains” By Frederick Marryat. This is the story of serf’s people. A family of three children and a father. Krantz is the only surviving member of a small Transylvanian family whose history has been marked by violent death. A family whose father murdered the mother, after catching her in an act of infidelity, then fled north to the Hartz Mountains (Germany) of the story’s title. There they live a harsh and lonely existence that settles into routine until, while hunting one day, the father sees and pursues a white she-wolf. Just as he draws a bead on it and is preparing to fire his rifle, however, it mysteriously disappears. On the way back to the family’s cabin, though, he encounters a man and daughter, half-frozen, looking for shelter which he, naturally, offers.

The beautiful young woman becomes an “evil stepmother” to the storyteller and his siblings. The oldest brother begins to note her strange nocturnal disappearances where, upon returning, she invariably goes to wash herself. What could she be doing out there? Many of these nights of her absence are also marked by the howl of a wolf, seemingly just outside the window of the children. Hmm… Slowly, as the evil deeds of this “woman” mount up, young Krantz’s fear of her transforms: “…but I no longer felt afraid of her; my little heart was full of hatred and revenge.”

I would encourage the readers to read the remaining stories from the book. It’s a great collection of horror stories from past. It still holds that suspense and thrilling factors. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

My Rating:

5/5

Note: This book was given to me by the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review

Book Review #92: The Laughing Skull By Ruskin Bond

Title: The Laughing Skull

Author: Ruskin Bond

Publishers: Rupa Publications

Genre: Short Stories/Children’s stories

Pages: 112 (Paperbound)

Source: Review copy sent by Publisher

Ruskin Bond is a well acclaimed author and most loved children’s writer in India. Most of our childhood days have been filled with the stories of Ruskin Bond. His short stories with little added horror and humor have always been a fascinating experience for any children then and now. One would always wonder how Ruskin Bond manages to write such simple, joyous tales all the time. Each and every story that he has written is refreshing. Stories that are mild horror and filled with fragrant smell of nature makes anyone wants to read again and again.

This book is one of those books where you can just sit on a lazy day in your cozy chair and start rummaging through the pages and go nostalgic all over again. Frankly, I stopped reading children books a long time ago. But still, when I was approached by the publishers to review this book on my blog along with three other titles from Ruskin Bond (Which will be reviewed shortly), I couldn’t say no to it. This is Ruskin Bond. My whole childhood was filled with the tales I’ve heard, read from his books. I just enjoyed this book like I always enjoy any books from Ruskin Bond collection.

The Laughing Skull, though it is the title of the book, it is the first story. There are nearly over 30 such short stories. Some are little horror and some humor. Additionally, other stories which are of funny ghosts, stupid ghosts, scary ghosts and what not.

The Laughing Skull is a funny story of a Skull that the author received from his doctor nephew. He put that skull on a mantelpiece at his home. Slowly, he felt that he was being watched by this skull. Feeling little strange, author decided to put that skull in a cupboard. After few moments, the cupboard started shaking violently, and the skull just popped out of cupboard and started bouncing up and down. Feeling little scared, the author wraps this skull in a box and tries to send it back to his nephew and goes to post office to deliver it. Within minutes of dropping this box at the post office, the skull started chasing the author straight out of the box. Author then decides to put that skull inside a football and gave it to a school. Felt relieved for few days, author started to miss this skull. It was an odd feeling. So, he decides to search this skull and get it back to his home. In his quest, he goes to a fortune teller and was surprised to find his skull lying with him. With enough persuasions and monetary compensation, author was able to successfully retrieve his skull from that fortune teller and kept that skull on the same mantelpiece in his home and felt an odd relaxation that he has never felt before.

There are few other stories which we might have already heard off. Susanna’s Seven Husbands for example. This little tale of a vicious woman, who supposedly married seven times and directly or indirectly killed all of her seven husbands one by one. This was an interesting tale that was narrated by a servant to the author. This story was made as a Bollywood film under the title “7 Khoon Maaf”.

We also get to read stories that are paranormal. One such story is the story of two sisters and a single brother. Usha is the eldest among her siblings Binya and Suresh. This is a story when one day Usha decides to visit town nearby. She had to cross the deep forest from her home to get to the town on the other side for the essential purchases. But there was a strong rumor among the village that, the forest is haunted during the night. One day Usha went across the town to make purchases and while returning there was heavy downpour in the forest and she couldn’t able to cross the forest before dusk. She decides to take shelter in the abandoned house in the forest. During night, she hears strange voices as if someone is calling her. She found out that, it was her brother and sister who came finding her all the way from village. So, all three of them decides to stay till morning. During their stay they were hearing many haunted voices, people calling their names etc… Once it was dawn, they started to village. Usha hears a voice saying goodbye. She thinks it was her brother or sister. But both of them walked silently. Then all three of them again hears the same voice shouting goodbye, goodbye.

The book is full of such suspense filled stories. We also get to read few stories like two brothers story that is full of morale. Story about an idiot husband, vicious wife and a helpful ghost. Story about a haunted swimming pool. Story of a paranormal pillow, etc… It is quite fascinating to go back in the days when such simple stories were filled with enough horror, suspense and thrill. I had similar experience even now while reading this collection.

Overall, a definite guide to go back to those childhood days. Reminisce all those beautiful days where you just want to read Ruskin Bond all day under your blanket. I would highly recommend it for everyone. Live you childhood once again.

Note: A review copy of the book was given to me by the publishers in return for an honest review.

My Rating:

5/5

Book Review #52: Puppeteers of Palem By Sharath Komarraju

Pic Courtesy: Internet

I read a completely new style of paranormal action based novel. The sheer brilliance of the author Sharath Komarraju is exceptional. I believe this book "Puppeteers of Palem" is a class apart. It carries all those spookiness, creepiness, horrifying scenes, mad people, dreaded killers and what not. Certainly, this novel is a much needed break for the readers who are reading the same old love stories, or some kind of regular thrillers.

Right from the beginning of the book, the story takes the grip of its readers making them not to put down the book. The plot of the novel is what makes it as a must read.

5 friends that grown up in the same village, Rudrakshapalem, in short called as Palem will head back to their village after receiving a mysterious letter. What makes more interesting is all 5 of them receive similar letters, but, they will realize it when they met each other in the village.

The story takes its twist in the opening scene of the novel. There is a murder in the village. The victim is one of the 5 friends that came back to village. The Police were investigating the case and soon the police will realize that, 2 crippled boys with wounds and bruises were somehow responsible for this assault on the dead man. By questioning the local villagers about these boys, the police will take these boys into their custody for little verification. A news reporter cum journalist called Sonali was covering this murder incident. She questions every person in the village, she also questions the parents and guardians of the victims and also she questions those 2 boys about this murder incident. Sonali feels something is not going right in this investigation and she decides to stay in the village for some more time to cover this in greater details.

The author introduces us to the younger days of these 5 friends that grew up in this village. There is an old man in that village who was narrating stories to the kids almost every evening. Expectedly, these 5 kids are regular attendants of this story sessions. Here, the author introduces us to a very important story through the old man’s narration. This story is a true incident happened in their village few years ago.

One day, this old man narrates a story of a woman or we can call as a mad woman, Lacchi and her drunkard husband Sangadu. He described the story in greater detail, to which, all the kids listened to him in great intent. He concluded the story saying, the woman had murdered her husband with a stone. And, she kept her husband’s dead body on her lap throughout the night singing a chilling song. The old man also told the kids that, she is still living in the outskirts of the village, near the shivalayam (Shiva Temple). 

The kids who grew up listening to this story was curious enough to check out this old temple, so all these 5 friends will head out to this temple one day and decides to spend the night there. Once they returned to their homes, they were not the same, something has happened to them and nobody knew what it was. They were feeling strange throughout the week and felt someone is watching them from behind. After few years, they left their village for their higher studies and soon forgot this temple and the madwoman story.

This point sets the stage for the novel. As the book progresses further, these 5 friends that returned to their village Palem will find it very difficult to come to terms. They will behave as if each other have written the letters to each other asking them to come to village. Slowly one after the other will die in a suspicious way. Nobody knew who had killed the other one. This has brought the rift among them. Who is the puppet here? Who is the puppeteer here? Who has written those letters to them asking them to come back to village? Was the old man responsible for all these miseries? Was he the actual puppeteer? What might be the conclusion to this killing spree? Was the mad woman Lacchi that killed her husband is taking any revenge by taking the form of a ghost? These are the questions that pop up regularly as we read through the novel.

As we approach the climax to the novel. There is only 1 friend left among the 5 friends. Of course, the old man is still alive. And the journalist cum reporter Sonali who stayed back in the village is still in the village. She wrote too many notes in her diary addressing her sister Shilpi. She explained everything that was happening in this sleepy village. But she never posted those notes neither she was aware of writing those notes. So, was Sonali responsible for these murders? Did Lacchi has crept into Sonali’s mind and making all these things? The million dollar answer lies in the book. One must read this book to understand who the puppet is and who the puppeteer is.

Overall, I find this book very interesting and refreshing. It is certainly a break from the regular thriller. Combined with the paranormal activity and keeping the village as a backdrop makes this book even more awesome. The cover image of the book looks very promising and at the same time brings that curiousness among the readers. I recommend this book to everyone. You won't regret reading it. You’ll enjoy each and every page of it.

I said there is a chilling song that Lacchi sings holding her husband’s dead body. What is that song is all about? Well, read it in the book.

My Rating:

5/5

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