Halloween Reads: Lamplight- Paranormal Stories from The Hinterland by Kankana Basu.

Book: Lamplight

Author: Kankana Basu

Pages: 200

Read On: Paperback

How Long It Took Me To Read: 1 day

Plot Summary: The year is 1934. The picturesque town of Monghyr, in Bihar, lies devastated after a massive earthquake. The mansion of the Chattopadhyays an old aristocratic family continues to stand upright though a wall is cracking right down the middle. The members of the big joint family find their lives suddenly touched by the eerie and inexplicable. The ancient house has always had its share of creaks and quirks, but now strange incidents suddenly start occurring.

General Thoughts: I read this book back in May. I saved up the review for Halloween. I randomly came across this book while browsing on Flipkart and something, well a lot of things about it drew me to it and I decided to give it a shot.

I read this book when I was battling the flu and I needed to read something that would cheer me up and for me nothing cheers me up like a good ghost story.

Things I Liked:

1. A Bengali joint family, ghost stories, set through the decades 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s and 70s. All these things seperately always draw me to a book. Put them all together and I will most certainly pick the book up.

2. The writing was great too. I am so glad I took a chance on this book.

3. The stories are all from the same family but I was very pleasantly surprised that they didn't all come from the same time in this family's life. The stories were from different characters in the same family but across generations and across time-periods. So while the first story is set in 1934 and in the house, the last story I believe is the grand-daughter of the house and set in Mahabaleshwar.

4. Some stories are typical ghost stories, scary and creepy while some are about kind ghosts that help a family member in a way. I found this sweet and interesting, not all ghosts are vicious and unkind. Some people do have non-threatening encounters with ghosts and it was nice to read about it.

5. Like I already said, some of the stories are set in this old ancestral house, while others are in different cities altogether. I really enjoyed this.

6. The scares in this book were hardcore. The author didn't shy away from showing death and even showing really bad things happening to people. Like really bad things!

7. There was also a wide variety of ghosts, from dead family members, to nasty neighbors and to even ghosts from a long, long time ago! A variety of ghosts are always a good thing be!

8. This book just made me happy. A well-told, a well-written ghost story is always a good thing be!

Rating: 4.5/5

I really recommend this book!

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