The Whimsy Bookworm: A Book Blog from India

 Hello Loves! In the honour of Halloween and all things spooky, I've read a few thrillers, Not as many as I would have liked to but I read some good ones...here is my little list.  Haunt Sweet Home is my most recent read. A home improvement haunted house reality TV show which is mostly fake till some real creepy things start happening. Fun and short and an interesting look at reality TV.  CJ Tudor is an author whose work I enjoy very much. I went into this with very high expectations.  A father and daughter inherit a dream house in an ideal township in the US, picture a Disney like vibe, if Disney made ideal townships that had a million rules. So our Brits move to this town and things are a little off. Fun enough but eventually incredibly obvious and all the reveals and twists were so easy to guess.  My first ever M.L. Rio, this little novella is about a single night and a whole lot of strangeness.  There  are creepy and gore-y things and honestly I do...

 Hello Loves!  The last week of the year is just to slow down and laze about and start prepping for the New Year.  I've started setting up my planners and organizing my supplies. Little things to get ready for 2025. I've also been watching some comfort films and reading some picture books.  Here are some faves from this week.  Lemon tea every night is a December staple.  Books and Tea.  Stickers and supplies.  Read this incredible spooky book.  Based on real life stories.  This was such good fun.  Mornings back in the hometown.  Blogging with a side of cookies.  Year end journaling, listing off  all my yearly highlights. 

 Happy Halloween🎃👻🍬  You know I love all things Spooky and every year for Halloween, I try to read some spooky and mystery books.  Here are five books I read this year in honour of Halloween.  Happy Halloween my Spooky 👻🐈‍⬛👽🎃👻 Pals.  Five books I read leading up to Halloween.                🎃👻🍬🎃👻🍬🎃👻🍬 Finally read Dracula and since it's such a big part of our cultural Zeitgeist, I feel like I knew this story through osmosis. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it immensely and was surprised how easy it was to read and accessible the writing was. Also watched two film adaptations. One made in 1992 by Fransis Ford Coppola (which was so campy and weird). The other produced by Wes Craven (who I love) which was fun but very, very not true to text. Both films are available on YouTube.  Mariana Enriquez was a revelation. I cannot believe it took me this long to finally find my way to her work. She writes like a dream abo...

 Hello, hello! Happy Halloween!  When the real world is so full of horrors, do we really need another day to remind us of the existence of all kinds of scary things? Maybe, maybe not.  Irrespective of whether you celebrate Halloween or not, here are 10 solid horror movies and shows that you can enjoy on this spooky day.  1. The Pale Blue Eye (Netflix)  is a horror-thriller-suspence series that has Edgar Allen Poe as a detective (of sorts) as he investigates murders of cadets at a military school in upstate New York. A spooky and atmospheric watch, which is very nicely done.  2. The Wonder (Netflix) is an interesting and atmospheric movie about a young girl, who has not been eating for over a couple of months. The village elders call upon a trained nurse and a nun to observe the girl to see it is a miracle or a hoax. An interesting one to watch if you don't want to watch something too spooky or scary.  3. Bodies Bodies Bodies (Netflix) is a slasher-come...

 Hello, hello! Happy Friday the 13th to all who celebrate!  As a horror fan, my plan for today is to watch as many horror movies as possible and so, in the spirit of sharing, here are 10 horror movie recommendations for you should you also want to watch one or a few of them! :)  Let's get started!  1. Talk to Me: Some high school kids find a mysterious embalmed hand that can summon spirits and decide to use it as some kind of a game. If you hold the hand, a spirit possesses you and it is safe to stay possessed for 90 seconds. But then things go wrong, as they do... 2. Raaz: A Hindi classic. Heavily inspired by What Lies Beneath but still quite scary and good!  3. The Exorcist (1973): Truly a classic of the genre. A little girl is possessed and her mother, a priest and family friends band together to save her.  4. The Conjuring: Based on a real case undertaken by Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring is a seriously spooky movie about a family's home being ha...

Hello, hello, We've been having a very rainy week in Mumbai and so, have been watching a mix of old and new and underrated horror movies! Sharing some that we enjoyed for fellow horror aficionados.    In no particular order, here are the horror movies we enjoyed!  1. The Pope's Exorcist: Inspired the real life adventures and misadventures of the actual exorcist hired by the Pope in the 1980s to help individuals suffering from demonic possession, this is a pretty gnarly movie. When an American widow moves to a tiny town in Spain to restore and sell an ancient abbey that belonged to her husband's family, she finds a demonic entity possessing her young son. The Pope's Exorcist is called in to help the little boy.  Streaming on Prime Video.  2. Slumber: When a family that has consistent, horrifying nightmares approaches a sleep clinic for help, little do the doctors know that they have bitten off more than they can chew and what seems like some kind of sleep disorde...

We watched Adhura early this morning. The skies were dark, it was quiet all around with the only sound being the gentle pitter-patter of rains. Just the perfect mood/ vibe to watch a horror show set in a boarding school exploring themes like revenge, past sins, secrets and such!  Here are 5 reasons why you should definitely watch Adhura this rainy weekend!  1. The setting is absolutely gorgeous and perfect! The show is set on the beautiful campus of The Lawrence School, Lovedale, Ooty and the misty greens, the darker-than-dark nights and the beautiful, regal old buildings amp up the spooky atmosphere of the show!   2. The story, as I mentioned earlier, is set in a boarding school in the hills. The batch of 2007 is back on campus for a reunion and a little 10-year-old boy, called Vedant, is acting strangely and scaring the beejeejus out of his bullies. Is Vedant's metamorphosis somehow connected to the return of the batch of 2007? What connects whatever entity is possessin...

 Hello Loves!  I've been so bad at documenting my book buying this year and by the grace of God I've been buying so many books!  Well, let's not let the Books of May languish anymore.  These are the books I bought in May 2023 and I've even read a few from this bunch.  So let's just jump in.  What a pretty little stack!  I am slowly but surely trying to collect all the books in the Greatest Stories Ever Told series from Aleph, this month I bought two books.  The first from Goa, which I am really looking forward to and it's something I am hoping to read through next  month. I read the Greatest Marathi Stories this month. So Maharashtra in May and then June in Goa. Sounds good to me.  Picked up this beautiful graphic novel about a young sportswoman from Kashmir and I read it and loved and reviewed it.  :)  You can find it here .  I have read and really enjoyed the author's work before and this novel, set in Assam and about a ...

  We binged The Midnight Club in one sitting yesterday and here are five reasons why you should watch this horror-thriller-mystery series right away!  1. Set in the mid-1990s in a hospice for terminally ill teenagers in Washington state, The Midnight Club is a cozy, atmospheric, occasionally spooky show that is mostly a thriller-mystery-suspenseful ride rather than an out-and-out horror series. If you are expecting a re-do of the makers' previous series such as The Haunting of Hill House or Bly Manor or Midnight Mass, then you will be disappointed horror-wise. This show doesn't have that many scares at all and is more of a mystery, thriller type show.  The show follows a group of terminally ill teenagers, who are in residence at Brightcliffe Manor. These kids meet every midnight in the hospice's very well-appointed library and share ghost/ mystery stories in a bid to scare each other and also, to take their minds off their illnesses, aches, pains and impending death....

 Hello Loves!  Long time no chit chat.  Life has been one crazy bout of being busy and being anxious and packing and unpacking and getting the house livable again.  It's been a lot. I feel like all of June has been one big stress ball and somewhere all of it just got to be and I took a pretty big break from this space. It was both intentional and happenstance and I have a lot of catch up one. Mostly my June Reading Wrap-Up and my Monthly faves.  I will slowly get to those.  But for now, let's talk July!  Hello July!  The month of rains and hopefully some good reading!  Half the year is over. Just gone and now we slip into the second half. My favourite half of the year. The one with all the festivities and joys and the promise of autumn and winter. I am already in the good mood because the monsoon is here and I feel most alive.  :)  We've had some amazing rain days recently.  The view outside my bedroom window.  I have miss...

  Book: The Book of Cold Cases  Author: Simone St.James  Pages: 352  Publisher: Berkeley Press  Read On: Kindle  How Long it Took Me To Read: One day (I could not/ would not put it down)  Plot Summary:  In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind. Beth Greer was the perfect suspect--a rich, eccentric twenty-three-year-old woman, seen fleeing one of the crimes. But she was acquitted, and she retreated to the isolation of her mansion. Oregon, 2017 .  Shea Collins is a receptionist, but by night, she runs a true crime website, the Book of Cold Cases--a passion fueled by the attempted abduction she escaped as a child. When she meets Beth by chance, Shea asks her for an interview. To Shea's surprise, Beth says yes. They meet regularly at Beth's mansion, though Shea is never comfortable there. Items move when she's not looking...

  Book: The Drowning Kind  Author: Jennifer McMahon   Pages: 336  Publisher: Scout Press  Read On: Kindle  How Long it Took Me To Read: 3 days  Plot Summary:   Be careful what you wish for. When Jax receives nine missed calls from her older sister, Lexie, she assumes that it’s just another one of her sister’s episodes. Manic and increasingly out of touch with reality, Lexie has pushed Jax away for over a year. But the next day, Lexie is dead: drowned in the pool at their grandmother’s estate. When Jax arrives at the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property. And as she dives deeper into the research herself, she discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she could have ever imagined. In 1929, thirty-seven-year-old newlywed Ethel Monroe hopes desperately for a baby. In an effort to distract her, her husband whisks her away on a trip to Vermont, where a...

 Hello Loves!  Another weekend and more books to read and live my best life.  My sister and I hope to spend most of this weekend reading and being still and happy.  I am reading two books at the moment. And my sister started a new book today.  Let's see what I am reading this weekend.  One Dozen Stories by Satyajit Ray, Translated by Gopa Majumdar: First up I am slowly making my way through these magnificent stories from Ray. All of these I've read before so this book is an absolute re-read but one I am always happy to embark on. A mix of Ray's best stories, some spooky, some sci-fi, some about everyday life and two from Feluda's adventures. A great way to sample his work and this collection works for kids and adults alike.  Young Blood by Chandrima Das: Next I am also reading these horror short stories set on college campuses in India. I have read only a couple of stories so far and I am really enjoying myself. We've been having some rainy and grey ...

  Book: Spooky Stories  Author: Tanushree Podder  Illustrated By: Kaveri Gopalakrishnan  Pages: 133 Read on: Kindle  Read in: 2 hours  Plot Summary:  A writer's journey turns into a nightmare when he disembarks from the train to catch a thief and misses the train. Anirudh is forced to spend the night in a tiny railway station with barely anyone in sight. A power failure adds to his woes.  Guided by the flashlight on his phone, he finds his way to the waiting room. There, he finds thirteen chairs and a dozen passengers seated in the room. The next train is due at dawn, so they decide to pass time by swapping ghost stories... Uncover the mysteries of an ancient Egyptian tomb, travel to the ruins of an old fort and meet the ghosts of China's Forbidden City in this unusual set of eerie, spine-tingling SPOOKY STORIES! Things I Liked:  1. A group of strangers sitting around in a derelict railway station's Waiting Room swapping ghost stories. Did I ...

  Book: Dark Tales: Ghost Stories from India  Author: Venita Coelho  Pages: 184 Read on: Kindle  Read in: ~2.5 hours  Publisher: Penguin  Plot Summary:  A collection of 10+ dark, horror, paranormal stories based on ghost stories from India, you won't want to read these in the dark Two men with dangerous secrets find that they have an uninvited guest staying with them . . . A cursed bride forced into an unlucky marriage . . . A mysterious child with an angelic face seems to have misfortune follow him around . . . In this collection of eleven very dark and twisted tales, Venita Coelho lays bare the underbelly of contemporary India. Get ready to gasp and cringe in horror as you have the rug pulled out from under you! This is a book you won't want to read after dark. Things I Liked:  1. This collection of short stories had me at 'ghost tales'! Long time readers of this blog will know of my undying (pun unintended!) for all things horror! So, when I fo...