This month’s Book Give Away is sponsored by author Manish Mahajan. He is giving away 2 copies of his just released book The Disappearance of Tejas Sharma and other Hauntings
All you have to do is creatively answer this question:
Which is your all time favorite ghost story and why?
About the Book
The Disappearance of Tejas Sharma…and other hauntings’ is an anthology of 12 ghost stories mostly set in India, and is meant for an audience with a penchant for the supernatural. Even with the constraints of a short story, each tale is rich in details and these dozen stories cover all the time tested classical elements of ghost fiction. From the story of the young man who inexplicably vanishes to the epic tale of the haunted Peepal tree in Rajasthan; from the true story of a ghost station in West Bengal to the medieval legend of the scary well on a remote island; from the mysterious tick and cross markings in a graveyard to the haunting music coming from a locked room… this collection of supernatural tales serves to be a perfect literary cocktail for night time reading.
Conditions:
You must Like AnuReviews FB page and/or follow AnuReviews on Twitter to be eligible for the Give Away. So please share your FB and Twitter Ids with your answer.
Winners Update 17/Oct/2013
- Nikita Dudani
- Sangeeta
Congratulations, and rush in your addresses asap.
My all time favorite ghost story is, “The ghost of Jerry Bundler” by W.W. Jacobs. The ambiance set up by author takes you with his ideas. The amazing thing about this story was its characters. They had been sketched perfectly matching their characteristics.
The main twist that carried the story to its peaks was its ending. The author very creatively had supplied one comic ending too, to leave it to readers to anticipate and choose.
Edgar Alan Poe’s, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ is one story that left me petrified. I read it as a child and though it is not a ‘ghost story’ per se, it had a profound effect on me. Since then I have read other supernatural/ghost fiction but Poe’s story left me with a lingering dread – it felt as if the protagonist was speaking to me! Sometimes, childhood memories outdo everything else.
I had a morbid appetite for ghost stories in my childhood. My prized possession was a collection of classic ghost stories, published by Penguin. Amongst them, the one that managed to send a chill down my spine was ‘Lost hearts’ by MR James. Perhaps because the protagonist was a young boy, almost my age then. A particular scene remains etched in memory even till date, the time when the boy walks towards an unused bathroom in the dead of night and sees the apparition of girl (or boy, it eludes me at the moment). That had left me with a fear of going to the bathroom at night and I would end up waking up my mom to accompany me! Your post has brought back so many memories of yore….thanks so much! I had almost forgotten those times..
Oh and my FB id is Sangeeta Sharma from Bangalore
The scariest most horrifying book I have read by far is ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’. It might not be that scary but combined with the conditions around the time I read it… It managed to give me sleepless nights, alright.
The reason was that I read it in my childhood and due to the homework pressure, gave it time only after parents were asleep. I don’t remember much but the phrase ‘Headless Horseman’ gives me goosebumps even today.
My all time ghost story deals with the Pischachmochan Sarovar in Kashi. Puja is done here so that ghosts and souls do not return after a gruesome or unexpected death.
Even as a puja was being conducted, the priest felt a hand on his neck. His hair stood up and he stared at his hands that could not light the fire but trembled. There was a haunted sound in the air.
The priest turned around to be confronted by nothingness but an eerie feeling round his neck. He blinked twice and said ” hey prabhu, kya agya hai ? ”
The next second the priest was flung into the Pischachmochan Sarovar and a voice thundered ” aagey se yeh dussaahas na karna ” .
Do not play with spirits ! Was the message.