This month, we bring you books on ghosts and ghouls in keeping with Halloween which falls on 31 October to pay tribute to famed horror storywriters RL Stine and Stephen King. Statutory warning: These books are best read during the day.
Also, for us Nepalis, Dasain is the biggest festival. And in keeping with tradition, we feature William Buck's version of the Ramayana. Enjoy!
More Tales of Terror
This series consists of four books by RL Stine—Hit and Run, The Hitchhiker, Beach Party and Beach House. Though Stine is famous for his Goosebumps series and supernatural tales, tackling his terror stories can be just as spine-chilling. All four books are gripping, and the reader is hooked from the very first word. Targetting teenagers who have a passion for fear and frightening themselves, they might appear childish and flighty to older readers. Horror elements include arousing the fear of slimy objects wrapped around your ankles. This is sure to leave you shuddering as you leave the lights on at night.
The Rose Madder
Stephen King's most famous works are The Dark Towers series through which he captivated his readers and took them to a completely different world, sustaining the action successfully in all 10 books of the series. In The Rose Madder, King explores a different sort of violence—that of a woman abused. The novel seems to be loosely based on the theme of the classic A Picture of Dorian Gray but the manner in which the painting Rose Madder, that the protagonist Rosie Daniels trades her engagement ring to purchase, is used differently. This thrilling book is filled with suspense but also has a love story. His ability to make even a grown man sweat out of fear is another reason why King is king of horror stories.
Ramayana
Dasain celebrates the victory of good over evil in the manifested forms of Ram over Rawan, the demon who abducts Sita, Ram's wife. Attempting to write Balmiki's epic in English is no joke but Buck took up the challenge and did a pretty good job. The language is simple and the book is comprehensive. Buck has managed to incorporate all the essentials of the original though the poetry is lost and some phrases sound rather strange in translation. However, this is the best abridged version of Ramayana in English. The story starts at the very beginning with Sauti as the narrator and continues on to the birth of Laba and Kush and later. The epic battles are described with energy and vigour but there is no point in reading this book from a religious point of view. It, however, can be accepted as a literary text that gives readers an insight into Hindu mythology. And if you are interested, Buck has also written brilliant version of Mahabharata. These may be unusual reads but they are definitely insightful and interesting.
