The review:
I enjoy reading horror and I love a horror book that
leaves me in a cold sweat. The
Puppeteers of Palem is one such book.
Horror, as we are aware is a very difficult genre to write, and the author, Sharath Komarraju has done a brilliant job with this book. He
has a great narrating style and a strong grip on the language. He really makes
you go through a real chilling experience. I loved the author's lucid writing. It really keeps you hooked on to this chilling book till the end.
The book goes back and forth between incidents 1984 and 2001 and
yet, you do not feel lost. Rather the author has woven it so well that it makes you feel uneasy and unsettled. It is like a jigsaw puzzle that you will enjoy fitting in while being scared. It is very difficult to get the book out of your head while you are reading it.
Though you will find a similarity with other horror tales
that you would have heard/read (Hotel California kept playing in my mind most
of the time while I was reading the book) But that is okay because the author
does have his own ways of twisting the tale and giving you the perfect horror experience.
***
About the book – (Goodreads Summary)
The village of Rudrakshapalem awakens and tells her tale.
Five friends return to the village of their childhood to find that nothing seems to have changed and at the same time everything has. Whose voice is it that called them back and whose hand is it that now hunts them down, one by one?
Palem's grand old man, a Brahmin landlord, their childhood storyteller, makes one last ditch attempt to save his village from ruin at her hands. Will he succeed or will his past catch up with him and demand fair price?
Two boys, one blind and the other lame, skirt the village borders at the old Shivalayam, listening, staring. On their faces they wear smiles of contentment. They sleep well. They see happy dreams.
A TV reporter arrives to study the village, only to sink deeper into the mystery with each passing day. And hovering above all of these is the shadow of Lachi, who is believed to haunt the old Shivalayam on full moon nights. Some say she's consumed by lust, others call it madness, but all catch the red glint in her eye and the icy calm in her voice as she croons a sad, lonely song. The one thing she hungers for, that will satisfy her soul, is the fire that will burn Palem down to ashes.
The village of Rudrakshapalem awakens and tells her tale. Listen closely. It will chill you to the bone.
Five friends return to the village of their childhood to find that nothing seems to have changed and at the same time everything has. Whose voice is it that called them back and whose hand is it that now hunts them down, one by one?
Palem's grand old man, a Brahmin landlord, their childhood storyteller, makes one last ditch attempt to save his village from ruin at her hands. Will he succeed or will his past catch up with him and demand fair price?
Two boys, one blind and the other lame, skirt the village borders at the old Shivalayam, listening, staring. On their faces they wear smiles of contentment. They sleep well. They see happy dreams.
A TV reporter arrives to study the village, only to sink deeper into the mystery with each passing day. And hovering above all of these is the shadow of Lachi, who is believed to haunt the old Shivalayam on full moon nights. Some say she's consumed by lust, others call it madness, but all catch the red glint in her eye and the icy calm in her voice as she croons a sad, lonely song. The one thing she hungers for, that will satisfy her soul, is the fire that will burn Palem down to ashes.
The village of Rudrakshapalem awakens and tells her tale. Listen closely. It will chill you to the bone.
Sounds delicious. I have to read it.
ReplyDeletePlease do.
DeleteWill borrow! :D
ReplyDeleteokay
Delete