The Veiled Visions

by Farhah Dhamirah

In the shadows of the Tangerine Sphere lies a mystery spanning decades.

Wafa Alisa, a spirited student with dreams of artistry, is dragged to a leadership camp against her will. There, she discovers a gateway to a sinister past within unfinished paintings and encounters the vengeful spirit of Isabella.

Can Wafa unravel the mysteries of the Tangerine Sphere and break free from the clutches of the vengeful spirit, or will she be forever lost in the veiled visions of the past?

120 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2025

About the author

Oh hi there! I'm Farhah and I've been wanting to be a writer since I was 11. I'm a picky mood reader who enjoys horror, mysteries, and romcoms, and I hope you'll enjoy my books too :)

When I'm not writing, you can find me listening to Taylor Swift and actively picking songs for specific scenes of my books. You can find me on Instagram @sc4rletwitch and TikTok @sc4rletwitchhh. The iconic usernames stay (for now).

Reviews

[nova · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

after spending the past few weeks reading academic-heavy works, my fried brain decided it was time to finally indulge in a nice novella with a pretty cover. from the get go i thought The Veiled Visions had an intriguing premise and elements that i found way too relatable, and i mean *way too* relatable: leadership camps no one wants to go too, the corny jokes the facilitators love to make, having to repeat "assalamualaikum" again because the first time didn't have enough energy... im getting flashbacks, thank God i'm not in secondary school anymore LOL

i also liked how this book tackled relevant issues like the usage of generative AI to make images that resemble real art. ultimately this book had a theme of unethicalness: from overworking artists to death by Encik Hamzah in the 1980s to today's exploitation of artists by taking their work to train generative AI, as an artist myself i appreciated that this book addressed the ways creatives are treated unfairly by society: either we are coerced into formally studying something we don't want or we take the path of an artist and get overworked, underpaid, and unhappy. Wafa and Isabella represented both fates and acted as foils to each other, essentially becoming who the other once was at the beginning of the book.

for a locally-published book i thought the English here was pretty good and i found some of the metaphors used to be beautiful, even if at some points i thought certain sentences were redundant and a bit more editing could be done to refine the book further. the plot itself was fast-paced and quite entertaining, but i thought Wafa's motivation to meet the first painting boring (her mind just randomly told her to keep checking the back of the elevator? how convenient). while i don't mind the book being a novella--and the fast-paced plot worked pretty well for this story--at times it felt like we moved from certain plot points too quickly when i feel like we should be laminating in it more.


ultimately, i did not expect the book to take a bad ending even though the narrative continuously presents itself as more of a horror story. i feel bad for Wafa, she's always been misunderstood before the leadership camp and now she's even more powerless as a ghost gives her trouble by forcing her body to move and say things she doesn't want to, and now she's trapped in a painting in a building that's burning down! i can't help but wonder how her parents reacted to her missing status and how her friends are grieving. do they plan to go back and rescue Wafa from the painting? do they think there's no hope and Wafa burned down alongside the building? Wafa's now in Isabella's place and maybe 40 years from now Wafa will do what Isabella did and possess someone's body to escape the painting, lol.

all in all a nice read even if there were some parts i thought could be a bit better (and i love the cover and the title, that was what sold me on getting the book in the first place lol)

[Sofea Zainal · Rating 4 out of 5]

If people want me to describe Farhah’s novellas, I would say that reading her novellas indeed feels like a fever dream. it was fun, weird, but at the same time addictive and makes you want to read it till the end to make sense of the story.

This book follows Wafa Alisa, one of the prefects, who is obligated to join a leadership camp held at the Tangerine Sphere, a place in which rumoured to have a dark and mysterious past lies. Wafa is a student with a dream of becoming an artist, sometimes causing trouble in school due to her “unique” and “provocative” self-expression through her drawings. To her, people nowadays don't seem to be appreciative of art due to the emerging technologies such as AI that are deemed to be able to “create” art, while in reality AI is just imitating and stealing not “creating."

Things in her life turn into horror when she starts seeing visions of a woman named isabella who was one of the employees at the tangerine corporation who worked there decades ago. The initial intention was to dig into more about isabella and sort of “help” her, but things didn't really go according to the plan.

Honestly, I love how accurate Farhah’s depiction of school kids! their interactions towards each other, their silly but at the same time honest inner thoughts, their attitudes; all of it reminds me of my own self during school (yep, especially when I was forced to join leadership camps lmao).

Although I have a difficult time imagining the setting of the stories, especially the layout of the Tangerine Sphere, I can still find it eerie for Wafa, especially when she discovered those paintings, was possessed and was “forced” to experience Isabelle’s tragic past at the place. Actually, I already have my own prediction for the end of the story, but I was so glad that the ending was not like expected BECAUSE IT WAS A MUCH WAY CREEPIER AND EFFED UP!🥹

I think if kids, especially from highschool read this book, it will be more relatable for them than us adults. Still, as an adult, I can say it was an enjoyable book to read!

4/5⭐️

[Aleeqa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Veiled Visions, a mystery thriller by Farhah Dhamira, tells the story of Wafa Alisa, a high school prefect who dreams of artistry. Dragged to a leadership camp at the Tangerine Sphere, a place that holds decades of mysteries, she stumbled upon unfinished paintings that brought her visions of Isabella. Her unwillingness to come to the camp changed into curiosity about the visions she saw through Isabella’s eyes. Wafa hopes to unravel the mystery of Tangerine Square and find answers to her dream of artistry.

“They said that art was born from love and passion, but they never told you that passion could be bred from hatred too.”

I was hooked from the start. Just like Wafa, I was pulled towards the visions that Wafa sees. The author did a great job of ‘showing’ the visions, and in my mind’s eye I can see the scene being played out. Adding to that, I could also feel Isabella’s emotions through the pages. As the story progressed, I was as curious as Wafa; I kept on turning the pages to find out more of what happened to Isabella and why Wafa could see these visions. As the mystery disentangled, I felt sorry for Isabella, but the ending left me flabbergasted.

[Syaizan Jasni · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was an enjoyable read with a very engaging storyline, but the ending felt disappointing and left me with a sense of being trapped.