The Rupa Book Of Scary Stories

by Ruskin Bond

Thirteen hair-raising stories to make your flesh creep. Here are literary master pieces by Kipling, Saki, Algernon Blackwood and others with tales filled with chilling terror and unfathomable horror.

159 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2004

About the author

Ruskin Bond is an Indian author of British descent. He is considered to be an icon among Indian writers and children's authors and a top novelist. He wrote his first novel, The Room on the Roof, when he was seventeen which won John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize in 1957. Since then he has written several novellas, over 500 short stories, as well as various essays and poems, all of which have established him as one of the best-loved and most admired chroniclers of contemporary India. In 1992 he received the Sahitya Akademi award for English writing, for his short stories collection, "Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra", by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters in India. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 for contributions to children's literature. He now lives with his adopted family in Landour near Mussoorie.

Reviews

[Surabhi Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, the stories are good but not scary. Read it as a good book but do not expect much.

The book is an anthology edited by Ruskin Bond. I read it only because of Ruskin Bond and his story is really good. If you want to read some good stories of best writers of all time like Rudyard Kipling, Saki, Thomas Burke and others. Go with this book.

Read it at your own risk!

[Madhulika Liddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young man takes up a job at a waxworks show, and finds himself both fascinated and repelled by a waxwork of a beautiful woman who had poisoned her husband. An old couple, along with their son, gets hold of an ancient relic that is supposed to grant wishes. A man finds himself pursued by the married woman he had jilted… a pursuit that lasts beyond the grave.

The Rupa Book of Scary Stories consists of thirteen (an apt number!) of creepy stories. Edited by Ruskin Bond (and including one of his own stories, A Face in the Dark), these stories are from some well-respected names in English literature: Rudyard Kipling, Saki, and Algernon Blackwood among them, as well as some lesser-known ones (there’s even one story, The Dead Man of Varley Grange, whose author is unknown). The stories are a mixed lot, with three (Henry, The Interlopers and Boomerang) being scary, not in the sense of supernatural-scary (as the rest are), but scary because they show us how frightening the wild can be.

Most of these stories are old ones, set in the 19th century, or even if in the 20th, evoking an old-fashioned era of gaslight and things half-hidden in the dark. None are of the blood-dripping-zombie style of horror; in most of the stories, it’s the suggestion which makes it so scary. If you have a vivid imagination, these should do the trick.

[Kavya · Rating 5 out of 5]

The short stories were more creepy than scary but I actually loved that because it showed realistic horror. It had stories by my favourite horror writer Saki and the famous horror story The Monkey's Paw. It's a good book to read while travelling or a short read before sleeping. Would definitely recommend it.

[The Hissing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection

A pretty good collection of well written stories.

Some come across as generic but others bite you when you least expect it.

Great for a cozy rainy day