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Dark Things Between the Shadow and the Soul: Indian urban fantasy
Enter a world where demons fall in love with deities, the unquiet dead are exorcised with food, and the love story of a shapeshifter and an ordinary man ends in tragedy.
Featuring cross-dressing assassins, were-snakes, goddesses and demon kings, this collection of twenty-two short stories retells age-old tales from Indian mythology—with a twist.
With footnotes and an afterword to each story explaining the mythology to casual readers, these short stories will delight lovers of the unusual.
Featuring cross-dressing assassins, were-snakes, goddesses and demon kings, this collection of twenty-two short stories retells age-old tales from Indian mythology—with a twist.
With footnotes and an afterword to each story explaining the mythology to casual readers, these short stories will delight lovers of the unusual.
- GenresMythology
205 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 15, 2016
2 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Sudha Kuruganti
16 books26 followersHi! I’m Sudha! 🌸
I write feel-good YA and NA fantasy romances inspired by Indian mythology—full of slow-burn love, family ties, and the kind of magic that makes you believe again.
My current series are Elementals of India and Legend Valley Academy. I love hearing from readers, so drop a comment or question anytime!
💌 Join my newsletter and reader group here: www.sudhakuruganti.com
I write feel-good YA and NA fantasy romances inspired by Indian mythology—full of slow-burn love, family ties, and the kind of magic that makes you believe again.
My current series are Elementals of India and Legend Valley Academy. I love hearing from readers, so drop a comment or question anytime!
💌 Join my newsletter and reader group here: www.sudhakuruganti.com
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 15, 2016
Rating: 3.5*
This review was originally posted on Rain and a Book
When I read the title, I thought it was a collection of passionate romances, my thoughts colored heavily by a poem by Neruda from which this book derives its title. When I saw the cover, I thought it was a collection of horror stories. But Dark Things Between the Shadow and the Soul: Fractured Fairy Tales from Indian Mythology is a darkly colorful mix of everything – romance to horror to fantasy to even humor. All based on, as the subtitle states, Indian mythology.
The book is divided into five parts – Vedas, Trimurti, Ramayana, Mahabharat, and Urban Legends & Myths. There are a total of 22 stories and an introductory chapter that summarizes the Indian myths and epics. This chapter is useful for those who are not well-versed in the epics. There is also a note at the end of each story which describes which specific episode from the epics was the basis of the story. I have, in the past, felt rather lost while reading stories of a similar kind without these background notes, such as in the case of this book.
About the stories themselves – some stories are told from the perspective of a character different from the traditional narrator of those stories, some are modern retellings, whereas others borrow the central theme and/or character names from the original stories but have wholly unique plots. My favourites in the book are To The Victors, Soul Eater, and Storyteller. To The Victors is from the Ramayana section of the book and it tells the story from Surpanakha’s perspective. While I am by no means a member of Ravana’s recently formed fan club, I've always firmly believed nothing can ever be as black and white as the epics portray. Of course, I also never believed in Rama’s oh-so-ideal-glory-be-me-can’t-touch-me name and fame. Of course, as a country, clearly we have a warped view of what’s “ideal”. But that’s a discussion for another day. I loved Soul Eater because a) I never knew such a tribe or clan existed in Bihar (please read the story to find out more about this tribe) and b) this story isn’t based on any existing episodes; it’s fresh and very interesting. As for Storyteller, the last chapter of this book – it’s a famous story that every Indian is familiar with, but the way it is told made me laugh – and also made me look over my shoulder! I won’t reveal anything other than that. Nice way to end the book though – with a smile and a chill.
The language used is simple and the book is a quick read. In some places, it could have been more descriptive, more firm than airy. I suspect it would have slowed down the pace a tad, but that wouldn’t have been an issue. For instance, in the first story, it took me a while to gain a footing; similarly with stories such as By The Numbers and Dreams, I felt I was plunging headlong into them. The descriptions would have actually helped. While there are no glaring errors in language, and it isn’t at all tedious to read, I felt in one or two places, it could have used an extra bit of proofreading.
I understand this is a self-published ebook, but there were some Wiki links in the notes section of some of the stories – this seemed a bit odd to me, from a reader’s perspective, especially because on my Kindle they didn’t work and appeared only as underlined words (I realized they were links when I opened the pdf file on my laptop).
This book is a good choice for anyone delving into Indian mythology for the first time. As the author states in her introduction, there are very few books in this category. Well, very few good ones, anyway, in my opinion. And this is a good one. Give it a read!
Note: I was given a PDF copy of this book in exchange for a review. This review is unbiased and honest.
This review was originally posted on Rain and a Book
It’s difficult to fight when you have no idea who your enemy is.
When I read the title, I thought it was a collection of passionate romances, my thoughts colored heavily by a poem by Neruda from which this book derives its title. When I saw the cover, I thought it was a collection of horror stories. But Dark Things Between the Shadow and the Soul: Fractured Fairy Tales from Indian Mythology is a darkly colorful mix of everything – romance to horror to fantasy to even humor. All based on, as the subtitle states, Indian mythology.
The book is divided into five parts – Vedas, Trimurti, Ramayana, Mahabharat, and Urban Legends & Myths. There are a total of 22 stories and an introductory chapter that summarizes the Indian myths and epics. This chapter is useful for those who are not well-versed in the epics. There is also a note at the end of each story which describes which specific episode from the epics was the basis of the story. I have, in the past, felt rather lost while reading stories of a similar kind without these background notes, such as in the case of this book.
About the stories themselves – some stories are told from the perspective of a character different from the traditional narrator of those stories, some are modern retellings, whereas others borrow the central theme and/or character names from the original stories but have wholly unique plots. My favourites in the book are To The Victors, Soul Eater, and Storyteller. To The Victors is from the Ramayana section of the book and it tells the story from Surpanakha’s perspective. While I am by no means a member of Ravana’s recently formed fan club, I've always firmly believed nothing can ever be as black and white as the epics portray. Of course, I also never believed in Rama’s oh-so-ideal-glory-be-me-can’t-touch-me name and fame. Of course, as a country, clearly we have a warped view of what’s “ideal”. But that’s a discussion for another day. I loved Soul Eater because a) I never knew such a tribe or clan existed in Bihar (please read the story to find out more about this tribe) and b) this story isn’t based on any existing episodes; it’s fresh and very interesting. As for Storyteller, the last chapter of this book – it’s a famous story that every Indian is familiar with, but the way it is told made me laugh – and also made me look over my shoulder! I won’t reveal anything other than that. Nice way to end the book though – with a smile and a chill.
The language used is simple and the book is a quick read. In some places, it could have been more descriptive, more firm than airy. I suspect it would have slowed down the pace a tad, but that wouldn’t have been an issue. For instance, in the first story, it took me a while to gain a footing; similarly with stories such as By The Numbers and Dreams, I felt I was plunging headlong into them. The descriptions would have actually helped. While there are no glaring errors in language, and it isn’t at all tedious to read, I felt in one or two places, it could have used an extra bit of proofreading.
I understand this is a self-published ebook, but there were some Wiki links in the notes section of some of the stories – this seemed a bit odd to me, from a reader’s perspective, especially because on my Kindle they didn’t work and appeared only as underlined words (I realized they were links when I opened the pdf file on my laptop).
This book is a good choice for anyone delving into Indian mythology for the first time. As the author states in her introduction, there are very few books in this category. Well, very few good ones, anyway, in my opinion. And this is a good one. Give it a read!
Note: I was given a PDF copy of this book in exchange for a review. This review is unbiased and honest.
October 15, 2017
I stumbled upon Sudha Kuruganti’s blog when I was vehemently searching for some worthwhile Baahubali fan fiction. She had posted a bewitching fanfic titled ‘Elemental’ and I was bowled over. There was just so much depth and justification to each character in the description of the piece and that’s when I realized that I had to check out her book. Oh, and also, the book cover screamed badass women!
Growing up, I’ve always had a fascination for Hindu Mythology much to my parents’ surprise. It’s not like they banned reading material related to the genre but just surprised because I grew up in Dubai and they wondered where the sudden interest sprouted from. My neighbor next door from Rashidiya was a Brahmin and she believed in inculcating the Hindu culture from a very young age in her only child – Mithun. With this kid being tight with my younger brother, he was more than happy to lend us his brand new Ramayana cartoon disc. That’s where it all began and the rest, as they say, is history.
After resolving a bunch of annoying glitches in my Kindle account in correspondence with the Amazon tech support, I finally got my copy of Dark Things and might I say that it was worth all the trouble!
Dark things between the shadow and the soul is a compilation of twenty-two short stories based off of Hindu Mythology. There are five sections in this book with contemporary tales focused on the Vedas, Trimurti, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Urban Legends & Myths. If you are a newbie to the Indian Mythology genre, then you just got lucky! Because there is an additional primer to all you need to know about Hinduism or Indian mythology. Bonus features include wiki-links to unfamiliar terms and footnotes at the end of each story with a gist of the actual myth.
To begin with, the title is positively intriguing and promising. The contemporary counterparts of the original characters were staggeringly justified in their portrayals, especially Parashuram, Surpanakha, Mohini and Amba (My personal faves). The varying shades of the respective characters intensified with the unexpected twists in each story. What’s not to love about this book when it has horror, romance, murder, psychologically thrilling elements and much more.
This book confuted pre-conceived and clichéd depictions of the characters you know and love. Sheer raw darkness was brought out in even the haloed characters such as Ram in To the victor and Surpanakha, the malefic demoness (we all know and hate) got to tell her side of the story. Be it the revelation of Sugreeva’s true intentions or Parashuram’s appalling vindication of his mother’s murder, both the scenarios maneuver to the characters just being human. Meaning, it reflects human emotions like jealousy and rage which were personified beautifully.
Best served cold was my personal favourite, hands down! By the time I was done with the story, my chest heaved with a primal gratification (you’ll know when you read it). Let me just say that it was one in the morning when I caught up to Storyteller and my reaction wasn’t a pretty sight (panting hard), nevertheless, I was ecstatic because it was a tale based on Vikram and Vetaal (freaking grew up with the cartoon series). As for Timeless, the final punch was quite poignant and immensely enjoyable.
Lastly, the language employed was competently satisfying and quick paced. Although I haven’t read many books based on Hindu mythology, I grew fond of this particular book almost immediately. Like I said before if you’re looking to give this genre a try, you better start with this one!
Growing up, I’ve always had a fascination for Hindu Mythology much to my parents’ surprise. It’s not like they banned reading material related to the genre but just surprised because I grew up in Dubai and they wondered where the sudden interest sprouted from. My neighbor next door from Rashidiya was a Brahmin and she believed in inculcating the Hindu culture from a very young age in her only child – Mithun. With this kid being tight with my younger brother, he was more than happy to lend us his brand new Ramayana cartoon disc. That’s where it all began and the rest, as they say, is history.
After resolving a bunch of annoying glitches in my Kindle account in correspondence with the Amazon tech support, I finally got my copy of Dark Things and might I say that it was worth all the trouble!
Dark things between the shadow and the soul is a compilation of twenty-two short stories based off of Hindu Mythology. There are five sections in this book with contemporary tales focused on the Vedas, Trimurti, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Urban Legends & Myths. If you are a newbie to the Indian Mythology genre, then you just got lucky! Because there is an additional primer to all you need to know about Hinduism or Indian mythology. Bonus features include wiki-links to unfamiliar terms and footnotes at the end of each story with a gist of the actual myth.
To begin with, the title is positively intriguing and promising. The contemporary counterparts of the original characters were staggeringly justified in their portrayals, especially Parashuram, Surpanakha, Mohini and Amba (My personal faves). The varying shades of the respective characters intensified with the unexpected twists in each story. What’s not to love about this book when it has horror, romance, murder, psychologically thrilling elements and much more.
This book confuted pre-conceived and clichéd depictions of the characters you know and love. Sheer raw darkness was brought out in even the haloed characters such as Ram in To the victor and Surpanakha, the malefic demoness (we all know and hate) got to tell her side of the story. Be it the revelation of Sugreeva’s true intentions or Parashuram’s appalling vindication of his mother’s murder, both the scenarios maneuver to the characters just being human. Meaning, it reflects human emotions like jealousy and rage which were personified beautifully.
Best served cold was my personal favourite, hands down! By the time I was done with the story, my chest heaved with a primal gratification (you’ll know when you read it). Let me just say that it was one in the morning when I caught up to Storyteller and my reaction wasn’t a pretty sight (panting hard), nevertheless, I was ecstatic because it was a tale based on Vikram and Vetaal (freaking grew up with the cartoon series). As for Timeless, the final punch was quite poignant and immensely enjoyable.
Lastly, the language employed was competently satisfying and quick paced. Although I haven’t read many books based on Hindu mythology, I grew fond of this particular book almost immediately. Like I said before if you’re looking to give this genre a try, you better start with this one!
March 15, 2020
Very cool. I love mythology in all its forms. Being an American, I was force fed Greek and Roman mythology from a young age, as I assume many westerners are. Don't get me wrong, I love them! They laid the foundation for my love of all mythology. This foray into Indian mythology is wonderful. First, the author gives an overview of her source material (which was horrendously welcome!), then the stories begin. After each short story is a more in depth look at how her version ties to the historical one. Some of these gave me chills in a good, spooky way. I thoroughly enjoyed all of the short stories contained herein. Thank you, Sudha Kuruganti!
April 28, 2020
With the background provided and extra information at the end of each story this isn't just a great read, but also a fun way to learn a bit about another culture. I highly recommend this book.
September 21, 2021
Awesome!!! Love the way she weaves these stories.
October 7, 2016
I wouldn't call them fractured tales but more of as reflections from the past or extrapolation of the same characters and situations with some tweaks on a new canvas. Like a more perfected version of Sherlock stories but in 21st Century with gadgets and all. To top that she gives the much needed benefit of doubt to each character and portrays them in a new light. For those familiar with Mahabharata would understand that no character their in was entirely dark or bright; every bright character flawed multiple times with consequences and every dark character had a brighter side. Since we know all that and have read a lot of re-telling tales, this book is a breath of fresh air or only the crux is derived from them and mixed with a different spice to deliver an entirely new dish- its should in all honesty be termed as fusion mythology if at all one needs to do so. From a readers perspective it gives uniqueness ad novelty instead of repetition and the writer has done full justice to the entertainment factor in the stories. For a detailed review please go to my link text
October 23, 2016
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It is a collection of short stories originating in the Hindu mythology and a refreshing change from the same old re-churning of Hindu mythology related books where all the author does is shift the narratorial focus from one character to the other. This book however actually tells different stories, different interpretations of the mythology. A really good book for a first time author.
You can read my entire review here: http://soumyareads.blogspot.com/2016/...
You can read my entire review here: http://soumyareads.blogspot.com/2016/...
November 15, 2016
With high recommendation from Sreesha, I wanted to read the book immediately. Even with high expectations, I was pleasantly surprised with the book.
The book has stories based on mythological tales, but set in present and more realistic times. Each tale is a short story. Even with a familiar tale, the author has given them a fresh and unexpected twist. Each story had enough surprises to keep me engaged. There is no usage of cliches and no fantastical explanations. The tales are based on Mahabharat, Ramayana, Familiar myths. Its an engaging short read.
The book has stories based on mythological tales, but set in present and more realistic times. Each tale is a short story. Even with a familiar tale, the author has given them a fresh and unexpected twist. Each story had enough surprises to keep me engaged. There is no usage of cliches and no fantastical explanations. The tales are based on Mahabharat, Ramayana, Familiar myths. Its an engaging short read.
May 31, 2018
Review coming soon
January 14, 2020
I got this book with some enthusiasm, and while I think that the concept of the book is good, I felt that the stories fell a little short.
Sudha does write well, but the transition from blog to a book of short stories seems incomplete.
I like that she gives a synopsis of the myth at the end of the story. This is good, and her enthusiasm, or love, for Indian myths, shines through. However, this does mean that a superficial treatment of some of the Gods is inevitable. For instance, Shiva is not just a destroyer. In his avtar as Nataraj, he sustains the cosmic cycle.
She has made one error - while the Vedas were indeed probably formalised in India, the actual origin of the Vedas lies deep in the journeys of the Arya, and the writing may well have started when they were in Central Asia, en route to India. Who knows?
Sudha does write well, but the transition from blog to a book of short stories seems incomplete.
I like that she gives a synopsis of the myth at the end of the story. This is good, and her enthusiasm, or love, for Indian myths, shines through. However, this does mean that a superficial treatment of some of the Gods is inevitable. For instance, Shiva is not just a destroyer. In his avtar as Nataraj, he sustains the cosmic cycle.
She has made one error - while the Vedas were indeed probably formalised in India, the actual origin of the Vedas lies deep in the journeys of the Arya, and the writing may well have started when they were in Central Asia, en route to India. Who knows?
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews