Almost Dark: A collection of 4 stories

by Chandradip Paitandi

Almost Dark

A collection of 4 stories



Yeti

Dr. Basu was a key member of Sir Edmund Hillary’s Yeti expedition team. After one incident during a trek, Dr. Basu abruptly ended his quest for the elusive mythical creature. Much later, his grandson Rohit began his journey to unravel the Earth-shattering secret rooted in ancient India that Dr. Basu had buried deep inside. The journey met with some more shocking revelations that no-one was prepared for.



Animal Instinct

All hell broke loose in the otherwise peaceful life of Shreya and Arnab after their visit to the Temple of Rats in Rajasthan. Sleepless nights fraught with fear started turning them insane. Then help came from an unlikely and unwelcome source.



The Last Portrait

Famous painter Sumanta Sen once dreamt of a canvas with an outline of someone’s face. He did not care until the sketch started getting shape in his subsequent dreams. The incomplete face looked eerily familiar to him. But whose face?



The Creep

Esha was alienated by her friends, thanks to her uncanny psychic abilities. After her mother’s death, she clung to only three people and a pet dog for her survival. Esha’s powers were put to the ultimate test when death came to take everything she had kept close to her.

Genres: Horror

107 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 22, 2018

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 1 out of 5]

The prevailing reviews might indicate that you are in for a quartet of stories which would be, if not chilling per se, at least different from the same type of ghost or horror stories that we have been listening to for ages. Alas! That wasn't the case.
1. "Yeti": The story began promisingly. Then followed some totally improbable and over-simplified tracks to get into a rut leading to nowhere. What a waste!
2. " Animal Instinct": An extremely poor and hackneyed ghost story. We can do better simply by sitting around a fire.
3. "The Last Portrait": This one showed promise. Was actually neat, but ended up becoming a lift-off from a Satyajit Ray story.
4. " The Creep": Lord! Again, what a waste! A story that began with a lot of promise involving the ESP of a crippled girl went to dogs (pun intended) through sex and ghosts.
Overall, an extremely disappointing volume. Fortunately, it was slim enough. Therefore, I didn't have to bear the agony for a very long time.
Not recommended.

[Payal Pasha · Rating 2 out of 5]

4 stories. Not scary or creepy enough for me. Yeti, The last Portrait and The Creep started off very well and seemed promising. But ended up being a little cliched in the sense that I guessed halfway in each story who the bad guy was and how the story would end. Animal Instinct was just not worth reading.

[Yogaa Lakshmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is full of suspense and horror. Each and every character in this book has been well built. It's a great book for horror fans.

[Anirban Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not many a times do you come across such books which you wish to savor as soon as possible. With every turn of a page there is a suspense building up and there is no stopping unless you reach the end. Chandradip brings in depth into every character and builds the plot scene by scene. The originality of the stories has something unique about it - it makes you feel the suspense and the characters start appearing in your imagination sphere. I loved the way every story has been illustrated - simple yet detailed !! This is a must read for all the fiction lovers. You will definitely wish there had been more stories by the time you finish the book. I shall wait for more numbers from Chandradip.

[Gunjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a good read. Stories are unsettling, no doubt, which is what this book was aiming for. I like the way the author has narrated them, but the structure could have been better and a bit polished. If you like such stories, you must pick up this book.

[Ammu Nair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review: So the book consist of 4 stories all of different genre:

Yeti: So the story has past tense as well present. Story includes a person who is all set to find Yeti and owns a research institute. What he discovers is the base of the story. This story genre is a mystery. Overall an average read and it didn’t wow me. this was by far the least favorite story. After reading this I was dreading to continue.
Animal Instinct: Thank god, I continued. Else I would have missed this story. This is a horror genre. It is about a husband and a wife, one Atheist and one religious. Where they plan an outdoor trip. But what happens during this trip is the base of the story. I really enjoyed this read. And this out of the four is my second favorite.
The Last Portrait: This again is a mystery/ horror genre. and as the title suggest the story is about a painter who is betrayed by the world, and drawing his last portrait. what conspires him to do so is the base of the story.
The Creep: My favorite out of the lot. The genre is mix( horror/psychic/mystery). The main character who is called a creep has psychic power. But people around her are weird but will she able to realize that before something happens is the base of this story.
So overall I liked the book. The stories are good. Since I am not new to this genre, you expect more and that I felt missing in the book and hence a three-star. I would have liked if the stories were in reverse order as then would leave an impact on me.

Overall a decent read… not bad

Ratings: 3 out of 5

[Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a gift to me on my 22nd birthday, thank you Sanjali and Vinya.

Coming to the content, it was just okay tbh.
First two stories were laughable, as they seemed very amateurish in it's approach for developing storyline.

Themes were also not Good

The later 2 stories were VERY GOOD ,My favorite one was the last portrait.
It had all the elements needed for an actual horror story.
Keep up the good work Chandradip

[Sagar Chamoli · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars



A collection of four stories, this book didn’t quite live up to the hype. While there were a few eerie moments and one or two stories stood out, the majority felt predictable and failed to leave lasting impression. Overall this collection lacked the suspense, depth, and originality I was hoping for.