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Haunting Bombay
After her mother’s death crossing the border from Pakistan to India during Partition, baby Pinky was taken in by her grandmother, Maji, the matriarch of the powerful Mittal family. Now thirteen years old, Pinky lives with her grandmother and her uncle’s family in a bungalow on the Malabar Heights in Bombay. While she has never really been accepted by her uncle’s family, she has always had Maji’s love.
One day, as monsoons engulf the city, Pinky opens a mysteriously bolted door, unleashing the ghosts of an infant who drowned shortly before Pinky’s arrival and of the nursemaid who cared for the child. Three generations of the Mittal family must struggle to come to terms with their secrets amidst hidden shame, forbidden love, and a call for absolute sacrifice.
362 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2009
51 people are currently reading
2645 people want to read
About the author
Shilpa Agarwal
4 books34 followersShilpa Agarwal is a Los Angeles-based writer and academic. Born in Mumbai to a family uprooted by India's Independence movement and made refugees by its subsequent Partition, Shilpa's early writings explored how colonialism and the chaos of dislocation shaped human interaction.
As an undergraduate at Duke University, Shilpa specialized in Asian and African literatures and Women's Studies. She pursued her interest in post-colonial literatures as a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles. She taught at both UCLA and UCSB, including a course on South Asian diaspora, and spoke regularly on the politics and poetics of community.
Shilpa's current writing is informed by glimpses into moments of alienation and awakening, especially during geographic and metaphoric crossings: east meets west, centers meet the peripheries, the living meet the dead. She writes to call up the haunting utterances of the excluded, to excavate fragmentary memories that edge consciousness, and to imagine a more nuanced narrative of history itself.
Shilpa's first novel, HAUNTING BOMBAY, is a winner of the First Words Literary Prize for South Asian writers.
As an undergraduate at Duke University, Shilpa specialized in Asian and African literatures and Women's Studies. She pursued her interest in post-colonial literatures as a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles. She taught at both UCLA and UCSB, including a course on South Asian diaspora, and spoke regularly on the politics and poetics of community.
Shilpa's current writing is informed by glimpses into moments of alienation and awakening, especially during geographic and metaphoric crossings: east meets west, centers meet the peripheries, the living meet the dead. She writes to call up the haunting utterances of the excluded, to excavate fragmentary memories that edge consciousness, and to imagine a more nuanced narrative of history itself.
Shilpa's first novel, HAUNTING BOMBAY, is a winner of the First Words Literary Prize for South Asian writers.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
February 20, 2013
Haunting Bombay really wasn't for me. At its best, it was an engaging ghost story filled with Indian tradition and folklore, and lots of intriguing history. It begins with a woman seeking revenge, continues with a girl seeking answers, and culminates in a series of supernatural phenomena that affect the entire Mittal family and those around them.
What dragged this book down for me was that I constantly felt like I was watching one of the supernatural Hindi dramas my grandparents are addicted to, but nonchalantly pretend not to care about. Every character fit one typical role or another: the innocent, unfairly-treated heroine; the unreasonably melodramatic lady of the house who basically exists to make the heroine's life miserable; the grouchy corrupt businessman who abandons his family in times of need; the dominating yet sympathetic old lady clutching her prayer beads; the chubby kid whose affinity for fried snacks is played for laughs. The characters certainly came to life, but mainly because — even with my limited exposure to dramas — I've literally seen them all before.
Even when you rationalize the commonplace characters, I think the way the story played out contributed to the soap opera feeling more than anything: lots of flashbacks, tense confrontations, and dramatic moments where the entire household gathers to witness a shocking event. I half-expected to hear whooshing sound effects as the camera panned across the room to each character's face, followed by a series of tight reaction shots of the same faces. (If you've ever had to sit through a Hindi drama, you know exactly what I'm talking about!)
But that's not necessarily a bad thing: lots of people enjoy said dramas, right? Wouldn't the story appeal to a similar audience? Which brings me to the second thing that put me off about this book:
I love South Asian literature, and so I tend to read a lot of it. I feel like there are two kinds of books within the genre. There are the books that seamlessly weave cultural details into the narrative, and then there are the ones that try to be so accessible that the author ends up writing not just a story, but a guidebook. Both sorts can be enjoyable when executed nicely, although I quite obviously have a preference for the former, or a nice balance of both. Haunting Bombay was the latter to an excessive degree.
For example: I think it's probably enough to say that a character ordered paan from a street stall, and maybe a brief description of what it is or what it tastes like. Bas. Did we really have to be taken through the entire paan-making process? The paan scene also included a description of what supari is, but later on when a character was chewing supari, it was explained yet again. A detailed description was provided every single time any sort of Indian food was mentioned, which got extremely tedious because food was mentioned constantly.
Geographical details were often similarly tedious, and sometimes even totally unnecessary. There was a moment when I actually laughed out loud as a character drove "to Churchgate Station on Churchgate Street." Really? Churchgate Station on Churchgate Street? Tell me more. I can understand that a book titled "Haunting Bombay" ought to be as much about Bombay as it is about haunting, but the constant name-dropping of neighborhoods and locations felt superfluous. Funnily enough, even with all the guidebook moments I hardly got a feel for the city at all — although I can now confidently tell you which street Churchgate Station is on.
Moving on to the things I did enjoy: I really liked the theme of an old injustice being righted, as well as the observations on sexism/classism/nationalism that pervaded many of the characters' histories and motivations. Some of the scary bits were excellently scary; some of the comedic bits were quite funny. ("Vechi nakh!" "Sala, tu tari ma ne vechi nakh!") The importance of stories — telling stories, sharing stories, communicating through stories — was another theme that I enjoyed, probably the most out of anything in the book. The eldest son expressed his feelings by selecting choice passages from books to read aloud; the grandmother often communicated her feelings through devotional stories and prayers; the ghost who started it all was, in the end, just someone who wanted her story brought to light.
So maybe if parts of your childhood weren't set against a backdrop of predictable soap operas at your relatives' houses, this book might be an entirely different experience. The character archetypes that seem tired and stale to me might seem less familiar to you, or maybe that familiarity is something you'll enjoy. The guidebook moments may well be as informative to you as they were tedious for me. This wasn't an awful book by any means, but as I said, it just wasn't for me. If I've done it an injustice with this review, well, I hope a six-toed ghost maid doesn't show up at my place. I'll practice my dramatic reaction faces just in case.
What dragged this book down for me was that I constantly felt like I was watching one of the supernatural Hindi dramas my grandparents are addicted to, but nonchalantly pretend not to care about. Every character fit one typical role or another: the innocent, unfairly-treated heroine; the unreasonably melodramatic lady of the house who basically exists to make the heroine's life miserable; the grouchy corrupt businessman who abandons his family in times of need; the dominating yet sympathetic old lady clutching her prayer beads; the chubby kid whose affinity for fried snacks is played for laughs. The characters certainly came to life, but mainly because — even with my limited exposure to dramas — I've literally seen them all before.
Even when you rationalize the commonplace characters, I think the way the story played out contributed to the soap opera feeling more than anything: lots of flashbacks, tense confrontations, and dramatic moments where the entire household gathers to witness a shocking event. I half-expected to hear whooshing sound effects as the camera panned across the room to each character's face, followed by a series of tight reaction shots of the same faces. (If you've ever had to sit through a Hindi drama, you know exactly what I'm talking about!)
But that's not necessarily a bad thing: lots of people enjoy said dramas, right? Wouldn't the story appeal to a similar audience? Which brings me to the second thing that put me off about this book:
I love South Asian literature, and so I tend to read a lot of it. I feel like there are two kinds of books within the genre. There are the books that seamlessly weave cultural details into the narrative, and then there are the ones that try to be so accessible that the author ends up writing not just a story, but a guidebook. Both sorts can be enjoyable when executed nicely, although I quite obviously have a preference for the former, or a nice balance of both. Haunting Bombay was the latter to an excessive degree.
For example: I think it's probably enough to say that a character ordered paan from a street stall, and maybe a brief description of what it is or what it tastes like. Bas. Did we really have to be taken through the entire paan-making process? The paan scene also included a description of what supari is, but later on when a character was chewing supari, it was explained yet again. A detailed description was provided every single time any sort of Indian food was mentioned, which got extremely tedious because food was mentioned constantly.
Geographical details were often similarly tedious, and sometimes even totally unnecessary. There was a moment when I actually laughed out loud as a character drove "to Churchgate Station on Churchgate Street." Really? Churchgate Station on Churchgate Street? Tell me more. I can understand that a book titled "Haunting Bombay" ought to be as much about Bombay as it is about haunting, but the constant name-dropping of neighborhoods and locations felt superfluous. Funnily enough, even with all the guidebook moments I hardly got a feel for the city at all — although I can now confidently tell you which street Churchgate Station is on.
Moving on to the things I did enjoy: I really liked the theme of an old injustice being righted, as well as the observations on sexism/classism/nationalism that pervaded many of the characters' histories and motivations. Some of the scary bits were excellently scary; some of the comedic bits were quite funny. ("Vechi nakh!" "Sala, tu tari ma ne vechi nakh!") The importance of stories — telling stories, sharing stories, communicating through stories — was another theme that I enjoyed, probably the most out of anything in the book. The eldest son expressed his feelings by selecting choice passages from books to read aloud; the grandmother often communicated her feelings through devotional stories and prayers; the ghost who started it all was, in the end, just someone who wanted her story brought to light.
So maybe if parts of your childhood weren't set against a backdrop of predictable soap operas at your relatives' houses, this book might be an entirely different experience. The character archetypes that seem tired and stale to me might seem less familiar to you, or maybe that familiarity is something you'll enjoy. The guidebook moments may well be as informative to you as they were tedious for me. This wasn't an awful book by any means, but as I said, it just wasn't for me. If I've done it an injustice with this review, well, I hope a six-toed ghost maid doesn't show up at my place. I'll practice my dramatic reaction faces just in case.
December 21, 2012
If I were to speak of this book in one word it would be "stunning" which is a word so overused in reviews that it almost means nothing but I mean it literally. At the end, I was absolutely stunned and it took awhile to recover from the final twist.
I am also overwhelmed by its complexity, which makes it a challenge for me to review. In the tradition of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she writes a novel that questions, critiques and gives loving homage to the survivors, the marginalized, the lost in her culture of origin. It is a ghost story--the ghost is a real ghost but also represents the secret that is destroying the Mittal family. This family exists and is also haunted by the remains of British colonialism in the late 1940's, post-partition.
There is a strong feminist vein and the white feminist American reader (that would be me) may be tempted to be very critical of the ways tradition has marginalized some women, the very poor and those who cannot meet traditional heterosexual norms in India; however, I believe we should be doing that with our own culture first--then looking at what is similar and what is different--for there is something very universal and deeply human about her themes and characters. I will read this book again, knowing the secret that is drives the core of the book, with new insights the characters' motives and decisions.
(This review originally appeared on my Amazon reviews.)
I am also overwhelmed by its complexity, which makes it a challenge for me to review. In the tradition of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she writes a novel that questions, critiques and gives loving homage to the survivors, the marginalized, the lost in her culture of origin. It is a ghost story--the ghost is a real ghost but also represents the secret that is destroying the Mittal family. This family exists and is also haunted by the remains of British colonialism in the late 1940's, post-partition.
There is a strong feminist vein and the white feminist American reader (that would be me) may be tempted to be very critical of the ways tradition has marginalized some women, the very poor and those who cannot meet traditional heterosexual norms in India; however, I believe we should be doing that with our own culture first--then looking at what is similar and what is different--for there is something very universal and deeply human about her themes and characters. I will read this book again, knowing the secret that is drives the core of the book, with new insights the characters' motives and decisions.
(This review originally appeared on my Amazon reviews.)
November 15, 2010
I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. It's very well written. I don't normally go in for anything paranormal but this book is different. It shows the some of the superstitions in Indian culture about spirits and ghosts.
About a quarter of the way in the book had me hooked and I couldn’t put it down.
What I enjoy about Indian English literature is that most novels don’t wrap things up in a cute little, happy every after, bow in the end. The good ones always stay with me a while and have me pondering how life is going to carry on for the characters.
About a quarter of the way in the book had me hooked and I couldn’t put it down.
What I enjoy about Indian English literature is that most novels don’t wrap things up in a cute little, happy every after, bow in the end. The good ones always stay with me a while and have me pondering how life is going to carry on for the characters.
October 10, 2009
Ghosts are like secrets. You may not always be able to see them, but they linger, always present, always influencing those around them. Shilpa Agarwal's novel, Haunting Bombay, tells the story of the Mittal family, three generations living under the same roof. Secrets cannot be hidden forever. And the dark family secret in the Mittal household would soon be let loose by the unbolting of a door by an innocent girl.
Pinky is thirteen years old. The year is 1960. She never knew her mother, a refugee who died during the Partition. Pinky was taken in by her loving grandmother, Maji. The two live with Maji’s only son, his wife and their three sons. Pinky has never understood why the door to the children’s bathing area is bolted every night. One night, in the heat of despair, Pinky dares to unlock the door and it unleashes the ghost of a baby once drowned, who is now set on vengeance.
A family, that by all appearances on the outside is healthy and happy, suddenly begins to disintegrate, proving just how fragile their bonds truly were. Pinky’s uncle for years has turned to alcohol to soothe his suffering. His wife longs for the upper hand, always wanting to be the best among her friends and family, and will do just about anything to get her way. Seventeen-year-old Nimish moons for the neighbor girl while Pinky pines for him. Then there are the twins, one with a sweet tooth and the other a bit of a trouble maker. The four servants in the house have their own stories: two sisters having fled famine and worse in their childhood; the driver from the slums; and the cook, a man of honor who is devoted to his wife. Maji seems to be the one person who is holding the family together, but as her control slips, and as the family’s secrets begin to surface, they risk losing everything. Pinky is at the core of it all, and she is determined to uncover the truth in order to save her family.
Shilpa Agarwal reaches into her own family history to help shape her fictional tale, offering the reader a glimpse into a family’s darkest and also strongest moments. It was easy to get lost in the story and feel like a part of the family. I was especially drawn to Pinky, so innocent and yet courageous. She may not have known her place in the household, but she certainly knows her own mind. I was also partial to Nimish, always lost in his books. He may not have been the strongest character, but he loved deeply.
The heat before the monsoons and then the coming of the harsh rain mirrored the events taking place in the novel: a seemingly peaceful existence suddenly uprooted by the storms. The author brings Bombay to life, offering a taste of Indian culture as she takes the reader into an upper class Indian family as well as deep into the city’s underbelly, where crime runs rampant. The reader gets a sense of the injustices that existed during that time period, including the corruption and prejudices.
The magical aspects of the story are interwoven into the family’s tragedy seamlessly. In the author’s guest post here at Musings of a Bookish Kitty, Shilpa Agarwal mentions that the spirits are “a metaphor for those who have been silenced.” In Haunting Bombay, the ghosts have no voice and are often invisible; however, they can only be ignored for so long. The ghosts, like the Mittal family’s secrets, will come out and be heard or they will destroy all those who suppress them.
Haunting Bombay lives up to its title. It is a haunting tale full of mystery, forbidden love, dark secrets, and mysticism. Shilpa Agarwal’s writing is beautiful, her story intense. I fell in love with this novel on the very first page and that feeling never wavered. If anything, it grew with each turn of the page. There was so much I liked about this novel; so much I haven’t said. Do you have a day or two? Haunting Bombay would make a great book club selection.
Pinky is thirteen years old. The year is 1960. She never knew her mother, a refugee who died during the Partition. Pinky was taken in by her loving grandmother, Maji. The two live with Maji’s only son, his wife and their three sons. Pinky has never understood why the door to the children’s bathing area is bolted every night. One night, in the heat of despair, Pinky dares to unlock the door and it unleashes the ghost of a baby once drowned, who is now set on vengeance.
A family, that by all appearances on the outside is healthy and happy, suddenly begins to disintegrate, proving just how fragile their bonds truly were. Pinky’s uncle for years has turned to alcohol to soothe his suffering. His wife longs for the upper hand, always wanting to be the best among her friends and family, and will do just about anything to get her way. Seventeen-year-old Nimish moons for the neighbor girl while Pinky pines for him. Then there are the twins, one with a sweet tooth and the other a bit of a trouble maker. The four servants in the house have their own stories: two sisters having fled famine and worse in their childhood; the driver from the slums; and the cook, a man of honor who is devoted to his wife. Maji seems to be the one person who is holding the family together, but as her control slips, and as the family’s secrets begin to surface, they risk losing everything. Pinky is at the core of it all, and she is determined to uncover the truth in order to save her family.
Shilpa Agarwal reaches into her own family history to help shape her fictional tale, offering the reader a glimpse into a family’s darkest and also strongest moments. It was easy to get lost in the story and feel like a part of the family. I was especially drawn to Pinky, so innocent and yet courageous. She may not have known her place in the household, but she certainly knows her own mind. I was also partial to Nimish, always lost in his books. He may not have been the strongest character, but he loved deeply.
The heat before the monsoons and then the coming of the harsh rain mirrored the events taking place in the novel: a seemingly peaceful existence suddenly uprooted by the storms. The author brings Bombay to life, offering a taste of Indian culture as she takes the reader into an upper class Indian family as well as deep into the city’s underbelly, where crime runs rampant. The reader gets a sense of the injustices that existed during that time period, including the corruption and prejudices.
The magical aspects of the story are interwoven into the family’s tragedy seamlessly. In the author’s guest post here at Musings of a Bookish Kitty, Shilpa Agarwal mentions that the spirits are “a metaphor for those who have been silenced.” In Haunting Bombay, the ghosts have no voice and are often invisible; however, they can only be ignored for so long. The ghosts, like the Mittal family’s secrets, will come out and be heard or they will destroy all those who suppress them.
Haunting Bombay lives up to its title. It is a haunting tale full of mystery, forbidden love, dark secrets, and mysticism. Shilpa Agarwal’s writing is beautiful, her story intense. I fell in love with this novel on the very first page and that feeling never wavered. If anything, it grew with each turn of the page. There was so much I liked about this novel; so much I haven’t said. Do you have a day or two? Haunting Bombay would make a great book club selection.
November 25, 2015
Excellent book with fabulous descriptions of life in 1960s Bombay (India). This book follows the lives of the Mittal family and their servants--largely their present, but with very important insights into their pasts. And woven in is a ghost (spirit) story. I found the descriptions of the lives of women in various stages of their lives/from various walks of life to be fascinating (girl, young unmarried woman, young married woman, married woman, widow, married servant, unmarried servant) to be fascinating. The lives of men (boys, servants, young unmarried men, married men) are also well described.
The story itself pulls all these lives together and shows how intertwined they have become over the years; as well as how any one person's fortunes or hopes can change so quickly.
Great characters, great story.
The story itself pulls all these lives together and shows how intertwined they have become over the years; as well as how any one person's fortunes or hopes can change so quickly.
Great characters, great story.
June 18, 2009
I guess I was expecting something else - a scary ghost story with lots of suspense. This was more about a dysfunctional family in India and their dysfunctional neighbors, with a ghost thrown in that wasn't particularly scary. Again, this shows how a publisher tries to market a book for a mass audience by giving you a different impression just so you'll crack open the book.
August 8, 2010
I wasn't as astounded by this book as some of the cover blurbs were, but I did enjoy it. The ghost story was not as central as I expected, but the stories of the other characters were more interesting anyway. The book's best moments are those where it explores themes common to all times and places - children rebelling against parents, young love, revenge, shame, acceptance, and seeking love. The descriptions are well done. I could nearly feel the oppressive heat and then the pouring rain of the monsoons. I would have liked the fantastical elements to tie in better with the more realistic elements so it didn't feel so much like a plot device, but it was a good story and one I would recommend.
September 17, 2012
Once in a while, I will walk through the library and just pick up a book because I like the cover. That's how I brought home Haunting Bombay. I don't generally like ghost stories, but I often am intrigued by English language literature written by Indian authors. The writing was quite good and the descriptions of life in Bombay were brought to life by the colors, flavors, and monsoon that are almost like characters in this book. I did not find the ending as surprising or shocking as many other reviewers.
July 4, 2009
I was intrigued by this book mostly because of all my travels in Mumbai. It was nice understanding all the Indian references and being familiar with the locations. That being said, I think that if it took place anywhere else it would have been kind of boring. The story was interesting but never truly compelling. The characters were interesting, but for the most part, 2 dimensional.
October 23, 2011
This story had a confusing prologue and was slow to get started, but after the first few chapters the story sucked me in. Pinky Mittal has been raised by her grandmother since she was an infant. She lives with her grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousins in an old English bungalow in Bombay during the 1960s. Superstition haunts (pardon the pun) this affluent family: the bathroom door is bolted every night and the children are forbidden to ask why. As Pinky nears the beginning of puberty she starts to question her place in the world and in her family. This important stage in her life and the expiration of an old curses causes her to be more sensitive to the paranormal activities going on in her house.
June 27, 2019
Al principio me aburrió un poco el libro porque hay muchísimas descripciones de las rutinas de la familia, de sus pasados, etc. Pero una vez que el misterio cobra forma se convierta en una bola de nieve de secretos encadenados. Para nada me esperaba que ese fuera el motivo que desencadenó todo aunque sí se dejaba bastante claro quién era el/la culpable aunque no se afirmase hasta el final.
November 11, 2010
Agarwal's ability to recreate sight, sounds, tastes made this an enjoyable read. (and it made me hungry). I lost interest in the last part of the story but can't figure out exactly why. Perhaps because there was more action, some it rather sensational, than character development?
January 6, 2010
Not a favorite of mine. Although I always enjoy reading about India, the emphasis in this book on ghosts put me off. Although it has interesting characters and setting, I didn't like the ghost aspect.
May 7, 2024
This book had so many intricacies and so much imagination to it that felt like the work of a seasoned author, not someone's first novel. The author clearly has a gift in her ability to immerse the reader into the culture, food, language and lifestyles of India, both of the wealthy and the very poor. She captures (with some comedy) the drama of a multi-generational family's life at all of its levels, and then how the family copes in a crisis. At the heart of the story is a young girl who lives in the house as a poor relation taken in, who unwittingly releases a baby ghost (yes, a real ghost) from the bathroom where it has been relegated. This is not a horror story but rather a portrayal of belief systems surrounding how this family lives and how they act, how they present to the world, all when they are not being honest with themselves and each other. It's an amazing read.
November 27, 2018
I enjoy reading books about India. This one was a little different due to the ghost story. It is about a dysfunctional family due to a mysterious death of a baby 13 years previously. And 13 years ago a cousin was brought to live with them due to her mother dying at childbirth. The cousin, Pinky, was never accepted by the family except by her loving grandmother. The children's bathroom was locked up at night after the baby died and Pinky opened it 13 years later letting the baby's vengeful ghost loose. All hell broke loose on the family and they brought their Hindi priest and a Black magic priest in to help. There are many stories going on in this book that are interesting, too many to mention.
March 21, 2023
There are some interesting elements of history and folklore to this book, but there is a lot of mystification of womanhood and the female period, which I really hate for many reasons; one of them is that not everyone who experience period is mystified by it, some of us hated it. Another reason it feels like a penetration of certain female bodies. You don't get this level of penetration of the body with any of the male characters. I dislike the idea that period is somehow empowering or knowledge giving or has some kind of mystical powers. It is a very narrow view of women and women's bodies. The vast majority of the women in this story are a type of mothers and daughters. They barely have any other personality traits. The one woman who has a bit more to her doesn’t get much attention.
Apart from that, I did not like or relate to any of the characters, they were infuriatingly annoying, and nothing really redeemed then in my eyes.
Finally, I pretty much predicted the so-called 'mystery' early on, and it just felt a bit disappointing.
Apart from that, I did not like or relate to any of the characters, they were infuriatingly annoying, and nothing really redeemed then in my eyes.
Finally, I pretty much predicted the so-called 'mystery' early on, and it just felt a bit disappointing.
June 21, 2025
No me parece justa mi puntuación porque no lo he terminado, pero a la vez quería dejar reflejada mi opinión. Pocas veces abandono un libro, pero este he tenido claro que no era para mí. Le iba a dar una estrella pero por lo que he dicho he querido ponerle un poco más.
Está muy bien escrito, mi problema ha sido la forma de describirlo todo. Se para en describir y hacer énfasis en lo feo y desagradable. Así que no me apetecía leerlo y me ha provocado rechazado.
Está muy bien escrito, mi problema ha sido la forma de describirlo todo. Se para en describir y hacer énfasis en lo feo y desagradable. Así que no me apetecía leerlo y me ha provocado rechazado.
January 2, 2018
For reasons i cant quiet point out, this book messed with me. A ghost story that have me chills but at the same time I couldn’t put the book down. A ghost seeking revenge and a girl seeking answers culminating in a epic climax!
June 7, 2018
Well it’s haunting alright.
Powerful imagery and interesting characters.
I liked the historical fiction aspect of the story: set in post Colonial india in the 1950’s.
This novel has several plot twists and turns. Reminds me of a Hindi movie .
I enjoyed it .
Powerful imagery and interesting characters.
I liked the historical fiction aspect of the story: set in post Colonial india in the 1950’s.
This novel has several plot twists and turns. Reminds me of a Hindi movie .
I enjoyed it .
December 13, 2020
My reading challenge has gone down the toilet this year. Do not take into consideration how long it took me to read this book. I’d give it 3.5 stars. A very haunting and chilling look into an Indian horror story and how they handle ghosts based on their culture and belief system.
April 14, 2024
It took a few tries to get into and then the magic happened: setting was set, characters made sense and the plot thickened. But... it then unraveled for me. The ending was rushed and then the epilogue just irked as "let's tie some loose ends." This is more 7/10 than 4/5.
October 18, 2017
Sorry it's well written but boring.
January 26, 2019
Haunting it is!
January 31, 2019
A wonderful story of humans trying to keep a secret while a wily ghost seeks revenge. This story is rich in the culture and traditions of India.
August 16, 2019
I very much liked this book, but, in all honesty, I was let down by the ending. Maybe because it took so long to happen or because the characters that I loved all turned out to be liars.
December 24, 2019
Amazing story of the culture of India and the Hindu traditions
December 26, 2019
Ignoring the mindless anti colonialist ranting - a decent book. The absolute brutality of existence, dog-eat-dog world.
September 3, 2022
I was completely carried away to Pinky’s world! Just the right amount of suspense to keep me from putting the book down. I very much enjoyed this book!
January 27, 2023
3/5 stars
I don't usually enjoy paranormal fiction, but this was an engaging read.
I don't usually enjoy paranormal fiction, but this was an engaging read.
March 8, 2023
Update once we've had our Reader's Group meeting.
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