Book Review: Rafa Dalvi reviews "The Other Side"
May 04, 2014 Book review 2 Comments

Title: The Other Side

Author: Faraaz Kazi, Vivek Banerjee

Publisher: Mahaveer Publishers

Genre: Horror

ISBN: 9789350880760

Price: INR 150

Pages: 320

Blurb:

"A slow rasping sound made me turn. I jumped back, the cell phone leaving my hands and smashing against the concrete floor. Someone was seated on the chair, rocking back and forth. Through the fallen light, I could see those hands placed on the arms of the chair, two gruesome wrinkled limbs with ugly boils plastered over the black skin. The red bangles on its wrists shone in my eyes, momentarily blinding me. That thing and I call it a thing because I could sense it wasn't human as no human could have such a hideous form, as vile an existence as the one seated opposite to my horrified self."

From a honeymoon in the hill that goes horribly wrong to an obsessed lover who wants his first love in life and in death; From a mentally deranged man who collects body parts of various women to stitch together his dream girl to a skeptic who enters a mansion of horrors to win a bet and much more, this book is filled with scenarios that are guaranteed to give you goose bumps and sleepless nights.

'The Other Side' is a collection of thirteen tales of the paranormal; a world that our eyes refuse to see, our ears deny hearing and our senses ignore the feel of. This is a book for someone who is brave enough to take up this invitation to journey through uncharted waters along with the authors, who were inspired by some bizarre experiences to pen down this work where the lines of reality have been blurred by the footsteps of imagination.

Each story takes you on a tour de force of unadulterated horror and draws upon the deepest fear in the human mind- the fear of the UNKNOWN!

Review:

Faraaz Kazi and Vivek Banerjee team up to pen down an anthology of thirteen (spooky number isn’t it?) horror short stories. Each story is independent and the plot isn’t related to each other in any way.

The cover of the book is very apt and really suits the genre, giving the readers a peak as to what to expect from the book. The selection of quotes before every story is very good and adds a lot of flavor.

The anthology is well-written with good narration and interesting scenes. There are many instances in the book that would succeed in spooking the reader and making the body hair erect. The reader will have no problem in believing the unbelievable.

Moreover, the prelude and the epilogue are unique with the authors Faraaz and Dr. Vivek being the protagonists in them and the authors deserve a pat on their back for thinking this through. The epilogue provides the perfect end to this scary book. Overall, it promises a fulfilling read. I hope the authors write a sequel and continue the good work.

Rating:

Prelude: 4/5

That fateful night: 3/5

The long weekend: 3.5/5

The man who did not fear: 2/5

Strangers in the night: 2.5/5

The muse comes calling: 4/5

The lady in the pub: 2.5/5

A mother’s love: 3/5

Red Bangles: 3/5

The Mark of the Beast: 3.5/5

The Mystery Lake: 2.5/5

Possession: 3.5/5

Unfulfilled Desires: 3/5

Dream Girl: 3.5/5

Epilogue: 4/5

Overall: 3.5/5

Author’s Bio:

Faraaz Kazi

The recipient of the YCOF National Excellence Award and the winner of the National Debut Youth Fiction Award 2013, Faraaz Kazi is also called as 'The Nicholas Sparks of India.' A certified soft-skills trainer and a three-time post grad, Kazi operates his own academy in Mumbai and is the Founder and CEO of DigiImprint Solutions, a social media agency for personal and corporate brands. He also consults for a few public relations firms and publishing houses. He is fondly referred to as 'The Young Marketer' and operates a revolutionary blog with the same name and writes for major media houses.

Kazi is a fellow member of the esteemed 'Film Writers Association of India'. 'Truly Madly Deeply', his debut mainstream romance novel is the only Indian book to be nominated in seven categories of the Goodreads annual readers' choice awards, apart from being the first Indian novel to win the 'Best Debut (Romance)' during the same awards and is also the only Indian book in the 'Top 100 YA Global Fiction' list. He is a voracious reader and counts singing as his second love. He is one of the most highly followed figures on social platforms from the literary world. He can be reached at contact@faraazkazi.com. To know more about him do log onto faraazkazi.com. Of course, he does 'face' books and 'tweets' when he is not speaking.

Vivek Banerjee

Vivek Banerjee is a pediatrician by choice and a writer by chance. His debut novel The Long Road, which was well received by the readers, was published by Cedar- an imprint of Pustak Mahal in December 2010. He has contributed short stories to Chicken Soup for Indian Doctor's Soul (Westland), Shades of Love (Grapevine India), Kaleidoscope (Parlance publishers) and Shades of Sin (APK Publishers) and litizen.com. He blogs at drvbanerjee.blogspot.in/. You can mail him at drvbanerjee@gmail.com

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This book review is for a special friend [yes] Nimi Vashi from Reader's Cosmos and special for many reasons. One, it is a first ever a "guest post" on blog from a dear blogger friend Rafa Dalvi, he blogs at http://rafaadalvi.blogspot.in/ [do visit his blogs for some wonderful short stories n reviews] and we both attended the Book launch in Mumbai together.

Thank You Rafa.

Fellow Readers, if you are interested to write a guest post for numerounity, do write to me.