The Other Side by Faraaz Kazi and Vivek Banerjee

Title : The Other Side
Author : Faraaz Kazi and Vivek Banerjee
Genre : Fiction / Horror / Paranormal
Publisher : Mahaveer Publishers
Pages : 264
My Rating : 7/10
Reviewed For : The Readdicts Blog Tour

Blurb:

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 sceptic 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!

My Review:

The Other Side by Faraaz Kazi and Vivek Banerjee is a collection of 13 short horror stories with an unique spin of the paranormal element to them. Honestly, I have never read books from this genre, so while taking up this novel I was quite apprehensive in terms of what it offered. Since the usual horror movies seem all the same, I did not want this read to be another replication of The Exorcist. But I am glad to say that this book was surprisingly well done, it was an engaging read that did not let me down.

The authors do not hesitate to pull out the big guns right from the first page, they set the ball rolling with the foreword, which for me was the best highlight of this read. It starts on a scary note (pun intended!) and is actually an introduction to Fear – Fear of the Unknown. The authors play on this Fear of the Unknown to take the readers on The Other Side – the side where the natural is supernatural!! Next comes the prelude which as the name suggests serves an introductory act to the 13 horror stories that follow. Coming to the short stories themselves, I must say they are an eccentric mix. Starting from a plain predictable story to some old-fashioned ghost stories with unexpected twists, these 13 stories are like a potpourri of tales that keep the reader absorbed. The stories aren't exactly frightening but the book (as a whole) is chilling with vivid imagery and descriptions. The authors have used seemingly plain language to evoke feelings of fear and set a mood of delicious creepiness. Needless to say that if you’re reading this book late at night, you’ll be jumping at every noise you hear.

The authors have played well with the plotline for some of the short stories – they start on a theme that makes the story seem like the “same old’ ghost story” but then as you read the last page, a sudden twist breaks the reverie. This is quite good since the stories come out to be a witty combination of the expected as well as the unexpected. While for some stories this element of surprise in the end is their only redeeming point, for others the plotline just didn’t seem to work. The good part was since it was a collection of short stories, we can always move on to the next one within a few pages even if the previous one disappoints.

Having said that I must applaud the authors for creating an entire world, full of darkness and unsated souls in this read, which makes it more than just a set of short stories. Of course, the line between the real and imaginary begin to get blurred with this one. If you hate anything scary at all, then I’d steer clear of this book.  But if you enjoy creepy stories, then I’d give this book a chance. 

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