Scare me if you can : Book Review


Book Review

 

Title: Scare me if you can

Author: Sid Kapdi

Genre: Horror

 

One writing workshop in a hill station resort. Nine people and ten stories. 

 

‘Scare me if you can’ is a novel that has a feel of an anthology of short stories in the horror genre. The novel starts off with the protagonist Sivan-a best-selling author, who conducts a workshop in advanced horror writing in a resort. After the four-day workshop, each participant reads out their stories. Besides these nine people, there is an outsider whose story turns out to have an interesting twist. 

 

The collection has a good range of diversity with regards to the degree of scares and locations.  It’s interesting to observe the presence of sub genres within the main genre of horror. In his simple style of writing, the author covers a range of topics with a subtle message in some of the stories. This includes romance, reincarnation, premonition, cruelty to animals and serial killings. He has also experimented with forms of writing in one particular story which makes it an interesting read. There is a good amount of detailing with regards to the character and place in each story. Themes of power, ego and revenge are touched upon here. 

 

Amongst these diverse stories, my favorite pick is Ajgar which blew me away with its twist. ‘Scare me if you can’ is engaging and atmospheric in some sense. 

 

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