When I was a starry-eyed business management student (how the Indian economy made me cynical to MBAs, sigh.), our Business Communication Prof. used to chide us in class- “Read books, you air-heads, for Warren Buffet built his empire by reading books only.”
In Quora, it has become sort of Quora-myth that Elon Musk learned how to build rocket from books.
Neither have I had any brain for stocks nor any knack for technology. So where does it leave the utterly hopeless me in the club of reading-books -in-order-to-build-rockets-or-rake-millions-in-trading ? Nowhere! So I pledged to myself reading minimum 50 horror/creepy books in the entire length of 2017.
.
Below, I have discussed two books I read recently in the creepy/horror genre.
Liked:
Book: Rosemary’s Baby
Author: Ira Levin
I have read about the titular film numerous times before but didn’t know that there was a real book behind the flick. But I am glad now that I got to lay my hands upon the book.
Plot-in-brief
Rosemary and her husband rented an apartment in NY.
Got introduced the neighboring creepy, old couple consisting of a boisterous woman and creepier old man. Also Rosemary befriended a young woman in the laundry room.
Things started to happen that involves mainly-
- “Apparent” suicide ( in real) murder
- Eerie apartment setting,
- Mysterious sounds – through wall,
- A cringe-worthy rape-scene,
- Pre-natal mumbo-jumbo (including poisonous foods),
- Demonic new-born, and
- Disgusting violence committed towards the female protagonist by her husband/doctor/ satanic cult.
What I loved most-
It was a quick read –yet -profound. We only knew what Rosemary saw/heard or felt. This is some fantastic creepy voyeuristic journey that gave me a sneak peek into a tragic-comic horror plot, a dash of feminism, the inner-world of cult, decaying marital relationship in the backdrop of NY of 60s. Two thumbs-up.
Disliked-
Book: The Butterfly Garden
Author: Dot Hutchison
It’s not horror in the classic sense. But it’s creepy as hell. The Butterfly Garden is dark, gruesome, stomach revolting. If you have a little girl or a teenage daughter and live in a society where pedophiles and sexual perverts are lurking everywhere (huh, where they don’t?), then it would certainly make you uncomfortable.
Plot-in-brief
The Butterfly Garden started with two FBI agents interviewing a young girl called Maya after rescuing her and other younger girls from an isolated, picturesque mansion.
The manor was guarded by a millionaire (or trillionaire) psychopath called “gardener” and his asshole-of-the-highest-rank elder son.
The father-son duo used to hunt down girls-less-than-16, brought them into the “garden”, rape them as-they-please once the gardener is done tattooing the girls’ backs with intricate, beautiful designs of butterflies.
Then more shit happens, the younger son enters into the garden, fell into semi-love of Maya. The plot plays in a back-and-forth mode. The story ends in typical fashion with justice prevailing above-all.
What I disliked –
The plot is too-filmy to my liking with it’s gorgeous garden, the beautiful clothes, the prisoner girls with their divine beauties, the part – American Psycho, part Christian Gray and full-on psycho Gardener with his over-the-top tantrums.
There are some weak plot ends too, especially the climax. Maya’s deprived childhood is there only to harp on reader’s sympathy chord.
“Roses of May”- the sequel is coming up in the later part of May. Hope it will be an upgraded of the first.
Parting Note:
Horror/creepy books are great in forgetting lost opportunities, infuriated partner, nagging parents or overall hopeless state of the world for few moments. Instead of getting sloshed and wasted, try reading horror books. This won’t have any adverse effect on your liver/weight and you won’t need to join AA group later, to wear off this addiction. Do give it a thought.
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