Publisher‏: Evincepub Publishing
ISBN: 9789354461125

We read scary stories so we are able to experience artificial situations of “fight or flight.” These scenarios, whether real or imagined, get your body ready for action by supplying you with an additional dose of adrenaline. The will to feel something strongly—no matter what the emotion is—can drive readers to those books. Detailed descriptions of eviscerated body parts in zombie stories might not get you excited, but there are lots of readers out there who live for these items.  “Delusional Horror: collection of eight creepy paranormal horror stories” written by Mr Kinshuk Srivastava is a collection of eight short stories. The story starts with a conversation between Kiara and the Journalist, Reena. Reena is here to interview Kiara about a paranormal incident that occurred with her. Kiara starts by saying she and Gaurav, who is her husband, decided to enjoy their vacation in their farmhouse in Lonavala. Gaurav decides to book the entire farmhouse, even though Kiara insisted on not spending so much, But Gaurav didn’t listen.

They were on their way to Lonavala. Between their road trip, Gaurav leaves his Car, Kiara is approached by an old lady, who looks very scary, she asks for a ride to them village, which is on their way, Kiara denies her, the old lady goes away. As soon as Gaurav comes, they continue the journey, after few moments, while driving, Kiara is shocked to see the same old lady in front of them asking for the same. Kiara tells Gaurav not to stop for lift as she is scared that how an old lady can be at 2 places at the same time. But Gaurav stops, gives the old lady a lift, then on the way, Kiara is still confused that what is happening, Gaurav notices her and he holds her hand to notice that her hand is burning or if she has a fever, which she denies.

They reached the farm house, try to forget the past incident, they fresh up and leave the farm house to view some scenery. They come back, being tired, fall asleep, But Kiara wakes up in the middle of the night. She was shocked to see a black doll in her purse. Gaurav throws that away through the window. They again fall asleep and Kiara didn’t find Gaurav, she is little bit scared, she looks for Gaurav. There was completely darkness all over. She feels someone holding her hand from behind. She finds Gaurav there. She, then opens the almirah to show her the piece of paper to him. But the piece of paper or mysteriously disappeared.

They wake up the next day, Kiara finds Gaurav lying unconsciously. Before she can process anything, someone grabbed her from her neck behind. She saw a shadow of 8 feet tall, only a pair of red eyes were visible, which asked from her that why did she throw away the doll? It can only protect you from the evil spirit. Her head got banged from the cupboard and she lost all her senses. Gaurav woke up in the morning, and they left the farm house. This ends her conversation with Reena. Reena asked for contact information of Gaurav. She meets Gaurav, he said that they didn’t went to any trip to Lonavala, they initially planned, but her wife fainted so they cancelled the plan.

A werewolf haunts the Kolthare village and kills the victims on full moon. This goes on until a man named Suraj connects the dots and solves the puzzle about the werewolf. He then, with the help of sarpanch and other villagers uses a silver axe to kill the werewolf on a full moon. During this encounter, Suraj gets bitten by the werewolf and will eventually turn into one. Abhijeet meets a girl (Sarika) at a bar. The more he gets involved with her, the more he realises that the girl resembles a character from his novel which has a sad ending. The more the story goes ahead, the more Abhijeet realises that his suspicions are true.  Realising that this story won’t end well Abhijeet tries to alter the story on his own. Unfortunately, Abhijeet does get killed at the end in a road accident trying to save Sarika’s life. But the entire episode was going on in just Abhijeet’s head and thus he lost his life for nothing.

When I was asked to contribute to the present column, I assumed I’d probably pen cosmic horror. That article was almost completed, however, before I spotted that my heart wasn’t in it. So I thought to jot down my heart.  Few things which kept me read this book continuously was the plot and the climax. I could really imagine what all would have happened in front of my eyes and I think this is the best compliment an author could get. Beautifully written by Mr Kinshuk Srivastava and published by Evincepub Publishing, I would like to wish the author all the best as this is his first book and also wishes him good luck for his upcoming novels and books.