PLOT: 2.5/5 CHARACTERS: 2.5/5 WRITING: 3/5 ENTERTAINMENT: 2.5/5
Although I’ve been reading and discovering new horror authors through my Kindle Unlimited subscription, it’s been almost a month since I last did so.
Without delving into the reasons for this apparent rupture, let’s talk about our book under today’s focus. Ravi Ranjan Goswami’s The Ghost Wife has a unique but striking atmosphere. More than pure horror, the cover image represents supernatural mysticism.
But one thing that strikes me for sure is that the cover image depicts a story set in a foreign land with sociocultural and supernatural influences from distant lands. The reader is therefore amazed when he encounters a very Indian story. Appearances can certainly be misleading. What a truth!
As the story goes
The ghost of the young Madhubala princess, the daughter of Raja Pratap Singh of the state of Prince Singhgarh, lives in a large palace in Sunder Nagar.
The hopeful future of the princess ends in a tragic and violent end, when a big party organized in her honor is attacked by a masked man. Although many souls die in the chaos that ensues, it is the benevolent soul of the princess that makes it difficult for her to leave behind the chains of this mortal world.
And so it goes on from 1975, with no purpose and no light, until fifty years later, he meets a beautiful young Rakesh, and in the end his story takes an unexpected turn.
My opinion
Simply put, the book is neither scary nor romantic (even if love is the subject matter underneath). It is a short story, less than forty pages long, that tells the incredible story of the ghost of Princess Madhubala.
As the story progresses, we find new characters and new turns, but the overall pace remains the same. While it’s not a bad story, it can’t be told to be truly fascinating. To put it mildly, it is decent and mediocre; living as part of a randomly invented story or a clear dream.
The characters are quite one-dimensional, with a lack of emotion, dynamism and depth at the same time.
The rural background is welcoming, breaking the monotony and providing some rest.
Halfway through, the story takes another turn, leaving the reader confused. A disconnect is also seen between the two parts. It seems that the author started on a path and could not decide, and then went on a very different path.
There are also a lot of editing errors, especially when it comes to using “his” and “his”. Genders are often confused, further exacerbating the problem of grammatical correctness.
In the end
In the end, Ghost Wife is the story of a wandering ghost who finds love and purpose in life. Written in plain language, it can be easily read in an hour. Although neither terrifying nor dramatic, it tells a decent story to spend a lazy hour.
Can’t wait to read it? Buy a copy of The Ghost Wife using the link below.
