The Speaking Ghost of Rajpur - BookReview

The Speaking Ghost of Rajpur by Priyonkar Dasgupta is a tale of five teenagers' adventures. Story was set in small town Rajpur in West Bengal in 1990s, where people spent more time with each other than gadgets. Story can easily bring childhood memories to readers.

Blurb of book goes like this:

It is India of early 1990s - the ‘picturesque’ small-town of Rajpur is in ‘full summer bloom’ and there is a definite sense of mystery in the air. Amidst its scenic setting each year a group of boys band together to spend their summer vacations - going cycling to far-off forests, sharing books, discussing everything under the sky and ogling at girls…

But as youth would have it, their curious minds are more inclined to seek adventure and (hopefully!) uncover some mysterious affair. However, unlike their previous vain attempts, this time certain unusual events and the sudden appearance of a curious case of a ghost in their midst seem to hold the promise of some real adventure.

In the pages of The Speaking Ghost of Rajpur rest assured you will soon be whisked off and plunged into a headlong journey of adventure and romance of your own - on a path of discovery of friendship and brotherhood, of life and love – and, who knows, you might even get to encounter the Speaking Ghost itself!

Story started with siblings' (Soumo and Shoumik) visit to their aunt's place. Shoumik had already visited place many times. Shoumik and Joy (their cousin) were already very close. They always consider Soumo kid and kept him out of their business. It was the first visit for Soumo to Rajpur, though he had heard numerous stories of Shoumik's earlier visits to the place and visualised places and people from his brother's descriptions. Soumo had decided to prove himself to his brothers that he was now capable to considered in their group.

Main story was related to a haunted place few km away from Rajpur. To prove himself worthy Soumo took challenge to enter haunted place alone. His friends joined him in his adventure where they uncovered multiple unsolved mysteries that they heard in last one week. 

Things I liked about book:

1. Last 80 pages of story where main crux was present
2. Freedom, roaming, night outs of teenage that mentioned in story
3. Sketch of guys cycling 

Thing I didn't like:

1. Apart from few related incidents scattered in initial pages, main story started at page number 220

Talking about ratings:

1. Cover - 4 / 5 (Felt nostalgic looking at cover)
2. Language - 3.5 / 5 (At times too much description made me skip few paras)
3. Story Line - 3 / 5 (Apart from 2-3 incident scattered here and there, main story started after 65% of pages)
4. Characters - 3.5 / 5
5. Overall - 3.5 / 5

Book can be found at - Amazon  & Flipkart

Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads

I won a review copy from The Tales Pensieve as part of Reviewers Programme. Register on #TTP for lots of #book fun and activities.