I have not ventured into the realm of horror literature and usually, keep them away. But I was attracted to "The Tantric Exorcist" by Ashwin Mudigonda because as per the blurb the book is based on Vetaal from Vikram-Betaal. I have seen two images of Vetal, one in tv series (which gave me goosebumps) and one a ghoul master from the Vikramaditya series by Shatrujeet. This book gave me the horror face of Vetal.
Vikrama (Not the king but a college boy) was interested in knowing about Vetal. He got some ancient text and Sanskrit mantras around Vetaala & tantrism. And just like any horror plot, accidentally he chanted mantra which invoked the demon from other realm and Vetal took control of Vikrama. On request of Vikrama's friend, one of the strongest tantric came to help. That tantric was Chaturvasi. Chatur knew the weight of the task, he was not dealing with normal ghosts but Vetal himself. And on top of that, he smells something else as well. Read the book to know more.
Some of my observations
1) if you are a horror buff, you will find the medieval thrill. The dose is good for new readers of this genre. I would say ideal for first-time horror reader
2) if divided into two parts, the first part was very fast-paced and interesting compared to the second part. Having said that I don't mean the second part is slow it is comparatively less speedy and has too much description.
3) language is easy for any proficiency level reader
4) the climax was nicely planed. The author was able to tie loose knots up to a certain level here.
Overall this deserves a 3.75 out of 5.
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