I love collections of short stories about the paranormal. The author does a good job of giving just enough information to give all the important information without being too bogged down.

This is my review forGhost Demons And Monsters Of India. It is the different types of exactly that ghost monsters and demons and their origin stories for those of you who love the paranormal
And the macabre will definitely love the book. It is packed full of stories that will give you hours of entertainment and a few sleepless nights. I want to thank Watkins publishing and NetGalley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

This feels like an exhaustive encyclopedia of various mythical creatures of India. I would highly recommend breaking it up and reading other books in between. Although the stories were fascinating, there was a while where I really cared about it much less..

Teaching ancient civilizations, I was able to use portions of this book for a fun activity for my classes. Students had to draw one of a selection from the book based on the description given by the authors. This was a big hit, and perfect timing in the class since we are studying Ancient India over Halloween. It is a nice break from irrigation, social structures, etc and gives an opportunity to display reading comprehension.

A fascinating guide for the various ghosts, monsters, and demons that are part of Indian cultural traditions. Set up as an encyclopedia, the entries are alphabetical and have tons of information regarding the legend behind, the beliefs related to, and recent sightings. This is a great resource for anyone who has interest in folklore, the paranormal, and non-Western mythology. Occasional illustrations add to the spooky vibes.

REVIEW: This is a very intriguing encyclopedia-style book that covers some really interesting ground not usually explored in the west. For that alone, it’s worth checking out. A nice change from the common creatures and stories we’re used to in North America and Europe.

This book was featured in my newsletter, DISPATCHES. Here’s the link:
Dispatches #8 October 2023
The campaign URL for this campaign is: https://mailchi.mp/c9a5a7ba7640/dispatches-issue-6148340

There's a lot to learn about Indian culture and this is a fascinating book that kept me reading and made me learn a lot.
Well written and engrossing.
Highly recommended.

There's a lot to learn about Indian culture and this is a fascinating book that kept me reading and made me learn a lot.
Well written and engrossing.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This is an excellent and fun guide to ghosts, monsters, and demons of India, complete with chatty definitions and stories, variant lore, and much more. It's great to dip in and out and learn something new, and reading it cover-co-cover was a pleasure. It's a great resource for writers as well as those reading Indian and Southeast Asian SFF who want to learn more about the supernatural dwellers of that area.

#Ghosts,Monsters and DemonsofIndia is a very informative book. I enjoyed learning about all the different folklore and stories of these beings.

Thanks to #Netgalley for the eArc in exchange for a fair and honest review

I'm always interested in books like this that show other cultures' mythology. opening my eyes up to some different creatures and stories.

this book gives enough information about each creature. which honestly is pretty cool for research when writing.
it's well written and informative definitely worth picking up.

I was given a copy of this Arc from Netgally for an honest review

I really enjoyed the stories here and the way that they are laid out in an encyclopedic fashion. I do a drawing challenge every year and this volume will be a great reference guide to add to the list!!
The illustrations are really well done too!

“Aavi means ‘vapour’ in Tamil. It is the word used for the steam from an idli cooker, the morning haze above a village lake, or the misty cloud of a person’s breath on a chilly night in the Nilgiris”. As a freak of etymology, semantics and all things horror, Ghost, Monsters and Demons of India is a book just down my alley.

This encyclopedic work gathers a wealth of information regarding the supernatural in Indian religion and folklore. Since I have no academic expertise in Indian culture, I am not in a position of evaluating the accuracy of the information provided by authors Rakesh Khanna and J. Furcifer Bhairav. Therefore, my review is based solely on my impressions as a reader and horror fan.

Ghost, Monsters and Demons of India collects hundreds of alphabetical entries on spiritual beings and daemonic creatures from the cultural traditions of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and other nearby regions. As an area that has seen an intense cultural exchange and suffered colonial dominion over the centuries, a good deal of the entities described are the result of these interactions with both Western and non-Western populations.

The authors first give a general overview of the creature and often expand this by including several specific legends and further information regarding popular practices to deal with the supernatural. Some of these monstrous beings are ubiquitous in the country and some are specific to certain regions and landscapes, as is the case with the airi of the Kumaon jungles and the Masaan of Northern and Eastern India. The authors use folktales, myths, and other religious compositions as main sources, and although the title of the book suggests that the ghostly and monstrous are the focus of the book, it also offers hints at the marvelous in its broader sense. Therefore, there is plenty of space for flying horses, witches, unicorns, and dragons, but also for railway ghosts, vampires, and warrior giants.

If you are interested in non-Western mythology and folklore, if you want to explore different imagery of horror, or if you are a writer/artist in search of new sources of inspiration, I am pretty sure this book will give you a plethora of pleasure and entertainment. Oh, and there is a twenty-page-long final bibliography for you to delve into!

If you are tired of retellings of vampires, werewolves, zombies, and even chupacabras have gotten a little stale, this book is a treasure trove of scary, creepy, gross, and mysterious creatures and beings. It’s always fascinating to happen upon new ghosts stories and find how all over the world the things that scare us can be so different but so similar too. I very much enjoyed the vivid, and often chilling illustrations throughout the book in with vivid details. Not the best book for anyone whose squeamish BUT a great go to guide for inspiration for anyone looking to make a horror movie or survival video game.

I found this a very Easy read, the layout is great and brilliant to follow. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, this is definitely one of my reads that I will be re-reading. The authors knowledge about all of the monsters and different fables of India is mesmerising to read and when compiling the stories that make up this book they never leave you behind, and you fully understand where the myth is going. It’s like a big Encyclopedia of all of the monsters, Myths Fables of India, which is probably why it was so easy to follow.

I would struggle to be able to review this book due to issues with the file/download. The issues stopped the flow of the book. The issues are:
- Missing words in the middle of sentences
- Stop/start sentences on different lines
- No clear definition of chapters.

I’m not sure if it was a file/download issue but there were lots of gaps and stops/starts which really ruined the flow. I would love the chance to read a better version as the description of the book appeals to me. I would be more than happy to re-read the book with a better file or as a physical book as the book topic and genre are of interest to me. If you would like me to re-review please feel free to contact me at thesecretbookreview@gmail.com or via social media The_secret_bookreview (Instagram) or Secret_bookblog (Twitter). Thank you.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the copy. The opinion is my own.

This is a wonderful encyclopedia with entries by Alphabetic order (exceptions are entries that are more of umbrella terms that within have several entries).
Several entries have more than what the entity it is: sometimes it's context (e.g. a demon from mahabhárata and the scene associated), sometimes it's the specific legend and how they act, sometimes there are poems (!!), hystorical details, the local practices for the entity (evil entities made from human spirirts have a certain tratment post death for example), etc.
There are also illustration in some cases.
All in all, definitely worth a look if you like to read about Entities and Legends and very much looks like a great reference for those curious.

Arc netgalley review

Easy to read and reference, the layout is great! Definitely a buy for me, and deep dive on some of what was within the pages. The authors didn’t lack knowledge when compiling the stories that make up this book. It does read like a encyclopedia/dictionary for those who are not into this or for those who are.

Interesting tome of information with amazing art work for some of the creatures mentioned. The only thing I wished for was more artwork as it was so well done and I would have loved to have seen it for more of these beings.