This is one of those books that's unlike anything else I've read. Structured as a field guide to the strange and supernatural, it's imaginative, funny, unsettling, and surprisingly poignant. Every entry adds another layer to the world, making the school feel both deeply familiar and completely impossible.
What I appreciated most was how effortlessly Manickavel balances the whimsical with the eerie. It's a quick read, but one that invites you to slow down and savor all of its strange little details. If you're looking for something different, this one absolutely delivers.
Read if you like: surreal fiction, literary horror, folklore, and books that are delightfully weird.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel. All opinions are entirely my own.

There was a lot to appreciate about this novel. I really enjoyed its weirdness, the vivid setting, and the memorable characters. I especially loved the first part of the story, where we follow Thamarai through her day-to-day life. That was easily the most compelling section for me.

The Compendium entries were also a lot of fun to read, each one more surprising than the last. However, I found myself wishing they had a greater impact on the overall story.

Where the book fell short for me was the pacing. For a 400-page novel, the structure felt more suited to a novella or even a short story. The main plot took too long to fully unfold, and by the halfway point, I was starting to feel impatient. The ending also felt more like the conclusion of a short story than a full-length novel. Ironically, it felt rushed in the context of a novel, even though I think it would have worked beautifully in a shorter format.

I really wanted to love 'A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School' by Kuzhali Manickavel. The premise—a Tamil Nadu government girls' school filled with supernatural beings and a mysterious notebook—was the kind of quirky, literary horror that usually appeals to me. However, I found it difficult to become fully engaged. The atmosphere is well-crafted, and some moments are quite unsettling, but I never connected deeply with Thamarai or the story. I kept waiting for the pieces to come together, and while I appreciated the intent, it didn’t fully draw me in.

That said, I enjoyed how the supernatural elements blended into everyday school life. The horror isn't just about ghosts or strange creatures; it also reflects real teenage experiences of power, isolation, and fear. These themes were among the strongest aspects of the novel.

Overall, this seems to be a book that focuses more on mood and symbolism than plot. If that's your style, it might resonate more with you than it did with me. I understand why it has its audience—it just wasn't the right fit for me. Readers may wish to check out CWs beforehand. Thanks to NetGalley and Angry Robot for the ARC and the opportunity to review.

A fun read that I would recommend to every fan of a big supernatural fiction fan! Interesting characters and a plot that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout!

A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School has a wonderfully strange premise and a vivid, unsettling atmosphere. The blend of everyday school life with supernatural creatures and folklore gives the story a unique feel, and the compendium entries are imaginative and often memorable.

The book is more focused on mood, symbolism, and world-building than on a fast-moving plot. While I enjoyed many of the individual ideas, the pacing felt uneven, and it took a while for the main story to fully develop. I also found it difficult to connect deeply with the characters, and I wished the supernatural entries had tied more strongly into the overall plot.

This is an unusual and creative read that will likely appeal most to readers who enjoy surreal fiction, literary horror, folklore, and stories that prioritize atmosphere over action.

This book had a lot of elements that I enjoyed, but ultimately it didn't quite come together for me in a satisfying way. Thamarai, the main character, finds a mysterious book that contains entries regarding all the supernatural entities at her school. The book appears to be just an ordinary book with no supernatural content to everyone else. We meet a number of characters in Thamarai's life including classmates, teachers, neighbors, and of course a number of supernatural entities. The book has a dry, understated humor which I enjoyed. Overall it's pretty light on plot for a book of its length but if you enjoy character studies more than plot, you might like this one a lot! I wouldn't call this a scary book despite the creepiness of some of the entities, it has more of a whimsical and odd feel.

Wonderfully weird and unsettling, A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School delivers on its promise to push boundaries. Kuzhali Manickavel weaves a strange, creeping tale of a girl at first only trapped by her surroundings, then terrified by them as daily life at her school takes a turn for the supernatural.

I enjoyed the field-guide setup, and was totally engaged by the entries detailing the various entities. They're eerie, inventive, and though mostly more on the whimsical side, at times a bit horrific - all-around a great tool for setting the atmosphere. It's definitely an atmosphere-heavy book, not particularly driven by plot or even characters, but I enjoyed the vibes so I didn't mind. I did, however, find the pacing to be a little off - I'm not convinced that the premise would work better as a short story, since there's a lot going on here and a lot of it is compelling, but I definitely wanted to get into the action sooner.

That aside, fans of weird, boundary-pushing horror absolutely shouldn't miss A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School.

What an incredibly weird book - and that is a compliment! I absolutely loved all dialogue with Thamarai involved because it was so incredibly odd. She is SO odd and I loved her. There were some really funny moments and I liked the entity entries too. There are parts of the book that are very (unfortunately) realistic so TW for sexual assault and harassment.

This is a difficult book to wrap my head around. It's magical realism, it's feminist in the context of undeveloped worlds, it's a coming of age story for girls when their lives are so secondary, it's a foreign story that refers to lives and a culture that I am unable to touch from the comfort of my privileged white western upbringing.
I have my own theory on the meaning of the story. In a world where a girl's life has so very little value and can be ruined by the lecherous attention of a male teacher who despises the idea that girls may go to school, the main character is the girl that saves the others. Does she actually exist or is she a spirit guide for the girls at the government school?
the prose is dream like and dark, and the Indian language and south Asian supernatural elements that have a some humour in them to keep the story from being overwhelming in sadness and anger.
I think it's a beautiful story about girls surviving in a hostile society. It is also a reminder that the next serious wave of feminism will be told by writers in stories like this.

I have previously read and loved Kuzhali Manickavel's shorter works, so I was never not going to pre-order A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School. Similarly, when I had the chance to read it even earlier via NetGalley, it moved to the front of my queue. Thank you Angry Robot for providing this book for review. All opinions are my own.

The novel describes the experiences of Thamarai, a somewhat pixilated girl approaching the end of her time at the school of the title, in relation to her classmates, teachers, and assorted supernatural entities. The closest comparison I can think of is M. John Harrison, with the outbursts of weirdness contrasting with the surrounding provincial normality. For the western reader, that environment of small-town Tamil Nadu has a linguistic appeal of its own, especially the names ("Biology Miss", "S. T. Priya") and the dialogue, which fizzes with wit and colourful Indianisms like "porikki", and "headweight" -- S. T. Priya is a particularly good source of these.

It's plot-light, and rather episodic, but such story as there is shows Thamarai's gradual discovery of the entities and its effects on her relationships in particular with two of her colleagues: the ending is open enough to keep the book working in the reader's mind after it's been put down. Interspersed are extracts from the Compendium itself, which are nicely judged to sometimes expand on what we've already read, and sometimes prefigure what is to come. The entities are helpfully categorised by danger level, from the whimsical to the very weird and moderately horrifying.

I hugely enjoyed all the time I spent reading this book, and can recommend it to any fans of the weird and of linguistic sparkle.

Awesome book! I've never read Tamil horror, so this was very cool. I loved reading about the different cultural horror aspects of this book. I only wish it was delved into more! It was similar to SCP horror and other horror series that describe different horror entities/occurrences. I enjoyed it. I just wish there was more content! It was very short. Great for anyone who wants to read diverse horror.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐*

What a wonderfully strange book!! I loved how it takes the everyday frustrations of school life and places them alongside genuinely bizarre supernatural occurrences. The result is surreal, funny, unsettling, and surprisingly poignant. Thamarai is such an interesting character to experience this world through, and the notebook documenting the school's supernatural entities is such a clever device. I also really appreciated the distinctly Tamil setting; it gives the book a sense of place that you don't often get in supernatural fiction.

Overall, highly recommend picking this up!

A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School by Kuzhali Manickavel caught my eye and held my mind.

This book appealed to me because while there is a wonderful emergence of East Asian literature in the West, South Asian authors are not often seen in fiction. As such, I was excited to see one that blended Dark Academia, Horror, Fantasy and better still, folklore. This in itself would push boundaries in the West, and I was excited to see how it would manifest in a South Asian setting

Thamari lives in A Tamil Nadu town, where rumours and strife are common. Alongside the stresses of her community, she cannot connect with her peers in school. Thamari is observant, seeing everything that is going on around her, her feelings and reactions evident, especially at the behaviour of her repulsive English teacher and the way he leches after the girls in her grade. In her government run school, things are supposed to be normal, regulated, but nothing could be further from the truth that Thamari sees. Thamari feels trapped, enduring the heat and strange goings on around her, that is until she finds a notebook containing a log of all of the strange happenings in the school and potentially, a way out of this paranormal nightmare

I absolutely loved this book. The tone is utterly different from say, Chinese fiction while the two have a strong connection through Bodhidharma (the Buddhist monk who travelled from india to China and essentially founded Shaolin Kung Fu). There is a layer of extra flavour, a quiet tenacity that seeks the answers in the shadows. The focus on a rural setting in modern day is refreshing as are the different folkloric and paranormal entities

This book will certainly appeal to people exploring East Asian and Asian fiction, as well as those who are seeking to try paranormal/ Psychological horror in a realm completely removed from the Western style (I would tentatively recommend it to people who enjoyed either Bulgasal or the Eastern Palace due to the tone and elements of the horror rather than a direct comparison of the entities themselves)


Kuzhali Manickavel has an elegant style, stirring a pool of environmental objects and cues into a whirling tornado that builds into absolute chaos, letting it settle and then whipping it up again, all the while, grounding the reader through Thamari's narrative and observations. A perfect book for spoopy season!

An utterly thrilling read and an author I will be adding to my must buy list

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Angry Robot for this phenomnenal read. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

This book was absurd in the best way. It gives you very little background or references which is part of why I liked it- I was very much an outsider reading this and that is okay, we don’t need to have everything diluted or neatly packaged. I appreciated the glimpse into another world (or two) and there are so many threads of Thamarai’s experience as a teen girl that are universal and transcend the book’s setting.

Manickavel evokes strong emotions in this short novel- multiple times I found myself flipping quickly from rage towards the real monsters (patriarchy) to genuine laughter at the barbs and antics of S.T. Priya.

This is the type of book that gets stuck in your teeth.

This was such an unusual and imaginative read. I really enjoyed the strange atmosphere and creative approach to the story. Definitely something different and memorable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Angry Robot for this ARC!

“A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in the Government Girls Higher Secondary School” by Kuzhali Manickavel is an incredibly absurd, immensely entertaining work that, to me, is difficult to define. We join Thamarai at her high school in a small Tamil Nadu town, both of which seem to be full of unexplainable events and supernatural entities. But then Thamarai discovers a mysterious notebook, which seems to be full of descriptions of the paranormal phenomena she has seemingly been experiencing, invisible to everyone else.

I absolutely loved this book. It takes a minute to get into it and to get attuned to what kind of character (and narrator) Thamarai is, but once you’ve gotten there you can’t help but want to just wrap her in bubble wrap and set up an actual support system for her. She is constantly absentminded, casual in the face of the most bizarre situations, often honest to a fault.

Now I have to clarify that I am, at best, tangentially familiar with Indian cultures and society. Therefore I am certainly not the best judge, but to me this book reads as if it is deeply steeped in and representative of the culture one would find in a small town in this region of India. While a lot of this book is absurd, such as the supernatural entities, Manickavel also tackles several social issues, most of all the misogyny and harassment these young girls face.

I’m also just such a sucker for books that play a little with format, and the way the entries into the compendium were used in this one was wonderful.

I don’t think that this is a book with a particularly exciting or high-stakes plot, but the meandering journey we take through Thamarai’s life is absolutely one I recommend taking. Absurd in the absolute best way, fun but also, at times, heartache inducing. A wonderful read!

This is a solid novel that maybe could have used a bit of trimming down, but I enjoyed the ride. We get a young village girl in India, Thamarai, who is confronted with the girls around her disappearing literally in front of her eyes and no one ever speaking of them again, and a sinister teacher whose power starts to grow in the school. We get a parallel dimension being unlocked in the school as Tharamai tries to find out what happened to the missing girls, bring them back, and confront various kinds of monsters. The pacing felt a bit stretched towards the middle, but I loved the back and forth of the narrative and the entries in the journal that Tharamai finds. Definitely worth your time this fall.