‘Ghosts, Horror and Hills’ by Aditya Kant: Supernatural, naturally

Name: Ghosts, Horror and Hills
Author: Aditya Kant

In the book, the hills are not merely a backdrop; they shape the emotional and narrative contours

Charu Ahluwalia

Updated At : 05:01 AM Mar 01, 2026 IST

Ghosts, Horror and Hills by Aditya Kant. Vitasta Publishing. Pages 158. Rs 395

Book Title: Ghosts, Horror and Hills

Author: Aditya Kant

This collection of 19 short stories is rooted firmly in the landscapes of Shimla, Dharamsala and Kullu. One of its most striking merits is the authenticity with which the author recreates the hills — the colonial heritage and whispered local legends. The customs and everyday rhythms of mountain life lend credibility to the supernatural occurrences. Readers already attuned to the region’s natural and cultural nuances will readily recognise this ambience and the less connected ones will still perceive the terrain through sensory images. The hills are not merely a backdrop but shape the stories’ emotional and narrative contours.

Thematically, the collection is unified by its persistent return to death and memory. Almost all the stories circle back to the dead as spirits, lingering presences or unresolved histories. But a few stories, such as ‘The Snowman’, offer a thematic variation. Dramatic climaxes characterise most of the writing, sustaining suspense and reinforcing the motif of loss. Particularly effective is ‘The Caller Does Not Exist’, where the nauseating smell of decaying flesh evokes palpable dread. In such moments, Aditya Kant succeeds in generating genuine goosebumps.

The true resonance of the collection lies in the memories it awakens. Readers may find comfort not in the spectacle of haunting, but in the recollection of their own childhood encounters with tales of spirits and loss. The stories subtly prompt a return to personal memories of elders, of departed loved ones, of landscapes and childhood fears.

The author appears less interested in connecting readers to the spirits than to the place that houses them. The mountains become repositories of memory, of a shared legacy of place and ancestry. The supernatural thus functions as a bridge between the present-past and living-dead.

The epilogue stands out as a thoughtful justification of Kant’s thematic vision. The assertion that “in the mountains, everything echoes” encapsulates the spirit of the book. Just as sounds reverberate across valleys, so do memories of the departed. The stories create a bond between us and those who came before us, suggesting that haunting is not merely a matter of fear but of remembrance.

However, the collection is not without limitations. Some stories, such as ‘Revenge of the Hills’ and ‘The Shroud Thief’, may seem implausible to contemporary minds. Moreover, certain descriptions — “growling voice”, “nails hooking onto his skull”, “the air was thick”, “face twitched” — represent familiar cliches of haunted tales. The visuals become theatrical and fear operates mechanically instead of emerging organically from the characters’ inner turmoil.

The stories also rely on external shocks rather than internalisation of dread. On a metaphorical level, the narratives seldom venture into symbolic terrain and fear is devoid of any psychological resonance.

Nonetheless, ‘Ghosts, Horror and Hills’ remains a regionally grounded horror fiction with an authentic setting and dramatic storytelling. A dash of symbolic complexity and psychological depth could have elevated it to literary heights.

— The reviewer teaches at Government College, Kullu

‘Ghosts, Horror and Hills’ by Aditya Kant: Supernatural, naturally

In the book, the hills are not merely a backdrop; they shape the emotional and narrative contours

Charu Ahluwalia

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