#418 - Grabber

by Jehan Zachary & Nirmal Pulickal and illustrated by Martín Calderón

“Grabber” by Jehan Zachary & Nirmal Pulickal and illustrated by Martín Calderón. Published by Penguin. A chilling story of the dark secret buried under the sands of time in the urban legend of the Black Taj.

Most of us know about the magnificent Taj Mahal in Agra made of white marble. There goes a legend that there stood another grand tomb which was as beautiful and magnificent as it but built out of a mysterious black stone. It was on the opposite bank of the Yamuna river. It was supposed to have been built by workers who were unlike any other men. They seemed to have materialised out of nowhere and mysteriously disappeared after their work was done. The rocks used in the construction of the Black Taj seemed to be alive. There was something amiss about them and they didn’t seem to belong to this world. The underground crypts in the Black Taj held the sixty four severed hands of the workers who built the White Taj. It is believed that emperor Shah Jahan had them chopped off.

Fast forward to a time few centuries later when the British were ruling India. Twelve year old Nuru who takes his livestock to the jungles for grazing starts sighting the friendly spirit of the empress Mumtaz Mahal. She warns him of a prophecy. The Pisacha formed by the union of the severed hands are going to be revived on the night of the blood moon. They are going to bay for blood. If nothing is done about them, then everyone’s end is near. The evil has to be defeated and Mumtaz has chosen Nuru for this purpose. She teaches him a few tricks. Are they enough to save the people from the monstrous pisacha and their master who is an evil sorcerer called Sharok. He had been banished by Shah Jahan for his evil nature and practising black magic. Nuru finds company in his mission in the form of a cowardly soldier called Boomerang Jack from the British army by his side when he encounters the pisacha in the forest. Jack is looking to make money by finding the precious black rock. Can this unlikely combination of the two of them tackle the pisacha and their leader (named Grabber by Jack)? What is the way to defeat the evil creatures? Will Mumtaz be able to help them? Read this nail biting and spooky tale of ghoulish creatures rising out of the fabled Black Taj and terrorising the people and Nuru’s trysts with them to know all of these.

My nine year old son and I loved reading the book. It was his first horror book where the creatures weren’t friendly and he was clear to steer away from reading it at night :) After all who wanted nightmares even though the creatures are all imaginary, he said! :) The description of the ghoulish creatures alone was enough to make us feel repulsive about them and to imagine Nuru’s plight on encountering them was unbearable. We enjoyed the far fetched imagination and the plot quite a bit. The pace of action kept us on the edge of our seats as we read. The accompanying illustrations added that spooky touch to the narrative. The elements of horror, historical fiction and fantasy have all been deftly interwoven to create a scary but thrilling story.

The blurb of the book got us interested into choosing it to read. And the fact that it has been written by an enterprising twelve year old along with his father. We felt that it was super cool. Given that we don’t have too many spooky tales being written for children in Indian kid literature other than the ghost stories from classics or demon stories from mythology. We have read a couple of books in recent times featuring friendly ghosts or spirits helping out the protagonists. But this was much more than that. We were thrilled to see how a story had been built using an urban legend as a premise thanks to a school writing assignment that the author Jehan had got.

Here is the video of Ninad in conversation with Jehan about the book.

Recommended Age

The book is apt for children aged 12 and above for self reading. It can however be read to a slightly younger child like we did.

Reasons to Read

The book is a good means to introduce the genre of horror to children and to boot it has been written by a twelve year old and this may appeal to them even more.

Disclaimer - We received this book from the publisher, Penguin India, for review. Thank you to Greeshma and Mansi, from Penguin, for sending across the book!