As the title suggests, this work is a popular encyclopaedia, which attempts to compile narratives on ghosts, demons, and monsters from the Indian subcontinent. Edited by J Furcifer Bhairav and Rakesh Khanna, this book excavates the ‘spooky’ stories of mythical, tribal and contemporary origins. It constitutes 332 entries with multiple sub-entries, and its lucid writing style is supported by detailed illustrations, inviting a wide range of readership. A significant contribution of this work lies in tracing the micro and macro tales from Assam to the Konkan coast, Kashmir to Odisha, and Tibet to Lakshadweep.
Hitherto works around Demonology have privileged myths from epics like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Puranas in India. The authors take a departure by making a conscious effort to include tales from tribal communities such as Mara, Garo, Kuki, Malto, Warli, Santali, and Apatani, among others. Moreover, urban ghosts of contemporary times appear in this compendium. There is also an effort to include Zoroastrian, Islamic, Christian, Buddhist and many other belief systems. Such inclusions unveil to us that there is no clear demarcation between terms like ghosts and spirits or gods and demons (Bhattacharyya, p. 9).