Vikram and Betaal: Night of the Blood Moon | A Gripping Modern Retelling of Indian Mythology with Supernatural Suspense and Dark Fantasy
Amit Juneja's novel opens with a premise that feels immediately urgent. Vikram Chauhan is a sharp, sceptical fintech entrepreneur riding high in Silicon Valley, the sort of man who puts his faith in data rather than deities. Then his wife Meera receives a terminal diagnosis, and that rational world of his simply falls apart. What follows is a story of grief-fuelled desperation that pulls him far from everything familiar, all the way to a remote Rajasthani town and the rumoured miracles of a hidden temple. Gresham, it turns out, is not the sanctuary Vikram hoped for. On the night of the Blood Moon, he's presented with a bargain by the temple's unsettling high priest: Meera's survival, in exchange for capturing Betaal, an ancient pishach bound by oath to Vikram's own bloodline. It's a chilling setup, and Juneja makes good use of it. What distinguishes the book is its structure. Each time Vikram corners the pishach, Betaal narrates the story of its current host and poses a moral riddle. It's a clever echo of the classical Baital Pachisi tales, updated here with a contemporary conscience. These encounters are genuinely thought-provoking, testing not just Vikram's logic but his sense of right and wrong as Meera's time runs short. The collision between Silicon Valley rationalism and deep-rooted Indian folklore gives the novel its peculiar charge. Juneja handles both registers with confidence. Readers who enjoy mythological fiction with psychological weight, and a love story that refuses to be sentimental, will find this a rewarding and rather unsettling read.
- Author: Amit Juneja
- Publisher: Penguin eBury Press
- Genre: Horror
- ISBN: 978-0143479925
- Pages: 320 pages