Ayesha Muzaffar

The Bhabhis of Lahore and other forbidden tales of the city

I really wanted to love this book but I found myself a little disappointed. While the author definitely captured the vibe of scary stories told in Pakistani households, I feel like a lot of the stories bulit up to very lackluste  reveals.  Especially the shorter stories, they felt more like ideas than rough drafts. I however enjoyed both the longer stories in the book however and I think the author should allow herself to expand her stories to her hearts content. My other issue is a lot of the stories become inaccessible to a non-urdu speaking audience during to the copious amount of romanised urdu used without translation. I think these stories should be available to a wider audience and hence in future translation should be provided or the amount of romanised urdu reduced. Overall an entertaining read, just has potential to be better. 

The Bhabhis of Lahore and other forbidden tales of the city

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