‘The Burnings’: Himanjali Sankar deftly weaves women’s trials and tribulations into horror

Picture a canvas – blank, white, and sprawling. An artist stands in front of it and specks the cloth with small, bright, and purposeful dots of paint. Each move is mesmerising and fills the viewer with wonder. Each dot is part of a bigger picture, the final revelation a shock to all those who watched intently. Reading The Burnings by Himanjali Sankar was much like watching a seasoned artist conjure up a grand work of pointillism. She displays a flair in her writing that draws the reader in, keeps them guessing, and leaves them completely shocked at the end.

With a reference to Edgar Allan Poe’s The Haunted Palace before the prologue, Sankar sets the tone for the rest of the book, which features an eerie mansion, haunting pasts, and troubled minds.

Women and fires

Three women stand at the centre of this canvas, each of them intriguing and distinct. Behind them are flames – tall, cleansing, and destructively attractive. The story tells us seemingly different tales from three different points of view, all stitched together seamlessly – a feat only a skilled writer can achieve. All three women have troubled pasts that don’t seem to leave them behind, stories of love that are broken – jagged pieces still cutting at...

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