The Vertical Graveyard, Book 3: The Well of Darkness

This is where the world of stories meets history, human feelings, impossible choices, and relatable characters. Hamid Reza Shahabadi has done his magic once more: he entangles human fears with hopes and presents to the reader a rollercoaster of adventures, excitements, twists, and a final huge surprise.

In The Well of Darkness, each loose end is tied up so perfectly that all of a sudden, his narrative world makes more sense. Characters finally find their due representation. It has all the elements of a good story, which haunts not only the readers’ minds but also their hearts and for a long time after finishing it, their memory.

This is a great example of an Iranian horror story, which is narrated in alternating times. The protagonist is not just one persona; there are at least two. The book picks up what book two left off, however as the author has mentioned, it can be read as an independent historical horror story. we know that Shakour is not the only one who comes to the world of living; Razi is one of those lost souls who cannot find solace anywhere. He is up to something and here is where Reza’s role become bolder. At the present time, the other protagonist needs answers, if he wants to save the life of an innocent man.

Hamid Reza Shahabadi has clearly put a lot of effort in creating an everlasting work of literature that is appealing to both Iranian children as well as young avid readers from around the world.

The Vertical Graveyard has been published in Egypt too.

The Vertical Graveyard

(Book 1 of Gate of the Dead Series) Written by: Hamidreza Shahabadi ISBN: 978-600-353-387-5

Pages: 240

Ofoq Publishers, 2018

Hamidreza Shahabadi has yet again created a world of mystery and horror and intricate plot and complex characters. This work is the first volume of a trilogy to be and it revolves around three layers of entangled stories. It has two narrators, decades apart in time with each other. One is a boy (majid) who lives with his father and sister and his mother died a few years ago. The other (Reza Qoli), is a poor boy from Qajar Era. He was taken from his family and sent to work as a slave for a cruel master who enslaved young boys in a haunted, feared house. Their paths cross in ways neither could imagine. As Expected from Shahabadi, author of Lullaby for the Dead Girl, social issues and historical events are woven into his storyline. He has brilliant dominance over his prose and how prominent each character should be. The details are well-processed and characters are relatable, especially Reza, who was a rebel and finally fled his master’s claw.

The rumor had it that he buried his enemies and unruly servants vertically between the walls of his mansion.

But the mystery started with a rumor, about people disappearing in a pool at that house. He lost his friend, who fell into to the pool and came back a changed boy, unlike himself and unlike any other living one. Reza ran away and took shelter with a wise man, struggling with problems to keep his school and fight illiteracy and superstition and ignorance and negligence. They formed a candid friendship and Majid reads about their adventures to stay alive in a diary accidentally

fallen into his father’s possession. Majid commenced a quest to find Reza’s school and to fact check his story of the dead whose body never reached the surface of the pool.

Friendship, loyalty, history, death, and truth are the main theme of the work. The dead may be gone, their presence lingers over the living and their death is not the end. Majid has lost his mother and Reza, his best friend, Shakoor. They both experienced loneliness and their stories  intertwine, with a taste of horror and history.

The children of the mansion didn’t believe Shakoor’s comeback. They kept their distance from him and me, as if we are infected with a fatal sickness. I couldn’t leave him alone, he was my best friend who has come back from the dead.

Night of the Rampart

(Book 2 of Gate of the Dead Series) Written by: Hamidreza Shahabadi ISBN: 978-600-353-487-2

Pages: 240

Ofoq Publishers, 2019

The time has come Hamidreza Shahabadi’s second installment of The Gate of the Dead Series. As we expect from the author, this novel too is such an intricately woven network of evens, twists, and surprises. Also, history again plays a pivotal role in this title; and that is what readers love about his works. Pleasant and plausible dialogs along with dramatic setting has made an atmosphere of unprecedented density and intensity for young adults. The author has created a relatable character, called Nader, who is the symbol of modernity and progress. Nader comes to Reza and his companion’s aid and together, they try to dismantle a gang of child kidnappers.

Nader, a graduate of astronomy from the Netherlands, Nader has dreams of making and flying a balloon. On the other hand, we have Reza, who has come back to Tehran with the hope of going to Mirza Hassan Rushdieh’s school. Tehran in Qajar period was plagued with Cholera and what Reza witnesses haunts him for the rest of his life.

Parallel to this storyline, we go forth a couple of hundreds of years to Majid’s house, who

accidentally had found Reza’s scripts. He reads and reads and is obsessed with Reza’s fate and that building they found at the end of book 1. He goes back to the old mansion and a strange Indian man catches his eyes. The rest of the book is the struggle between fantasy and history and the narrow line of what men consider reality or fiction. Farrokh and Noyan Khan, the antagonists, still searching for Reza and Shakoor, who fell into the peculiar pond of the mansion, have expanded their range of bad deeds to new levels and that is why Reza feels responsible to face them and save their captured slaves.

The world of dead accepts anyone and let out no one. But when Reza walks his readers into the underground world, we cannot help but recall the ancient Greek mythology of the paid price of coming back to life. The honest confrontation of logical science and superstition, the

embodiment of which is Nader, has influenced Shahabadi’s story to be relatable to modern day adolescents, as well as adults. Nader and Reza’s relationship is of paramount value during the course of the story. They face abominable groups of tyrants and criminals and bullies, and with rooted trust and a couple of loyal friends, are able to finish what they started as a single rescue mission. Numerous new characters are introduced in this title, all of whom are representative of different social classes and from historical perspective, can be considered a mirror to what Tehran was like back then.

Shakoor came to rescue. He told me to jump into the pond. I went ahead and stood at the edge. Slowly, I put by right foot on the surface and then, my left foot. Now I too was standing on the

water. “Hurry up before someone sees us.” Shakoor said… I did what I did the last time. He pulled me down and I opened my eyes and started breathing. We were surrounded by too many men and women and children floating underwater. We were suspended in a bright space. Their hair was wild and their faces seemed white and frightened. Shakkor faced me and said: “Look Reza, I’ll help you escape Noyan’s mansion and in return, you need to do something for me. “

• Do what?
• I’ll tell First, we need to go a bit further down, where you can see someone.

He pulled me down and our surrounding got darker and darker… we floated and everything and everyone was hanging upside down… he then called out: “Rasool, Rasool…”

The boy came out; his eyes lightless and colorless, his lips thin and tenuous. Before I could utter a word, Shakoor said: “he arrived two weeks ago and you are going to save his sister up there!”