A Compendium of Supernatural Entities Found in
the Government Girls Higher Secondary School
by Kuzhali Manickavel
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted October 9, 2026
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This debut novel came highly recommended by a couple of other Indian writers I follow. Kuzhali Manickavel was born in Canada, but moved with her family to India when she was 13, and currently lives in Bengaluru (Bangalore). She has published several story collections which have been described as part of the New Weird sub-genre. This short novel is written in third-person, but mostly from the perspective of Thamarai, a teen girl attending public school in her small town in Tamil Nadu State. It is mostly in English, but there are many Tamil words for which I couldn't find an adequate translation, so I assume they were used as slang. Others were translatable.
To start, if depicted correctly, a GGHSS seems quite lax and disorganized. Students are given quite a bit of free study time without teacher supervision, plus several classes are conducted in private homes. Those are known as tuition, more what I would call private tutors. Thamarai isn't fond of school, is bored most of the time, and doesn't have any ambition toward a future job or career. Like most Indian girls she expects to get married, have kids, and eventually die. Parts of the story seem to be her fantasies, not something truly supernatural, and anything close to that might only be in her imagination. Consider an old botany notebook she found in the bottom of her book bag, which to any of her friends is simply that, some earlier student's notes. Yet Thamarai sees things the others don't, listings of supernatural entities typically found in and around a GGHSS, some of which sound truly supernatural, but others merely fabricated stories about everyday objects. For instance, one of the entries is for the Assai Candy Wrapper, dangerous if not handled correctly. The result of improper use could initiate time travel. Another is Smiling Face, which has a small body made of tin and an enormous round head with painted eyes. It has the uncanny ability to flip the top of its head all the way back, revealing worlds inside. Sounds a bit like a Pez dispenser to me.
That her friends can't see the listings of supernatural entities is only one thing to indicate the notebook might be supernatural itself. Thamarai continually tries to throw it away, but it is in her bag again the next time she looks. The entities that are likely to be the most dangerous are within another entity, the Phantom First Floor. The school only has two floors, but Thamarai encounters the Phantom Floor a couple of times, but can't recall exactly how. It can only be accessed by the stairs, but she can't always find it, so she continually runs up and down the stairs until it presents itself again. At times the Phantom First Floor appears like the real first floor, except empty, but at other times Thamarai has seen things described in the notebook. Class 9D, which should not exist since there is no 'D' section in the schooling system. But within that classroom Thamarai saw a room full of 9th Standard girls, sitting quietly as if in a trance, not even appearing to be breathing. There is also the Library, but she can't enter it, since the first time she tried her hand was cut in several places, and any object thrown into the room is ripped to shreds. As I said earlier, a lot of these things could just be in Thamarai's active imagination, since she daydreams a lot in class. However, two of her friends later experience the Phantom First Floor with her. Either that, or Thamarai has the ability to include others in her fantasy, but she can't get them to follow her instructions, including finally getting revenge against their English teacher, who is known to take too much interest in the prettiest girls. Thamarai thinks she has him trapped in 9D, but one of her friends lets him out. Later, he acts as if he has no memory of the encounter.
Things appear to get back to normal after that teacher is transferred out to a small village school. The notebook is gone, no matter where Thamarai looks. Her friends act as if they don't remember the supernatural things either. They move on to their 12th Standard year, Thamarai not even trying on any tests, while her friends do well and go to university, one marrying and moving to America for a job. Could everything have been just the trauma of growing up, learning about life, experiencing abuse? Yet Thamarai was not one of the girls faced with the English teachers unwanted attention, of if she was she did not reveal it. It doesn't really matter, since the book is good any way you think of it. At times tragic and scary, other times funny, full of the awkwardness of teenage insecurities. I liked it, and can recommend.
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