The Stalker

Anchalee Viva's work offers a chilling and thought-provoking glimpse into what appears to be a supernatural horror narrative. The dialogue between the narrator and the mysterious "Stalker" reveals an unsettling premise: an entity that sustains itself by consuming human emotions, particularly negative ones like lust, hatred, wrath, and fear.

The writing employs effective use of italics to emphasize key emotional concepts, creating a visual rhythm that mirrors the predatory nature of the its conversations. The clinical way the Stalker describes humans as mere food sources is particularly disturbing, drawing parallels to human consumption patterns while establishing an alien perspective.

What makes this book so compelling is how it transforms abstract emotions into tangible sustenance. The narrator's blank expressions and blunt questions provide an interesting counterpoint to the Stalker's increasingly insidious revelations.

The novel succeeds in creating an uncomfortable realization for both the narrator and reader: that human suffering might not be random but might instead be serving as nourishment for entities beyond our perception.

The story explores themes of emotional parasitism, the nature of suffering, and possibly the symbiotic yet predatory relationship between humans and supernatural entities.

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Anchalee Viva received the Southeast Asian Write Award in 1990 and the Chommanard Book Prize Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.

Among her other published works are the novels Till the Last Breath and Once Upon a Dream and three short story collections: Whispers from the Other World, The Dream Digger, and The Message in the Box.

She now lives in San Diego, California, and writes for Elite Plus Magazine, an English language magazine in Bangkok, Thailand.