PVLF 2025

Interview with Krishnakumar, Author of “The Ferryman”

"The Ferryman" explores psychological horror, suppressed emotions, and the power of dreams, delving into fear, resilience, and the human mind’s dark corners.
on Apr 26, 2025

Frontlist: The Ferryman: A Novel delves into psychological horror and the power of the subconscious. What inspired you to write a story where a seemingly ordinary object—an antique bed—becomes the source of such terror?

Krishna: I have always been a fan of the horror / supernatural genre. When I was younger, I consumed those contents [in the way of movies, comics and books] heavily. Many of my first attempts at writing had been under the genre. So, it wasn’t a surprise for me when my first book ended up in the same.

The core idea of ‘The Ferryman’ was a nightmare I had experienced. It happened during the lockdown in 2020 when we were all confined to our homes. I had decided to make another attempt at writing a novel and I was actively exploring ideas. At this point, early during the lockdown, one night, I was stuck in this nightmare where I was aware that it was a nightmare and yet I knew somehow that dying there would also result in me dying in real life. So, all I did in the nightmare was to survive. At one point, the nightmare woke me up in the middle of the night. It took me a moment to calm down. When I went back to bed, I couldn’t immediately go to sleep. The nightmare was fresh in my thoughts and I remembered all the aspects of it. As I pondered over it for a while, I soon realised that this could acutally be a good idea for a book. I thought – ‘What if, I sleep in this bed and was able to visit other people in their dreams and what if I had the power to turn their dreams into nightmares that they cannot wake up from.’ This was the start of ‘The Ferryman’. By the time I dozed off that night, in addition to the core idea, I had also thought about what could be the start for the book.

The next morning, with the start of the book ready in my mind, I started working on it right away.

Frontlist: The book portrays the fragile boundary between reality and dreams. How did you approach writing the dream sequences to make them feel immersive and unsettling?

Krishna: When I started writing it, I actually couldn’t wait to get to the part of the nightmare sequence. The nightmare I had experienced was still fresh in my mind. I was able to feel the fear that I had endured in the nightmare - being helpless, with no way out and fear of death. So, naturally I wanted to write it down first. But then, I decided against it. I had a good start and I wanted to explore the aspects of the story as I wrote it. So a couple of weeks happened during which I kept revisiting my nightmare experience often and then when I reached the part of the nightmare I gave words to whatever I had contemplated about my own nightmare until then. I think I had wrote the first nightmare sequence in a single sitting. And then, at the next sitting, I revisited what I had done and refined it a little. When I read it again I saw that I had managed to find a setting, a voice, an atmosphere for the nightmare sequences. From then on, I stuck with it. I tried to explore the same set-up in different tones, different persepectives, describing a specific part of the place in more details with each nightmare chapters. And when I alternated it with regular chapters it had created balanced sequence of events.

If the nightmare sequences are unsettling to the readers – as they are meant to be – then it is because that I created them from what I had gone through myself.

Frontlist: Your book examines the darker corners of the human mind. Were there any psychological or mythological influences that shaped the story?

Krishna: If anything, I wanted to stay away from mythology completely. I see the market is now flooded with rethinking of our mythology. While it is good, I think we are passing the line where we begin to create ‘forced’ reinventions of our mythology just because the market demands it. And with ‘forced’ reinventions, there is a large possibility that the creators take the liberty of adding / adapting / changing too much the original that we might end up with a different version of it than it is supposed to be. These days I do not find keen to purchase a book when there is a mythological character with a six-pack abs and ripping biceps in the cover.

With my book, when you say examining dark corners of human mind, I want to specify that it explores one specific aspect. It tries to answer the question : ‘What if the things that lurk deep in our minds, our desires, our frustrations, our anger that we had suppressed deep into our minds so we can project ourselves as the society expects us to, are given a chance to be let out?’ And asking this question about myself allowed me to explore more.

You can see a version of this in the current ‘online’ world. With the possibility of hiding behind a profile, unable to trace, the kind of responses, trolling, accusations, debates every ‘normal’ human performs in these online platforms are a perfect example of what I’m trying to explore. These are people, who are like you and me, in real life, yet, being veiled behind a fake profile, they have the power to express themselves in a way that they wouldn’t even think of in real life. The ‘bed’ in ‘The Ferryman’, is similar to such an ‘online presence’. It gives you the power to do anything to anyone and yet still project yourself normally in real life. And the result is same in both cases. We can see how corrupted and perverted the minds of people go in these online platforms. And the same happens to Adithya, the lead character, in the book.

Frontlist: Your book presents the idea that suppressed emotions and grudges can manifest in terrifying ways. How much do you think real-life human emotions influence horror fiction?

Krishna: We – as humans – suppress grudges because we know that if they are let out, the consequences will be terrifying. If it isn’t the case it would be unlikely for us to suppress them.

The mere existence of the sub-genre ‘psychological horror’ answers your question. The genre relies on exploring the darker parts of the human mind. These are the parts that none of us want to acknowledge and always deny. When these are explored, in a book or a movie or music, they unsettle the audience. And these explorations orginate from real life. Real people, real cases, real studies that we meet, read and see all around us.

Frontlist: The horror genre has often been a platform for strong, complex female characters. Does The Ferryman feature any female characters who play a crucial role in shaping Adithya’s journey?

Krishna: The Ferryman is a novel of limited setting and characters. It mainly revolves around three friends – Adithya, Aadvika and Amar. And Aadvika is the female character you ask about. She plays a vital role – knowinlgy and unknowingly – in Adithya’s life and soon becomes a victim.

Her journey, in the book, if you follow it separately, would showcase her strong will. Physically weak, emotionally struggling between the two men, soon preyed upon, tortured and hurt, she tries to come out stronger every time. She endures more than any of the other characters. Despite the terrifying situation she finds herself in, despite scared to death, she finds braveness within. She is introduced as a seemingly common woman – which is what she actually is – and is taken through a perilious journey, with blows after blows thrown at her while she struggles to try to keep everything together. It takes a lot of courage to take the decisions she does.

Frontlist: In a world where women are increasingly reclaiming their narratives in literature, how do you think psychological horror can be used to explore themes of empowerment and resilience?

Krishna: Who better can write about a man’s psychology than a woman who had lived through it?

There are stories out there about women who have escaped from the harshest of the hell that are waiting to be told. And these stories must be told. This is one way to bring awareness, to encourage to stay strong, to tell to keep surviving, to push to escape and to not to simply accept it as it is. You have many such films and documentaries that are out there that have been known to create such awareness or inspiration. I’m certain that many such incidents could be explored through this genre and in a reasonable way.

One prime example I’d like to quote here is Stephen King’s “Rose Madder”. It is a horror fantasy fiction that deals with domestic violence. It contains a strong female character, a wife of an abusive husband who makes up her mind one day to leave it all behind and run away. It explores the lead woman’s mindset from being afraid and enduring all the physical pain that had been inflicted on her, to conjuring up the courage to stand against it and move away from it. She knows well her husband – she knows he is a policeman and that he will try to hunt her down and the consequences for running away from him are going to be far agonizing than anything else she has undergone. Yet, she does it and in the novel we follow the aftermath. That book, when I read it first, back in my late teens, introduced me to domestic violence, to physical abuse and to how much women suffer under it. That was my awareness to how I shouldn’t be treating the women in my life.

Also, I did take the liberty of assuming that your question was specifically about women’s empowerment and resilience.