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A review by thewildnorry
Fragments of Horror by Junji Ito
3.0
Despite the fact that this book is soooooooo far from my usual cup of tea, I decided to try it. After all, a student cared enough to recommend and give it to me. So, I decided to give it a shot.
I liked it more than I thought I would.
But this isn’t turning me into a manga or horror reader. Those genres are still firmly in the “trusted recommendation only” category
That said, I will definitely recommend this to students.
My overall impression as someone outside the manga/horror scene? The stories are hit or miss. You can tell from the beginning of each tale pretty quickly which one it’s going to be. Most of the stories were creepy, but thankfully none of them were “I’m to scared to sleep” horror. Part of this may be the cultural difference in legends and horror, but I’m not complaining. It let me enjoy the stories more. So here’s a better breakdown.
The stories are also short stories but they felt too short. Not so much as fragmented but in some cases rushed.
Also, most of the characters looked fairly similar. At times it was hard to tell if it was supposed to be the same person I read about previously or a different person
FUTON — Miss⭐️
I liked the twist at the end but the rest of the story was just dull. It’s not scary if you’re over the age of 8. Just like “Huh. Ok. Freaky monster drawings for two pages.”
WOODEN SPIRIT ⭐️⭐️
I feel like I just didn’t understand this one. It was more weird than scary.
RED TURTLENECK⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I enjoyed this one the second most. It was gory, and supernatural, and totally awesome.
GENTLE GOODBYE⭐️⭐️⭐️
Just a straight up ghost story but kind of retooled I guess? It was more about getting over loss than necessarily scaring anybody. All in all good story that should probably be turned into a movie or its own book.
DISSECTION CHAN⭐️⭐️⭐️
This one was disturbing but I actually kind of liked that. It felt very symbolic even though I don’t think that that was the intention.
BLACKBIRD⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the one that scared me the most. I think that was primarily the art. It’s definitely not a realistic scary tale. But I felt like this was the one which was the appropriate length. The ending was kind of unnecessary though.
MAGANI NANAKUSE ⭐️
This was just dumb. I guess weird too but mostly dumb. I don’t even want to waste my time talking about how much of a wasted opportunity this premise was.
WHISPERING WOMAN ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My favorite out of all of them. I wish it was longer. It wasn’t really scary or upsetting or anything until the end which was creepy but not as unsettling as it could have been if any suspense was built.
I liked it more than I thought I would.
But this isn’t turning me into a manga or horror reader. Those genres are still firmly in the “trusted recommendation only” category
That said, I will definitely recommend this to students.
My overall impression as someone outside the manga/horror scene? The stories are hit or miss. You can tell from the beginning of each tale pretty quickly which one it’s going to be. Most of the stories were creepy, but thankfully none of them were “I’m to scared to sleep” horror. Part of this may be the cultural difference in legends and horror, but I’m not complaining. It let me enjoy the stories more. So here’s a better breakdown.
The stories are also short stories but they felt too short. Not so much as fragmented but in some cases rushed.
Also, most of the characters looked fairly similar. At times it was hard to tell if it was supposed to be the same person I read about previously or a different person
FUTON — Miss⭐️
I liked the twist at the end but the rest of the story was just dull. It’s not scary if you’re over the age of 8. Just like “Huh. Ok. Freaky monster drawings for two pages.”
WOODEN SPIRIT ⭐️⭐️
I feel like I just didn’t understand this one. It was more weird than scary.
Spoiler
Honestly the dad and daughters obsession with the house was equally freaky to the weird woman trying to have sex with it. She was a demon. They had no excuse.RED TURTLENECK⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I enjoyed this one the second most. It was gory, and supernatural, and totally awesome.
Spoiler
I was very disappointed by the fact that the evil witch was killed so easily though.GENTLE GOODBYE⭐️⭐️⭐️
Just a straight up ghost story but kind of retooled I guess? It was more about getting over loss than necessarily scaring anybody. All in all good story that should probably be turned into a movie or its own book.
Spoiler
Took off a star because her obsession with her dad’s death was cheap irony and not really needed.DISSECTION CHAN⭐️⭐️⭐️
This one was disturbing but I actually kind of liked that. It felt very symbolic even though I don’t think that that was the intention.
BLACKBIRD⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is the one that scared me the most. I think that was primarily the art. It’s definitely not a realistic scary tale. But I felt like this was the one which was the appropriate length. The ending was kind of unnecessary though.
MAGANI NANAKUSE ⭐️
This was just dumb. I guess weird too but mostly dumb. I don’t even want to waste my time talking about how much of a wasted opportunity this premise was.
WHISPERING WOMAN ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My favorite out of all of them. I wish it was longer. It wasn’t really scary or upsetting or anything until the end which was creepy but not as unsettling as it could have been if any suspense was built.