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Sensor
My Review: Cosmic horror and cults, two of some of my favorite themes of Junji Ito’s work. Sensor, originally titled Travelogue of the Succubus is a mish mash of ideas that tie together into a bizarre story. The first story starts with a beautiful young woman stumbles upon a haunted town that venerates the “angel hair” that falls from a nearby volcano, this story was wild but interesting.We must view the universe, appreciate it, sate ourselves on it. This manga started off as an idea that gradually evolved farther and farther away from its premise. Ito himself writes in his epilogue that the story was originally envisioned to be about…
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Through the Woods
My Review: I’ve read a lot of horror, ones that were bloodier and more disturbing than this. Yet those novels and graphic novels didn’t affect me the way that this one did. Through the Woods is a collection of horror comics that hearkens back to the creepiest fairy tales. The atmosphere in the novels is not to be understated, the stories and art are chilling, even when the stories are straightforward and can be predicted. Even the introduction and the conclusion, brief as they were, evoked feelings of dread cover to cover. I found myself feeling uneasy, particularly while reading the first story, Our Neighbor’s House. My favorite easily was…
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Thinner
Warnings: Violence, Sex, Racism, Descriptions of Starvation My Thoughts Do you know what one of the most un-fun things in the world is? Starving. Speaking as someone with experience and a stressful hospital stay because of it, this book has become that much more terrifying to me after that experience. Billy is a scum bag lawyer saddled with a gypsy curse that leaves him withering away slowly after committing a heinous crime. Both body and mind begin to deteriorate at an alarming rate and Billy finds himself fighting for his life. He goes through all the series of emotions you would expect from someone after they figure out that they’re…
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Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse
Warnings: Death, Descriptions of a decaying corpse My Thoughts Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse is perhaps one of the more experimental stories I’ve ever read. It is told from the point of view of Satsuki, a young girl who dies early on in the story, and the clumsy attempts of her childhood friends to hide her corpse. The writing style was good, the descriptions of the town paint a vivid picture of rural Japanese life. The sense of a hot, humid summer can be keenly felt as the characters struggle to get away with their crime. The story itself was pretty decent and honestly had me flying through pages wondering…
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Goblin: A Novel in Six Novellas
Warnings: Violence My Thoughts Weird towns, we love to see them, and I’m always interested when a previously rare book is republished. I was excited for Goblin the premise sounded good, I love novellas, and the idea of interconnected stories that tell a greater narrative about a town is solid. The idea is good, but the execution was lackluster at most and terribly boring at worst. Happy Birthday, Hunter! was my favorite story of the bunch, the characters and atmosphere are perfect, and the ending was satisfying. A Man in Slices was also decent, while it drags at parts, the idea of having a friend that’s not quite right was…
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The Metamorphosis
Warnings: Violence, Death My Thoughts The Metamorphosis follows Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman who one day wakes up and finds that he has been transformed into a large insect. Before his bizarre transformation, Gregor was the head of his family who worked to support his aging parents and young sister. The novel begins slowly, with the first part consisting of his horror at waking up in his new form. There is actually a lot of hysterics in the first part and it’s pretty strange but comedic. The reader gets a sense of who Gregor is as a character and his dedication, only thinking of how he can continue working and…
