Deserter
2 journalers for this copy...
I've enjoyed - and been profoundly disturbed by - other works by Junji Ito, including Gyo and Uzumaki, and when I saw this hardcover collection of Ito's early short stories at Barnes and Noble I had to buy it.
Later: some of the stories are a bit sketchy as to plot, but most of them do pack a punch, and of course Ito's iconic artstyle is as lovely/disturbing as ever. Among my favorites:
"Bio House": a young woman finds herself in the house of a man with extreme tastes in menu items, leading to an encounter with mutant camel crickets {shudder} and an increasingly gruesome battle for survival. (This one could make a good slasher/horror movie - very graphic scenes here. Indeed, it's so over-the-top that it's not really scary, or at least not as scary as other tales in this book.)
"Face Thief": this one has a more real-world setting, students coping with issues of friendship, romance, and jealousy - and with one student who seems to be copying another, to the point of attempting to replace her.
"Where the Sandman Lives" and "The Long Hair in the Attic" both feature some amazing and wildly disturbing body-horror, though I found the actual plots a bit thin.
"Scripted Love" is about a girl who's devoted to an on-screen character, to the point of delusion and mayhem.
"A Father's Love" is one of the longer works, and depicts a series of tragedies striking the children in one family - which are due to the father's ability to possess their bodies and force them to do things. As dysfunctional-family metaphors go, this one's pretty raw...
"The Unendurable Labyrinth" felt a bit like the later "Uzumaki" tale; here, instead of spirals, there's a labyrinth into which the main characters follow a train of young monks. They're hoping to find a lost friend, but they discover a very disturbing secret as to what's really going on in the labyrinth. I really liked the claustrophobic feel and the creepy artwork.
"Deserter": the title story is the last one in the book, and deals with a family who's been hiding an army-deserter friend in their house for years - long past the end of the war, in fact. The reasons for all this eventually come out, as does a revelation as to the nature of the deserter himself.
[The TV Tropes page on the author may be of interest, and includes comments on some of the stories in this collection.]
Later: some of the stories are a bit sketchy as to plot, but most of them do pack a punch, and of course Ito's iconic artstyle is as lovely/disturbing as ever. Among my favorites:
"Bio House": a young woman finds herself in the house of a man with extreme tastes in menu items, leading to an encounter with mutant camel crickets {shudder} and an increasingly gruesome battle for survival. (This one could make a good slasher/horror movie - very graphic scenes here. Indeed, it's so over-the-top that it's not really scary, or at least not as scary as other tales in this book.)
"Face Thief": this one has a more real-world setting, students coping with issues of friendship, romance, and jealousy - and with one student who seems to be copying another, to the point of attempting to replace her.
"Where the Sandman Lives" and "The Long Hair in the Attic" both feature some amazing and wildly disturbing body-horror, though I found the actual plots a bit thin.
"Scripted Love" is about a girl who's devoted to an on-screen character, to the point of delusion and mayhem.
"A Father's Love" is one of the longer works, and depicts a series of tragedies striking the children in one family - which are due to the father's ability to possess their bodies and force them to do things. As dysfunctional-family metaphors go, this one's pretty raw...
"The Unendurable Labyrinth" felt a bit like the later "Uzumaki" tale; here, instead of spirals, there's a labyrinth into which the main characters follow a train of young monks. They're hoping to find a lost friend, but they discover a very disturbing secret as to what's really going on in the labyrinth. I really liked the claustrophobic feel and the creepy artwork.
"Deserter": the title story is the last one in the book, and deals with a family who's been hiding an army-deserter friend in their house for years - long past the end of the war, in fact. The reasons for all this eventually come out, as does a revelation as to the nature of the deserter himself.
[The TV Tropes page on the author may be of interest, and includes comments on some of the stories in this collection.]
I'm sending this to BCer book_drunkard to fill a wish, for the US/Canada wishlist-tag game. Enjoy!
*** Released for the 2022 One Word Title challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2022 One Word Title challenge. ***
Thank you so much for tagging me.
I'm adding this to the stack of books that I plan on reading for
Spooky Season 2022 (AKA - Halloween.)
I'm adding this to the stack of books that I plan on reading for
Spooky Season 2022 (AKA - Halloween.)
