REVIEW: Strange Houses (book) by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion

Strange Houses is a Japanese mystery. I bought my copy new.

Review:

The narrator has a friend who's considering buying a house but who wants the narrator to look over the floor plans first, because something doesn't quite feel right. The narrator enlists the help of Kurihara, who works for an architectural firm. Kurihara notes some oddities in the floor plans and somehow jumps from those to "This was a murder house in which the previous owners used a small child to commit murders." The narrator writes about the house, without identifying where it is, and yet is then contacted by a woman who not only seems to know which house it is, but who has identified another house with similar oddities. She believes that her husband was murdered by the former owners of both these properties. This eventually leads to the identification of a third house with oddities in its floor plan.

REVIEW: Strange Pictures (book) by Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion

Strange Pictures is more mystery than horror, although I've seen it tagged as both. I bought my copy new.

Review:

This book features three different stories centered around eerie drawings. The stories initially appear unconnected, although the aspects tying them together are revealed by the end.

In the first story, a student who's a member of his college Paranormal Club is introduced to a strange blog featuring a series of drawings. The blog appears ordinary enough, initially, focused on the daily life of a guy whose artist wife ends up pregnant. However, it ends with a chilling final post that hints at a message hidden in his wife's various drawings.

In the second story, a child draws a picture of his home and family that is uncharacteristically eerie. His mother worries that she and her son are being watched and followed. Then her son disappears, leaving her frantic. And yet for some reason she's reluctant to contact the police. Was her son's drawing a hint of some sort of dark family secret?

In the third and final story, a young man who wants to become a freelance reporter decides to investigate his former art teacher's murder during a hike three years prior. His current boss still has the investigation materials from that case, so he decides to talk to any people related to the case that he can still find and recreate his former teacher's final hike as best he can. He also has one additional clue, the drawing found on his teacher's body.