from cm0002@lemdro.id to fiction@literature.cafe on 16 Oct 19:30
https://lemdro.id/post/30391316
Strange Pictures was published by YouTuber Uketsu in 2022 and translated into English in 2025. The book is about multiple drawings connected to different murders and the interlinked story connecting them together, told through simple writing and hand drawings.
One way to take this book into perspective would be to call it “telegraphic horror”, I suppose. The first chapter starts with an epistolary form and it’s obvious to see that it’s meant to be simple enough to engage readers and hook them in without any purple prose or complex sentences.
The diary entries and minimal storytelling reminded me of those exciting times as a kid when I used to read creepypastas and every mystery seemed like a larger than life puzzle that felt like it could be solved and which kept me interested even when I took a break from reading them.
That’s the kind of charm Strange Pictures started with and moving forward it does demand more from it’s readers in terms of attention to sustain the allure of its mystery, it felt earned because I wanted to figure out what the drawings meant and why the second chapter started out in such an unrelated fashion.
One minor criticism would be that it’s marketed as a horror book for Jungi Ito fans but I never found that abyss like horror of human nature and I wouldn’t say the book goes that far in it’s character’s mind, therefore to me it’s still a better mystery and suspense novel with pictures then a new horror addition to Japanese canon but I guess it comes close.
Anyway, if you’re going through a reading slump and would like to read something fast and exciting and mysterious and have had any interactions with reading creepypastas as a kid then I would wholeheartedly recommend this unique experience. I loved it
4/5***
Review by @Legendsofanus@lemmy.ml
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