**spoiler alert** It is important to note that most of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, tou**spoiler alert** It is important to note that most of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the book's subject matters & those detailed in my review overwhelming. I suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters that contain reflections on the death of a loved one, grief, adultery, body mutilation, physical violence, parental neglect, self-harm, violence affecting a child, sexual abuse, elder abuse, & others.
As is so often the case, one’s experience with a story is entirely subjective. Fujino writes as an omniscient translator of traditional horror; the torment of everyday life a banal yet utterly terrifying reality each much affront. In this collection, she has decided upon three (3) tales of tenderly mundane terror: a novella that presents the demure of an egotistical maniac; a short story that explores elder abuse; & finally a short story that lingers on the psychotic.
Readers are either in or they are out; outside of the haunted house & the neighbourhood filled with the indistinguishable. Ultimately the stories are the purely paranormal essence of what is scary when we fail to understand. Unfortunately, the vast panorama of the phantasm does not linger for all eternity when the reader is given the chance to question whether or not they should be afraid at all.
Nails and Eyes In this novella, Fujino’s characters are cathartic shadows. The story follows the narrator as she dictates the demise of her stepmother or, rather, the woman with whom her father was having an affair & who came to live with them after the narrator’s mother died. I was rather uninterested in the logistics of this stance; whether or not the narrator was actually omnipotent or simply a child with an ego problem—this story functions in so far as the reader allows themselves the opportunity to listen to the ramblings of a child who very clearly is immature in every sense of the word.
From some point in the future or, maybe from no place understood by humans at all, the narrator recounts all the events that took place, leading up to the physical assault she carried out against the woman who lived with her. The graphic nature of her crimes—i.e. pealing open eyelids to scrape the iris & orbs with chips of nail polish—would have been better suited for a more fulsome buildup. The author introduces the relationship between the daughter (aged 3) and her new parental figure (early 30s) as a slow-burning fire in the middle of a haunted wood.
Readers spend so much time going over practically mundane occurrences that the final blow of violence comes as a disappointment. This story is not written in a way that is daunting or riddled with tension. I was utterly immersed in a domestic drama with a narrator who was an egomaniac—constantly droning on about her perfect vision. I was surprised to find out that this was actually a Horror. That being said, I understand the genre to be a fast plain of a multitude of facets. This story had nothing more than tedium to accompany the pacing.
I enjoyed the habitual torment of realization that dawned on the new maternal figure as she discovered the blog of the deceased. I liked how viscerally her emotions translated to the dull wording on the page. Her character was troubled in a nearly apathetic manner & for this, I was grateful. She was written with the ease of unexpected normalcy; she was nothing special, she expected nothing in return & understood that at the end of her life, she would die. Yet, all this time, she was squirming inside an egg that she struggled to crack for one moment of bliss.
This story functions well as an introduction piece to the genre. For readers who are uneasy with graphic violence, the author introduces the gore of an almost unbelievable situation in a disconnected way. The events that take place make practically no sense. How much did this child weigh to be able to crush the ribs of a fully grown adult? Was the woman totally asleep—she is described as having closed her eyes. The child’s nails were already nearly non-existent; how then did she have daggers for nails after they were further filled down? I appreciate the willful belief that one could develop a skill at pealing nail polish clean off a fingernail but this has more to do with the quality of the polish than the actual mouth or fingers of the person in question.
Alas, this is not the story in which the reader’s logical ponderings are needed or relevant as they do nothing but denigrate the magical rambling of the premise at hand. I find this a rather hard pill to swallow. After all, the premise relies wholeheartedly on the reality of the events. One needs to be able to appreciate the tedium of everyday life to understand that death is certainly a curtain swipe away. Regardless, my questions remain. I am left apathetic as a consequence.
Ultimately, the plot holds gems of an especially cruel nature. The narrator, though crude in her existence & responsible for the death of her mother; is still a child. She was three (3) years old at the time of the events. She might have perfect vision according to the Snellen chart but she remains unable to gauge the world around her; she murders her own chances of growing strong by biting the hands that feed her. Therein lies the true terror; a noted future starvation, a gullied & sullen intestinal track wrought & vapid as a consequence of one’s own choices.
What Shoko Forgets Shoko is not her real name though; the reader will be forgiven for forgetting this along the way. The main character is an elderly woman who is being kept in a physical therapy hospital until she is better. What ails her is perhaps the slow steps of the end of her days. She spends her time in a fog, sometimes able to recollect tired pieces of information such as her maternal role but, for the most part, she sits in solitude, haunted by a young man whose reasons for roaming the halls are unknown.
This story is crass, exploring the churching reality of an all-too-prominent unspoken truth; abuse often happens right under our noses. Shoko speaks to herself & tries to recall that which her mind blocks out as the sun rises; the reoccurrence of what is most probably sexual abuse (rape). The author explores the physical reality of bounds & mounds, yet allows the night owl to remain unnamed.
After having enjoyed the novella, I was disappointed to find that there were two (2) short stories included alongside the bind. Because I had been immersed in the novella, its sharp & sudden ending left me annoyed. I was not ready to read another story so, I gave myself some time in the hopes that the silence would reprieve this story from my disappointment. Unfortunately, it was difficult to read this story because it was so utterly ambiguous.
There is very clear abuse taking place but the villain is not made apparent. Is the reader meant to deduce that the extroverted young man in the clinic is the one committing crimes? Is the reader being encouraged to reflect on their own prejudices; if a person is not obviously unwell, are they ill? Though the premise of this story does sound intriguing, it does not deliver on its promise. The reader should not have to fill in all the blanks to make a Mad Libs out of this story.
One can roam at leisure back & forth throughout this story without really arriving at any clear conclusion. Is Shoko simply a product of her time or is she a cultural marker? Are the women imagining the man or is he really there? Is Shoko experiencing a progressive form of Dementia or is she blocking out the trauma of residing in a care facility against her will? What is the purpose of this story?
In a manner far too obvious to be quaint, the author presents the simple terror of existing at the mercy of other people’s kindness as the ultimate antagonist. Readers are at liberty to remain apathetic or wrought with sorrow.
Minute Fears I hold preferential feelings toward the modernization of terribly spooky stories from childhood. There is something altogether charming about the simple scares that exist in the narratives without fallacy. In this final short story, one is brought back to the lunacy of uncommunicable fear. The main character is a mother & she is very proud of this. Her friends are married & happy but, they are not as free as she is. With a husband who is fully supportive & independent & a son who is smart & punctual, this lady of the house remains content to live her life in her own way. On the night in which we meet her, she is preparing to go out with her friends.
I mention this background because it is the crux of both the main character’s person & the essence of the plot. Without these differing points, the main character becomes another person utterly unknown to the reader. Her physical & characteristic attributes are rarely mentioned but, the author emphasizes her long hair. One becomes eager to see this mother figure out in the world enjoying time with her friends. The sympathy that is drawn from readers throughout this story is merited. It is comforting to think that any multitude of readers might at once understand the plight of a crying child & yet, long for his mother to meet the opportunity for a social engagement.
When I was young there were many scary stories that followed me around. The morbid curiosity that accompanied my fears pulled me onwards like a rope to the waist. The same holds true for the narrator’s son. The local playground carries with it the curse of a luring demon. If any child remains on the playground after 4:45 PM they will be subject to a curse wherein the spirit of a dead girl will haunt them until they too are cloistered captive in the playground, for all of eternity.
The demon rings the house of the child, taunting them to come back to the playground to join her. After a couple of coos & pleas, she arrives at their door & brings them along with her. On its own, it is easy to understand why this would scare a child. The threat of separation from their safe place, their home, is freaky; to be captured by a creepy ghost is fowl. Yet, what if the ghost is no such fang-leering figure? What if the demon were the boys’ own mother?
Once again, the ambiguous ending that accompanies this story is perhaps not what readers want to find. It would be a harsh encounter to be met with a plainly written conclusion. However, this story works better because it remains hidden within the readers themselves. What is the best-case scenario? Would it have been preferable for the narrator to let her child sleep, comforted by both his parents in his own home? Surely.
The simple scary story made scarier by the unknown is a pleasure to behold. The simple figure of a mother is not all that she is inside. Her long dark hair reminded me of the whisper of an invisible wind. Japanese folklore references a woman just like the mother figure in this book; a woman with long dark hair, a conflict in what remains of her soul, & the intentional wanderings of her listless feet across the earth. For traditional Horror film aficionados, “The Grudge” (2004) will have acted as an introduction to Kayako—the demon-spirited girl with the long hair. In other versions of this story, she is called Kuchisake-onna & is a Yūrei.
What the multiple versions of this story have in common is the translated ease of this spirit to wander the earth collecting upon what she wants—what she needs. Readers will never know what becomes of the boy & his mother. The too-suddenly employed final marker of the end of the sentence leaves room for a raving rambling of thoughts none of which will find ease or repose in any aspect of this story. What has befallen the characters in this book might be as simple as wandering in the dark or, as troubling as the trembling legs of the young as they wander through the unknown grasping onto the hand of the person they thought they could trust.
Thank you to Edelweiss+, Pushkin Press, & Kaori Fujino for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
The scene is set in a town that is quite like any other but not. The narrator owns a hotel & welcomes many guests from across the globe; trotting & scThe scene is set in a town that is quite like any other but not. The narrator owns a hotel & welcomes many guests from across the globe; trotting & scampering to stay in the place whence he has put so much time & care into. At the end of his days, he is filled with a yearning for change & he wonders if by leaving the place where he is, will he miss it when it changes.
I will attribute my immediate enjoyment of the illustrations & of this short story to its similarity to “The Wind in the Willows” (1908). I found myself remembering my favourite friends of the forest, just beyond the wood, & feeling that this story mirrored some of their wee adventures if even just slightly. My enthusiasm to compare the two works is done in eagerness for I adored both in their own ways. However, it was nice to see illustrations drawn on some of the personified versions of our favourite animal friends.
Depending on the reader, this book might be interpreted as being a positive or a negative experience; the main character seems to be stuck but he’s not, he’s eager to travel but he doesn’t. In the end, this story allows young readers to welcome their own emotions into the illustrations & gives them the ability to tether themselves to a little creature who can walk either path, it is ultimately up to the child to choose.
I deeply appreciated this story. It was warm & welcoming, just as I would imagine the hotel to be. I hope that many young readers find this book on their shelves & are able to craft a dream so big that it takes them around the world, to all the friendly faces waiting to greet them.
Thank you to Edelweiss+, Kids Can Press, & Akiko Miyakoshi for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on thIt is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on fertility, grief, the death of a loved one, the death of an animal, & others.
The transition through the multiple phases of life often leaves the traveller feeling overwhelmed, as though they were sitting in a cylindrical motor-powered device that shot them from one day to the next month, nearing a new year, with little ability to catch up with the moments lost in between. Coming upon this short story, I had hoped to find a more thorough account of these moments. Perhaps, I might have hoped—just a little—to find a story that made me feel connected to the plot.
Ultimately, I feel at a loss on what to say regarding this story because I saw it take place within the blink of an eye. I am left with little to say as a consequence of the sparse occurrences within. Certainly, I am a reader who enjoys stories that do not necessarily spell out the rationals & reasonings of the occurrences that litter the pages. However, I do appreciate there being something like a thin thread balancing the entirety into one disjointedly quirky necklace that I might wear until my mind escapes me.
Within this narrative, the reader meets a man who is married to a woman; they want to reproduce children together but they encounter struggles. All the while, two (2) other men appear on the scene & with apparent ease, reproduce with their partners—women younger than themselves & people who wandered into the relationship without any indication as to why. I say this last part because neither of these other men—the secondary characters—ever indicated that they wanted what the main character desired. Our narrator spends ample time reflecting on his goal of being a father & how much he was present in the lives of his sister’s children when they were born—he loves children.
I suppose that the purpose of including such sparse detail about the main character save for the loving relationship he shares with his wife & their joint desire to reproduce together, is so that the reader might focus on what these desires mean; how might he move past them should they not be accomplished? I am sad to say that I never reached any level of intrigue or feelings of caring about anyone in this story. The disconnect between the inventory presented of characters & life events was so dry as to make me speed through this book, waiting for some form of emotiveness to transcend the words.
Waiting forever was I, for the link between murdering a mother weasel—in a bid to have all the other weasels escape the house & never return—& the human parental figures we saw within this book. Maybe it was because I read this book at the wrong time in my life that I cannot begin to care about the mundane occurrences of the lives of these characters. Perhaps, it is because there was no real link to anything that was taking place.
Should I have read into the ownership & breeding of fish as something like a metaphor for the physically intimate reproduction of children? I don’t know & once again, I don’t care. I do not mean to come across as harsh. Typically, I very much enjoy this style of story but, I attribute my disconnect & apathy to the writing style; something innate was lacking, something I cannot quite pin down. Perhaps, had the characters expressed more, might I have drawn parallels. Perhaps, had I a bit more background information? I am, as I’ve said, at a loss.
I do not enjoy writing reviews where it seems I have very little to say. I stand by being able to express oneself whether about something good or bad. Yet, here I am wherein I feel like I’ve just awoken from an alien abduction, stranded in a cornfield without any bearing as to where or why I am here.
Thank you to NetGalley, Granta Publications, & Hiroko Oyamada for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!...more
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