Miyuki Miyabe
261pp
A not terrible but rather plain collection of short "horror" stories done in an old Japanese Horror style.
I wanted this to get better as it went on. I hoped it would either become more frightening, or ominous, or witty, or come together to have some more of an overall meaning... in my opinion that never happened. It felt like an episode of Curb, if at the end nothing came together and Larry David was just an asshole.
I didn't mind the pace, as slow as it was. I didn't mind the ghosts that don't attack. However, the repetition of such similar stories was not at all enjoyable, and made the final just one more round of a ghoul peeking at our characters... and then being banished by a Buddhist priest. At a certain point I wondered if this might have been a recruitment sales pitch for Buddhism. "Join a temple, no more ghosts!" In reality, this all worked as a copout, or deux-ex-machina, where whenever their was trouble, just pray or talk to a buddist priest, and... presto, no more trouble". It felt cheap and easy to me, and not scary or interesting.
Again, a bit more variety... a bit more violence... more consequences... just more please!!!
Small Update: It's been recommended that I give MM one more chance with one of her more popular books... so, a review of All She Was Worth should come in the next few months
Amazon JP
Amazon USA
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