Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Deserter by Junji Ito

17 reviews

lynxpardinus's review

challenging dark mysterious tense

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Suicide, War, Body horror, Bullying, and Self harm

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Kidnapping, and Confinement

Minor: Colonisation

wends_nblw's review

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Suicide, Bullying, Child death, and Child abuse

Minor: War

quartz's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Bullying, Murder, Body horror, Child death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Blood

pastel_princess's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Gore, Body horror, Bullying, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Suicide

theleppy's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

This one is a bit hard to rate. I have read a fair amount of Junji Ito at this point and this is some of his older work. It's still really good but not as terrifying as he can be. I have to note that I was floored by the endings to Biohouse and Face Theif because they aren't his usual ending! I think the building dread of Unendurable Labyrinth worked the best and was closer to Ito's best works with this idea of taking a character's fear/phobia and enhancing it. I liked the title story. I'm noticing and liking Ito's revenge gone wrong stories. Lots of great ideas in this book with varying degrees of success. The only story I didn't like was Bullied because it involves child abuse which is one of those things I personally can't enjoy (especially with a classically bleak Ito ending). There is another story in this collection that is arguably also child abuse but the concept and ending were much better and I was able to appreciate it. 

If you are a fan of Ito's work I would check this out but don't start here. There are other collections of his like Shiver that I would recommend over this for someone new to Junji Ito.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: War

breezer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Deserter is my favourite Junji Ito work to date. Containing some of his earlier short stories along with his older art style, it had some absolute gems. My favourite stories include;

Biohouse: The first in the collection and the best! It has a badass heroine, bug horror, mind control and satisfying acts of vengeance.
Where the Sandman Lives: This was brilliantly creepy and felt like a mix between The Sandman by Neil Gaiman and Nightmare on Elm Street.
A Father's Love: Explores the lengths a father will go to help his children succeed. Although fantastical, it mirrored reality with sad clarity.

I would recommend this is a great jumping in point for new Ito fans (as usual please check out the content warnings before diving into this collection) as well as seasoned readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and VIZ Media for an advanced readers copy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

katiemack's review

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Like other Junji Ito works I've read recently (besides Uzumaki, which horrified and enthralled me), this is hit-or-miss in terms of the story quality. I also feel like the art style has gotten more minimalist, though that may be because there's less body horror. (I did appreciate some of the more psychological/mythical elements to these stories--they felt a little more substantial than the ones in Sensor.) Highlights include "Face Thief," "Scripted Love," "Bullied," and "Deserter." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, and Gore