Reviews tagging 'Death'

Deserter by Junji Ito

25 reviews

valerie127's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

"I don't want any stolen beauty"

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Blood, Bullying, Mental illness, Murder, Body horror, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicide, Death, Gore, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

academicanko's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

These are some earlier works from the man, the myth, the legend, Junji Ito. I absolutely love the evolution of his art style and his older stories have amazing plots. This collection has a great variety of horror and I’m finally happy to see them in English 💕 Surprisingly, there were many I had never read before!! Scripted Love being one of my new favorites ☺️ Since this book seems to cover stories from 1987-90 I feel you can see a lot of his influences in his art as well. I can’t help but fall more in love with his work with every volume that releases 🥰

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

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

jakeduffie's review

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

Another creep-fest from Ito. Like any collection of stories it’s a mixed bag. But, they’re all fast, readable and have some great twist endings 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Violence