Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Deserter by Junji Ito

8 reviews

urezia's review

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

5.0

Putting aside Ito's classics like Tomie or Uzumaki, I think Deserter is a good book to start reading his work if you've never read Junji Ito before. It's based on short stories, but each of them has the dark intense and crazy plot-twists only a guy like Junji Ito can come up with! Besides the uniqueness of his illustrations, each story is very entertaining and it's hard to guess where it's gonna go until you get to the last page. I think it was so well thought of! There's definitely a little bit of everything so please make sure to check the content warnings before you give this one a try.  
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saltnvinnies's review

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dark mysterious 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

4.0

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alexutzu's review

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

4.25

Not my favourite Junji Ito collection, but not the worst either. I would say that it was more twisted than others, including many disturbing scenes: from war-related stories to  unusual spiritual rituals, including all sorts of abusive interactions. A story that caught my attention was "A Father's Love" though, as it covered family dynamics in a particular (and disturbing) way.
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gabriel_dingle's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

As this is a collection of Ito’s earlier works, it is expected that they will be slightly lower quality than his more recent works, so I was a bit lenient with my rating (3.75 -> 4). There are some really good classics in here, as well as some forgettable and predictable stories. The story the manga is named after, Deserter, was a little disappointing, however the twist was rather clever. I just wish Ito did a little bit more with the twist. Overall, there are many great short stories in here that make reading Deserter worth it, especially if you are a fan of horror manga.
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obnoxiousseagull's review

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

4.0

Not my favorite of Junji Ito's collections, but it was a fun afternoon read. Especially the titular story "Deserter" at the very end. I really enjoy Junji Ito's storytelling and lack of explanation for what is going on. You are left wondering "How?" and "Why?" and your imagination fills in the rest of the details. 
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valerie127's review

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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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pastel_princess's review

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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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theleppy's review

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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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