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urezia's review
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Torture, Gore, Violence, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Death
Moderate: Religious bigotry
Minor: War
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.
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.
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Violence
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