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insomniademon's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
hilmerjj's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
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
savshelfinger's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Classic early Junji Ito; I rate the titular story as the best in the bunch. Didn’t care for Bullied.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Gore
Moderate: Child abuse
rackncheese's review
4.0
This is a collection of some of Ito's earliest short stories, but I think it's my favorite anthology I've read so far!
moonlitcrows's review
5.0
This book was really good. I really love how quickly I can read these and how easy Junji Ito makes it to understand what is going on. I always love the twist endings and even when I'm reading there is always a part of me that's like "Will there be a happy ending this time?". Then I remind myself that, I am reading Junji Ito.
The actual short story "Deserter" I think might be one of my favorites. There were so many layers that made that story unsettling and disturbing to me. I also love that some of his stories are open ended so you have to come up with your own ideas about what happened after that. What did they characters do?
I truly adore his writing and his art style. I can't wait to read the rest of my collection.
The actual short story "Deserter" I think might be one of my favorites. There were so many layers that made that story unsettling and disturbing to me. I also love that some of his stories are open ended so you have to come up with your own ideas about what happened after that. What did they characters do?
I truly adore his writing and his art style. I can't wait to read the rest of my collection.
cowboyjonah's review
4.0
This took me so long to finish... But one of the better short story collections I think. The earlier ones were stronger and I didn't like the 2 longer ones as much but other than that it was scary, classic Junji Ito🫣
valsplace's review
4.0
Some of these stories really fell short for being Junji Ito stories, boring with lame endings. Others were good.
el_wheel's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
As always, great work from Ito.
Again though, after finishing I feel like checking in to see how this man is doing
I will say a couple of the stories don't read as much like horror- for example "A Father's Love" and "Bullied". Don't get me wrong, they're both horrifying for sure, and sad as well, but they don't read as much like horror
Again though, after finishing I feel like checking in to see how this man is doing
I will say a couple of the stories don't read as much like horror- for example "A Father's Love" and "Bullied". Don't get me wrong, they're both horrifying for sure, and sad as well, but they don't read as much like horror