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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
dark
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
tied up some loose ends from the Ring trilogy nicely. would love something longer about Sadako's life in the acting troupe. last part made me cry
// Review //
Format: Softcover
The fourth book in the series and a deeper look into the events that took place up to Loop from the perspective of people attached to our main characters.
Birthday’s three stories spans all three books:
Coffin in the Sky taking place during Spiral.
Lemon Heart taking place before and during Ring.
Happy Birthday lastly taking place after Loop.
Each story reminding us that our actions have consequences and those consequences sometimes damn those closest to us…
// Personal Remarks //
Though this is the fourth book. I would actually recommend a different reading order. Though unconventional, I’d recommend:
I - Ring
II - Birthday’s 2nd Story - Lemon Heart
III - Spiral
IV - Birthday’s 1st Story - Coffin in the Sky
V - Loop
VI - Birthday’s 3rd Story - Happy Birthday
This order is so you get the most emotional depth and story relativity to the timeframe of each book. Reading in this order will also not spoil any events, but enrich the main books of Ring, Spiral and Loop.
Format: Softcover
The fourth book in the series and a deeper look into the events that took place up to Loop from the perspective of people attached to our main characters.
Birthday’s three stories spans all three books:
Coffin in the Sky taking place during Spiral.
Lemon Heart taking place before and during Ring.
Happy Birthday lastly taking place after Loop.
Each story reminding us that our actions have consequences and those consequences sometimes damn those closest to us…
// Personal Remarks //
Though this is the fourth book. I would actually recommend a different reading order. Though unconventional, I’d recommend:
I - Ring
II - Birthday’s 2nd Story - Lemon Heart
III - Spiral
IV - Birthday’s 1st Story - Coffin in the Sky
V - Loop
VI - Birthday’s 3rd Story - Happy Birthday
This order is so you get the most emotional depth and story relativity to the timeframe of each book. Reading in this order will also not spoil any events, but enrich the main books of Ring, Spiral and Loop.
slow-paced
This filled in the gaps between the previous novels while also wrapping everything up into a neat little bow, at least until Suzuki decided to write two more books in the series.
"Three short stories focusing on female characters with a theme of birth" sounds awful, given the way Kohi Suzuki writes female characters, but screw it, I've read the rest of the series, so let's go.
"Coffin in the Sky," features the doomed Mai Takano. A+ name for a story, but doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know or characterize Mai interestingly. It does give us the unfortunately hilarious image of an evil baby climbing a rope out of a ventilation shaft. It also tells us, in two different places, how big Mai's breasts are, because Kōji Suzuki cannot help himself. He's apparently gone on to write books about fatherhood where he argues that men have to embrace feminism, so it's not like he's malicious, but real big "male fantasy writer failing to write convincing women" energy here.
"Lemon Heart," features Sadako herself. Not a good name, but a much better story. It feels like a sequel to the original Ring novel, before the series took a weird scifi turn. "Sadako as implacable supernatural menace" is best Sadako, even if the books were never that interested in giving us that vision of her character.
"Birthday" features Reiko from Loop, and is a functional epilogue to that book/series, I guess, although Loop didn't really need an epilogue, and neither did the overall series. I guess there are worse sins than redundancy. Thirteen years later, Koji Suzuki published S, a new book in the Ring series, which, if I recall correctly, totally ignores/contradicts the events of "Birthday," but I also recall S being quite bad, so maybe just call it quits with this conclusion to the original series.
"Coffin in the Sky," features the doomed Mai Takano. A+ name for a story, but doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know or characterize Mai interestingly. It does give us the unfortunately hilarious image of an evil baby climbing a rope out of a ventilation shaft. It also tells us, in two different places, how big Mai's breasts are, because Kōji Suzuki cannot help himself. He's apparently gone on to write books about fatherhood where he argues that men have to embrace feminism, so it's not like he's malicious, but real big "male fantasy writer failing to write convincing women" energy here.
"Lemon Heart," features Sadako herself. Not a good name, but a much better story. It feels like a sequel to the original Ring novel, before the series took a weird scifi turn. "Sadako as implacable supernatural menace" is best Sadako, even if the books were never that interested in giving us that vision of her character.
"Birthday" features Reiko from Loop, and is a functional epilogue to that book/series, I guess, although Loop didn't really need an epilogue, and neither did the overall series. I guess there are worse sins than redundancy. Thirteen years later, Koji Suzuki published S, a new book in the Ring series, which, if I recall correctly, totally ignores/contradicts the events of "Birthday," but I also recall S being quite bad, so maybe just call it quits with this conclusion to the original series.
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Pregnancy
Minor: Cancer, Child death, Suicide, Vomit
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional