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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
The first story doesn't contain anything particularly new, and makes Spiral look bad (which it's not)
The second is the kind of thing that could be expected as a sequel to the original Ring, though it's not particularly exciting either.
The last isn't particularly good either, though is maybe the least re-tready of them.
It's still not bad but it's basically what one, with low expectations, would expect of a set of three stories tied to the Ring series like they are.
The second is the kind of thing that could be expected as a sequel to the original Ring, though it's not particularly exciting either.
The last isn't particularly good either, though is maybe the least re-tready of them.
It's still not bad but it's basically what one, with low expectations, would expect of a set of three stories tied to the Ring series like they are.
This set of short stories had better closure and pacing than the trilogy itself, which I found to be kind of dry and very anticlimactic.
slow-paced
Spoilers for Ring, Spiral, Loop, and Birthday
As if in direct response to my review of Loop, this collection of stories focuses almost entirely on the female cast of characters that I wanted to hear more from. It's interesting how each entry changes my opinion on the previous entries in subtle ways. Loop shifted gears from horror to sci-fi, and I was fine with that because I felt it made for a more ambitious and conventionally engaging story. However, revisiting the horror elements of Ring and Spiral made me realize how much I'd missed them, and it makes me reconsider if I actually did like Loop the best out of the Trilogy. Since these stories are linked to the previous novels, I will discuss them in the context of the broader whole.
- Coffin in the Sky
Perhaps the weakest story to me, we experience Mai Takano's final moments before her virgin birth of Sadako-reincarnate. I find Mai's role in the series to be an interesting one. We generally don't know much about her: she's beautiful, young, hardworking, and has a special bond with Ryuji. In Ring, I feel that her presence is mostly meant to complicate the audience's perception of Ryuji. If someone as lovely as Mai Takano sees something in Ryuji, maybe he's not the menace we were led to believe he is. Unfortunately, I think that Ryuji's past is by far the weakest and most baffling part of Ring. I really disliked the rapist redemption angle, even if it turned out to be a lie. It just didn't go anywhere, and it made me dislike Ryuji, which is unfortunate because he's definitely the most important character in the series. I was looking forward to getting to know more about her in Spiral, but that was cut rather short. I do like the idea of a missed connection between her and Ando, but for all we know it appears to have been a one-sided infatuation. This would have been interesting to explore more in-depth, but Mai's role played more as a plot device than a fully fleshed-out character.
As an individual, we know that Mai is a little insecure, precocious, and seems like she's on track to make a name for herself in whichever direction she'd like to head in. I like her, and I was rooting for her despite her lack of detail. Perhaps these brief impressions of her, the glimpses of potential, are meant to underscore the tragedy of her fate. Who could she have become had she not gotten wrapped up with the ring virus? Similar questions could be posed about Sadako, which I thought was a nice way to draw parallels between their circumstances beyond their deaths.
As for the story itself, the scenario was indeed quite chilling. I was dreading it as soon as it began. I did not want to envision someone as guiltless as her suffer, and knowing that she was lucid made it all the worse. The dread I felt ended up being somewhat unwarranted, however. Being, essentially, buried alive and forced to give birth is, of course, incredibly harrowing, but Mai's thoughts drift to unexpected places that soften the blow - but not necessarily for the better. She recalls snippets of her youth, past boyfriends and such. A sizeable amount of this short story is spent by Mai recalling an instance of sexual rejection that she attributed to her small breast size. This led to her shying away from future sexual advances to spare herself the possiblity of another rejection. And, like, who's to say what goes through someone's mind while they're entombed and forced to give birth to something supernatural? Definitely not me. However, I was just unsatisfied with this musing. It felt silly and dampened the shock of the birth itself, which was actually disturbing. I was hoping that, now being in the mind of one of the, oft-sexualized, female characters, we would get a more nuanced insight into their character, but sadly it was just the same sort of voyeurism we were exposed to through the male characters' lenses. Aside from that, I thought this story was alright. Spooky, sad, gross, a decent introduction to the mood and themes of the remaining stories.
Lemon Heart
This was the standout story to me that made me reconsider my slight preference for Loop over Ring and Spiral. Sadako is a fascinating character in her juxtapositions. She's innocent yet scheming. She's the object of desire, but also something to be feared. A bit of a wallflower, but desperate for recognition. Here, we can clearly see why and how people have such contradicting perceptions of her. Again, despite wanting more information from and about the female characters in the series, I think it was smart to make the perspective character for this story somebody else. I like that there are parts of her that are unknowable. It gives her an eerie aura - projected onto by others in a similar fashion to her own psychic projections. Ambiguous, vague, open to interpretation.
Lemon Heart feels gothic in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe. Coffin in the Sky also had this effect, but Lemon Heart has more time to breathe and allow the discomfort to seep into the reader. I like the theater setting as well. I always found this part of her to be a little odd and unexpected. Why would someone so resentful of society want to perform for them? After some thought, I realized it actually makes a lot of sense. She and her mother were performers of sort during their period of psychic fame. A pursuit like this also makes sense for someone as vague as Sadako. It allows her to slip into different identities and masks. I like that we get a little bit more information into her powers as well without fully knowing everything about them. She's been able to project her experiences into more complicated technology since before her death, but it's still unclear whether or not this was intentional, and, if so, to what end? I liked her relationship with Toyama. It was appropriately off-kilter and psychologically complicated. I get the sense that one of her peripheral powers involves planting a seed of obsession.
In short, this was an atmospheric story that answers as many questions as it raises in a satisfying way.
Happy Birthday
This was the sweetest story. Like Loop, it sticks out a bit for its tonal difference. I don't have too much to say about it beyond that. It's a nice conclusion to the story of Loop, and fans of it will likely like this as well. The reason why this collection made me reconsider my rankings of the books in the trilogy is that it makes the significant differences in atmosphere and priorities all the more apparent. Loop, despite its convoluted premise, is actually quite straightforward. There is a hero, there is a clear threat, there is a solution to that threat, and there is a love story happening concurrently. It's the most Hollywood (which I don't mean as an insult). Those disappointed by the world-within-a-world plot of Loop will not be less disappointed here, but as a story in itself, it is a pleasant goodbye. I wish I could appreciate the love story more, but because of my aforementioned distaste of Ryuji, I was a little less invested than I should have been. Kaoru does grow and evolve as a character, of course, but I still struggle to see him with the same kind eyes that Reiko and, presumably, the author does. Yes, Kaoru and Ryuji are different characters, but it just felt like I was being forced to like Ryuji by association. It's actually kind of wild how one minor plotpoint from book 1 impacted my perception of this incredibly important character so negatively. That said, I am happy to know that these characters were able to have as happy of an ending as possible after everything they went through.
As if in direct response to my review of Loop, this collection of stories focuses almost entirely on the female cast of characters that I wanted to hear more from. It's interesting how each entry changes my opinion on the previous entries in subtle ways. Loop shifted gears from horror to sci-fi, and I was fine with that because I felt it made for a more ambitious and conventionally engaging story. However, revisiting the horror elements of Ring and Spiral made me realize how much I'd missed them, and it makes me reconsider if I actually did like Loop the best out of the Trilogy. Since these stories are linked to the previous novels, I will discuss them in the context of the broader whole.
- Coffin in the Sky
Perhaps the weakest story to me, we experience Mai Takano's final moments before her virgin birth of Sadako-reincarnate. I find Mai's role in the series to be an interesting one. We generally don't know much about her: she's beautiful, young, hardworking, and has a special bond with Ryuji. In Ring, I feel that her presence is mostly meant to complicate the audience's perception of Ryuji. If someone as lovely as Mai Takano sees something in Ryuji, maybe he's not the menace we were led to believe he is. Unfortunately, I think that Ryuji's past is by far the weakest and most baffling part of Ring. I really disliked the rapist redemption angle, even if it turned out to be a lie. It just didn't go anywhere, and it made me dislike Ryuji, which is unfortunate because he's definitely the most important character in the series. I was looking forward to getting to know more about her in Spiral, but that was cut rather short. I do like the idea of a missed connection between her and Ando, but for all we know it appears to have been a one-sided infatuation. This would have been interesting to explore more in-depth, but Mai's role played more as a plot device than a fully fleshed-out character.
As an individual, we know that Mai is a little insecure, precocious, and seems like she's on track to make a name for herself in whichever direction she'd like to head in. I like her, and I was rooting for her despite her lack of detail. Perhaps these brief impressions of her, the glimpses of potential, are meant to underscore the tragedy of her fate. Who could she have become had she not gotten wrapped up with the ring virus? Similar questions could be posed about Sadako, which I thought was a nice way to draw parallels between their circumstances beyond their deaths.
As for the story itself, the scenario was indeed quite chilling. I was dreading it as soon as it began. I did not want to envision someone as guiltless as her suffer, and knowing that she was lucid made it all the worse. The dread I felt ended up being somewhat unwarranted, however. Being, essentially, buried alive and forced to give birth is, of course, incredibly harrowing, but Mai's thoughts drift to unexpected places that soften the blow - but not necessarily for the better. She recalls snippets of her youth, past boyfriends and such. A sizeable amount of this short story is spent by Mai recalling an instance of sexual rejection that she attributed to her small breast size. This led to her shying away from future sexual advances to spare herself the possiblity of another rejection. And, like, who's to say what goes through someone's mind while they're entombed and forced to give birth to something supernatural? Definitely not me. However, I was just unsatisfied with this musing. It felt silly and dampened the shock of the birth itself, which was actually disturbing. I was hoping that, now being in the mind of one of the, oft-sexualized, female characters, we would get a more nuanced insight into their character, but sadly it was just the same sort of voyeurism we were exposed to through the male characters' lenses. Aside from that, I thought this story was alright. Spooky, sad, gross, a decent introduction to the mood and themes of the remaining stories.
Lemon Heart
This was the standout story to me that made me reconsider my slight preference for Loop over Ring and Spiral. Sadako is a fascinating character in her juxtapositions. She's innocent yet scheming. She's the object of desire, but also something to be feared. A bit of a wallflower, but desperate for recognition. Here, we can clearly see why and how people have such contradicting perceptions of her. Again, despite wanting more information from and about the female characters in the series, I think it was smart to make the perspective character for this story somebody else. I like that there are parts of her that are unknowable. It gives her an eerie aura - projected onto by others in a similar fashion to her own psychic projections. Ambiguous, vague, open to interpretation.
Lemon Heart feels gothic in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe. Coffin in the Sky also had this effect, but Lemon Heart has more time to breathe and allow the discomfort to seep into the reader. I like the theater setting as well. I always found this part of her to be a little odd and unexpected. Why would someone so resentful of society want to perform for them? After some thought, I realized it actually makes a lot of sense. She and her mother were performers of sort during their period of psychic fame. A pursuit like this also makes sense for someone as vague as Sadako. It allows her to slip into different identities and masks. I like that we get a little bit more information into her powers as well without fully knowing everything about them. She's been able to project her experiences into more complicated technology since before her death, but it's still unclear whether or not this was intentional, and, if so, to what end? I liked her relationship with Toyama. It was appropriately off-kilter and psychologically complicated. I get the sense that one of her peripheral powers involves planting a seed of obsession.
In short, this was an atmospheric story that answers as many questions as it raises in a satisfying way.
Happy Birthday
This was the sweetest story. Like Loop, it sticks out a bit for its tonal difference. I don't have too much to say about it beyond that. It's a nice conclusion to the story of Loop, and fans of it will likely like this as well. The reason why this collection made me reconsider my rankings of the books in the trilogy is that it makes the significant differences in atmosphere and priorities all the more apparent. Loop, despite its convoluted premise, is actually quite straightforward. There is a hero, there is a clear threat, there is a solution to that threat, and there is a love story happening concurrently. It's the most Hollywood (which I don't mean as an insult). Those disappointed by the world-within-a-world plot of Loop will not be less disappointed here, but as a story in itself, it is a pleasant goodbye. I wish I could appreciate the love story more, but because of my aforementioned distaste of Ryuji, I was a little less invested than I should have been. Kaoru does grow and evolve as a character, of course, but I still struggle to see him with the same kind eyes that Reiko and, presumably, the author does. Yes, Kaoru and Ryuji are different characters, but it just felt like I was being forced to like Ryuji by association. It's actually kind of wild how one minor plotpoint from book 1 impacted my perception of this incredibly important character so negatively. That said, I am happy to know that these characters were able to have as happy of an ending as possible after everything they went through.
While I hesitate to say this is actually horror, that is usually the genre I find this listed under. This small collection manages to correct (to an extent) one of my least favorite things about this series: how flat and uninteresting his female characters usually are. I say to an extent because one of the three stories, unlike the other two, is not told from the POV of the women the story is supposed to be focused on.
Honestly, that story doesn't really fit in with the other two as it's not actually focused on a female character (just a guy who loves her) and it only vaguely fits in with the theme of birth. That story is the reason this only gets three stars from me. It was so close to a four/ four and a half, too.
Still, very much worth the read.
Honestly, that story doesn't really fit in with the other two as it's not actually focused on a female character (just a guy who loves her) and it only vaguely fits in with the theme of birth. That story is the reason this only gets three stars from me. It was so close to a four/ four and a half, too.
Still, very much worth the read.
Love how it filled us in some gaps and wrapped it all up!!!
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
If you were hoping the women in the series were going to be more fleshed out in this book supposedly about them, you’re probably going to be disappointed. This mostly seems to function to fill in the gaps left by the other books.
Two out of the three stories take place during the events of Spiral while the last one takes place during the events of Loop (the book that takes place during the events of Spiral...man this is confusing). That being said, I actually like this one better than Loop, it wasn't as boring as the previous book and it provided a lot more insight to the characters that didn't get the characterization that they deserved in their proper books. Overall, an okay book, not fantastic by any means but definitely better than its prequel. I'm rather excited to see where the next book falls in the Ring timeline.