Reviews

The writing was solid, it was easy to understand without being patronising.
As it tends to be with short stories I enjoyed some more than others - however, they were all vert engaging and easy to get into. The ones with the weirder elements were my favourite and the most enjoyable to read, but I think this is mainly because I'm not in love with this genre.
This book, at many points, can be a little dodgy towards women, but, on the whole, it was not so prevalent that it decreased my enjoyment of the book.

All in all, not a bad read - it was relatively enjoyable and easy enough to get through.

nightowl_daydreaming's review

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4.0

The first three were amazing and one of the last ones was too but a lot were kind of plain. Still amazing though

mirrorofneptune's review against another edition

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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

4.0

These people are fucked up, love it. These aren’t Doyle or Christie-style mysteries with a problem-investigation-resolution format but more akin to Poe (the OG inspiration!) or The Twilight Zone. A bunch of messed up stuff happens and then we sit there with it. It’s great 👌🏻

Contains…

The Human Chair
The Psychological Test
The Caterpillar
The Cliff (personal fave)
The Hell of Mirrors
The Twins
The Red Chamber
Two Crippled Men
The Traveler with the Pasted Rag Picture

Content Warnings

fatimasoliman's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

wtfrjk's review against another edition

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fast-paced

4.25

Poe meets Junji Ito (although obviously decades before Ito). Half these short stories are essentially just the parlor scene of a murder mystery novel, which is great. Definitely gonna read more of his stuff.

anastasia_sherman's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

3.5

People keep comparing Edogawa Rampo to Edgar Allan Poe, but I don't think that should be the case.
Edogawa Rampo is a huge fan of Edgar Allan Poe, but their works are the least bit similar. Close maybe, but never similar.
Poe's pieces often convey dread, terror and ominous feeling, while Rampo's is more on the bizarre, strange and uncanny side.

But even if you don't feel like reading the entire collection, at least just read The Human Chair. That's the best story in this collection in my opinion.

bblizz72's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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