Reviews - Ring | The StoryGraph

1.77k reviews for:

Ring

Kōji Suzuki

3.57 AVERAGE

wenzy's review against another edition

3.5

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

liftyourheavyeyelids's review against another edition

3.0

I really enjoyed this, although it was not as scary as I thought it would be. It didn’t age well in some aspects…I wont go into detail here because spoilers. But considering that this book was published in 1991, I would hope that if it were written now it wouldn’t be as problematic.

As for the two male main characters: I kind of think the whole point is that they aren’t super likable and that their vibes are very male… given the ending.

I’d give it five stars because I couldn’t stop reading it, but the outdated aspects of the book make me hesitant to recommend it to patrons. There are plenty of newer amazing horror books to recommend instead.

bruhdonis's review against another edition

2.75

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

akookieforyou's review against another edition

3.0

*3.5*

O.W.L.s Readathon 2019

I remember watching the American remake of the popular Japanese film when I was a young girl, and it terrified me. Since then it has always held a special place in my heart. More recently I watched Ringu for the first time, and I really enjoyed it even though I didn't find it all that scary. And now I have finally read the novel, and it was good.

I didn't think this was the most amazing book ever, in fact there were a couple things that bothered me a bit, one being the side character Ryuji. I was also pretty surprised to find out that the main character is actually a male reporter and not a woman like the films. Some of the atmosphere ended up being really creepy at times, but nothing was all that scary. Overall not too bad, but I prefer the adaptations.

mkayzeee's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Loveable characters: No

jessdaut90's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ace_tc's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I’m a sucker for anything relating to Japan especially Japanese horror. Though I have been remised and have not seen many Japanese horror movies. My partner and I are slowly working on fixing that.
That being said, I have never seen the original Ringu or the Americanized version The Ring. I know of the general story, having seen it be parodied in Scary Movie. I guess that’s why I haven’t bothered with ever watching it. I missed out on a lot of “peak” 2000s horror movies.
One evening after finding out the devastating news of our future political leaders I demanded to be taken book shopping. And since I was so upset I decided to buy only books written by foreign authors. That’s how I came across Ring.
Ring was a delight to read, I’m a sucker (for a lot of things) for cursed media. This was a sort of detective story with a paranormal twist *chef’s kiss.”
My only fear is how much did they bastardize the Ring book for the American movie version. I’m super skeptical of what they kept and what they censored. I would like to watch Ringu then The Ring, spot all the differences between all three.