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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
2020 Review:
After reading this again, for a second time, I have to admit that I liked it a lot more than I initially thought. While many people attribute this to horror (and it is) I think a lot don't realize that it's an investigation mystery book first, horror second. A lot of the horror comes about from the investigating and realizing how all the random deaths and images seen throughout their week odyssey comes around to make full sense in a creepy and sinister way. Absolutely love how they investigate and connect all the dots to make sense.
That said, I do have two major problems with the book. The first one is Ryuji. There is a character choice the author made for him that you learn fairly early on, and it's a despicable action, but it doesn't influence his character or really is talked about until the ending. Know, I don't know Japanese culture all that well, but I felt on this read that it was a jab of some sort of sexual commentary or at the very least an insight into the male side of Japanese society. Based on the description to the sequel I'll see if what they reveal about Ryuji changes my mind, but ultimately it's an unnecessary ugly character addition.
The other problem I have with the book is the decision the author made toward Sadako. In modern eyes it does not hold up whatsoever, and can be seen as very insensitive. I cannot see a reason he put it into his book, attached it to a character, other than to make her even more unknown, unnatural, something other, and even then it comes off as well (spoiler)phobia now.
2018 Review:
As someone who only knows this story from a movie I have not seen I expected something more heart pounding, but surprisingly I found this boom to be more of a detective fiction with that sinister ending. It was good a gripping. Easily readable in two sitting. Curious where the sequel goes to.
After reading this again, for a second time, I have to admit that I liked it a lot more than I initially thought. While many people attribute this to horror (and it is) I think a lot don't realize that it's an investigation mystery book first, horror second. A lot of the horror comes about from the investigating and realizing how all the random deaths and images seen throughout their week odyssey comes around to make full sense in a creepy and sinister way. Absolutely love how they investigate and connect all the dots to make sense.
That said, I do have two major problems with the book. The first one is Ryuji. There is a character choice the author made for him that you learn fairly early on, and it's a despicable action, but it doesn't influence his character or really is talked about until the ending. Know, I don't know Japanese culture all that well, but I felt on this read that it was a jab of some sort of sexual commentary or at the very least an insight into the male side of Japanese society. Based on the description to the sequel I'll see if what they reveal about Ryuji changes my mind, but ultimately it's an unnecessary ugly character addition.
The other problem I have with the book is the decision the author made toward Sadako. In modern eyes it does not hold up whatsoever, and can be seen as very insensitive. I cannot see a reason he put it into his book, attached it to a character, other than to make her even more unknown, unnatural, something other, and even then it comes off as well (spoiler)phobia now.
2018 Review:
As someone who only knows this story from a movie I have not seen I expected something more heart pounding, but surprisingly I found this boom to be more of a detective fiction with that sinister ending. It was good a gripping. Easily readable in two sitting. Curious where the sequel goes to.
UhhhhhhhhHHHHHH??? Interesting plot and everything, writing is competent and all, but the amount of casual misogynic stuff and all the masculine stuff is... wild. This was like, 2003?? I'm sorry, I try to be at least a little eloquent in my reviews normally, but... The main character's best friend is supposedly a serial rapist (SPOILERS: he's not *actually* a serial rapist, at the very end, we find out he just put on that persona to face the world! WHAt the fuck.) And I'm supposed to sympathize with this guy's concern for his wife and kid who he only ever complains about and... let's not even get into the hermaphrodite commentary.
I bought and read this not realizing it’s also a horror movie LMAO
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Jesus, what a pile of sexist garbage.
Listen, i'm a huge horror fan and I thought i'd give this book a shot, since it's a classic of the genre. And at the beginning I thought it was pretty good, entertaining, the creepy aspects were well written, alright. (im gonna spoil the whole thing but you should be aware of all that before you read the book, i wish i had known before reading it)
Then we start to see how Asakawa treats his wife (sexism through the roof) and kid and I thought, okay, perhaps that will be condemned or judged later on or he will change by the end, we'll see.
But then we get introduced to Ryūji, a self-proclaimed serial rapist and the narrator is like "oh i was grossed out" when he confessed to him, but he remains friends with that poor excuse of a human being, for decades might i add, he never tell him "yooooo maybe you shouldnt do that" or go to the police or whatever, no, NOTHING!
And i'm starting to get angry, I'm like okay there might still be a slim chance that he dies horrifically at the end: a way for the author to condemn rape and give some poetic justice or something, but oh no, no no no, you thought! Not only is his death anti climactic and boring as hell (i was straight up waiting for sadako to get out of the damn tv and raise hell on him but nothing) but we have some pathetic attemp at redeeming him or whatever when Mai tells the narrator "well actually he was innocent and never did all those things". DUDE, that doesn't explain the fact that Asakawa Never confronted it or judged him about it.
Also: this is even more gross when you hear Sadako's story, that she was raped by a dude who is still alive, we are given the description of the scene as if its supposed to be something sensual or something, instead of a traumatic experience. Then he throws the girl in the well, crushing her body with rocks, and klling her. Not only in there a glorification of sexual assault, but there is also this gross ass fetichization of (idk the term in english used to talk about people with that condition sorry!!) of people who are born with both gender's genatalia, as if those people are magical unicorn so beautiful that that guy HAD to rape her, like what. the. hell.
And when Asakawa and Ryūji learn about all that, the rape and the murder of Sadako, they have ZERO reaction to it, none, whatsoever, like rape is just as common to them as getting the mail in the morning like what. Not only that but after that worst-dude-on-earth-Ryuji is like "maybe she didn't want to die a virign, like that's why she let him rape her", and that guy is supposed to be a philosophy teacher? what. on. earth. is. this. garbage. I can't believe I had to read that with my own two eyes. And the book was release in 1991!
And in the end, Asakawa is supposed to be like a hero or a guy with moral values because he's willing to like show the tape to her wife's parents in order for her and their child to survive and i'm like ?, what? you're trying to make him seem like a good guy now? after all this? I have to laugh!
Listen, I understand that the plot is intriguing, I agree the idea of watching a videotape and dying exactly a week later is inherently spooky but all those things with rape and offensive af subjects are unnacceptable.
Oh, btw the writing style was dry as hell and despiste the length of the book it felt very long and strecthed out. And we never get to see the story from Sadako's pov, which I thought would have been 28648 times better than seeing it from those trash characters. What a way to strip the abused female character of any of her agency, you don't even bother to give her pov once. Such a waste.
Listen, i'm a huge horror fan and I thought i'd give this book a shot, since it's a classic of the genre. And at the beginning I thought it was pretty good, entertaining, the creepy aspects were well written, alright. (im gonna spoil the whole thing but you should be aware of all that before you read the book, i wish i had known before reading it)
Then we start to see how Asakawa treats his wife (sexism through the roof) and kid and I thought, okay, perhaps that will be condemned or judged later on or he will change by the end, we'll see.
But then we get introduced to Ryūji, a self-proclaimed serial rapist and the narrator is like "oh i was grossed out" when he confessed to him, but he remains friends with that poor excuse of a human being, for decades might i add, he never tell him "yooooo maybe you shouldnt do that" or go to the police or whatever, no, NOTHING!
And i'm starting to get angry, I'm like okay there might still be a slim chance that he dies horrifically at the end: a way for the author to condemn rape and give some poetic justice or something, but oh no, no no no, you thought! Not only is his death anti climactic and boring as hell (i was straight up waiting for sadako to get out of the damn tv and raise hell on him but nothing) but we have some pathetic attemp at redeeming him or whatever when Mai tells the narrator "well actually he was innocent and never did all those things". DUDE, that doesn't explain the fact that Asakawa Never confronted it or judged him about it.
Also: this is even more gross when you hear Sadako's story, that she was raped by a dude who is still alive, we are given the description of the scene as if its supposed to be something sensual or something, instead of a traumatic experience. Then he throws the girl in the well, crushing her body with rocks, and klling her. Not only in there a glorification of sexual assault, but there is also this gross ass fetichization of (idk the term in english used to talk about people with that condition sorry!!) of people who are born with both gender's genatalia, as if those people are magical unicorn so beautiful that that guy HAD to rape her, like what. the. hell.
And when Asakawa and Ryūji learn about all that, the rape and the murder of Sadako, they have ZERO reaction to it, none, whatsoever, like rape is just as common to them as getting the mail in the morning like what. Not only that but after that worst-dude-on-earth-Ryuji is like "maybe she didn't want to die a virign, like that's why she let him rape her", and that guy is supposed to be a philosophy teacher? what. on. earth. is. this. garbage. I can't believe I had to read that with my own two eyes. And the book was release in 1991!
And in the end, Asakawa is supposed to be like a hero or a guy with moral values because he's willing to like show the tape to her wife's parents in order for her and their child to survive and i'm like ?, what? you're trying to make him seem like a good guy now? after all this? I have to laugh!
Listen, I understand that the plot is intriguing, I agree the idea of watching a videotape and dying exactly a week later is inherently spooky but all those things with rape and offensive af subjects are unnacceptable.
Oh, btw the writing style was dry as hell and despiste the length of the book it felt very long and strecthed out. And we never get to see the story from Sadako's pov, which I thought would have been 28648 times better than seeing it from those trash characters. What a way to strip the abused female character of any of her agency, you don't even bother to give her pov once. Such a waste.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Ring was a great little horror/thriller with quite a bit of divurgence from how I remember the Japanese film.
This happened to my buddy Eric. Then my buddy Dave, then my buddy Jessica, then Steve, then Aiden...
I've been curious to read this forever, having seen both Ringu and The Ring, and having heard that the rest of the Ring books veer off in some pretty wild directions that bring the overall ouvre as close to science fiction as it does supernatural horror. The ground work for that is laid here, although the beats still generally match up with those of the films (which excised much of the virology slant in favor of a purer supernatural story).
The story here remains excellent, a lovely, satisfying mystery that is quite fun even if you know what you're getting into, and Sadako and her curse remain some of my favorite horror "antagonists" of all time, simultaneously sympathetic and terrifying, and the nature of the Curse is just an all-time great. It's fucked up! That's a fucked up thing to have happen.
The movies, for what they do lack, make some very smart decisions in adaptation that do leave the book feeling a little rough by comparison. There's a strange thread of plot-relevant hermaphrodism that pops up that, uh, I get what they were going for, but it's handled with about as much tact as you'd expect from a horror book from the early 90s. The films also intelligently combined Asakawa and his wife into a single character, keeping much of the same tension and character dynamics in the process while eliminating the book's somewhat dated depiction of Shizu as a sort of helpless nag.
The real difference here between the book and the movies which blemishes the book the most is Ryuji, here a sort of arrogant misogynist sex creep? It's not... entirely clear to me what the purpose of having a character like this is, and clearly it's not that important because they pretty heftily rewrite him in adaptations. It's weird having your plucky, wise-cracking partner and crime and shoulder to cry on also be, uh, a rapist. Maybe they're going for a thing of "the world is not purely bleak and evil and it is unfair to judge it for its darkest sins", but, uh, if so, fuckin' whiff on that one, chief.
Excited to dig into Spiral and Loop!
I've been curious to read this forever, having seen both Ringu and The Ring, and having heard that the rest of the Ring books veer off in some pretty wild directions that bring the overall ouvre as close to science fiction as it does supernatural horror. The ground work for that is laid here, although the beats still generally match up with those of the films (which excised much of the virology slant in favor of a purer supernatural story).
The story here remains excellent, a lovely, satisfying mystery that is quite fun even if you know what you're getting into, and Sadako and her curse remain some of my favorite horror "antagonists" of all time, simultaneously sympathetic and terrifying, and the nature of the Curse is just an all-time great. It's fucked up! That's a fucked up thing to have happen.
The movies, for what they do lack, make some very smart decisions in adaptation that do leave the book feeling a little rough by comparison. There's a strange thread of plot-relevant hermaphrodism that pops up that, uh, I get what they were going for, but it's handled with about as much tact as you'd expect from a horror book from the early 90s. The films also intelligently combined Asakawa and his wife into a single character, keeping much of the same tension and character dynamics in the process while eliminating the book's somewhat dated depiction of Shizu as a sort of helpless nag.
The real difference here between the book and the movies which blemishes the book the most is Ryuji, here a sort of arrogant misogynist sex creep? It's not... entirely clear to me what the purpose of having a character like this is, and clearly it's not that important because they pretty heftily rewrite him in adaptations. It's weird having your plucky, wise-cracking partner and crime and shoulder to cry on also be, uh, a rapist. Maybe they're going for a thing of "the world is not purely bleak and evil and it is unfair to judge it for its darkest sins", but, uh, if so, fuckin' whiff on that one, chief.
Excited to dig into Spiral and Loop!
medium-paced