Reviews with content warning for Death - La zona fantasma

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Reviews tagging 'Death'

La zona fantasma by Junji Ito

43 reviews

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

Beautiful artwork as always in Junji Ito’s wholly distinctive, freaky style. The stories themselves are a bit of a mixed bag, with ‘Weeping Woman Way’ being somewhat dull, ‘Madonna’ being a pretty interesting story and ‘The Spirit Flow of Aokigahara’ being downright bizarre.

The final story, ‘Slumber’, legitimately freaked me out. With this one, I got it: the dread of turning the page, the unsettling discomfort looking at the images, the dismayed horror and lurch in my stomach at the final panel. I’m writing this review at 12:30am and can already tell sleep is going to be a struggle. This final story alone warrants a full 5 stars, but the other 3 are so lacklustre that I can’t really bring myself to rate the whole book higher than a 3.25.

I really should stop reading Junji Ito’s standalone stories before bed. I’m usually totally ok with them for the most part but every now and then one will really, really haunt me. ‘Slumber’ is definitely one of them.

Absolutely love it though.

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katndrsn's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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evelphysicist's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Entertaining horror but not quite as impactful as Ito’s previous works in my opinion.

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petitemass15's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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poppythealligator's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

4.5

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akira_outofthegravity's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Honestly, in the afterword Junji Ito wonders if he’s running out of ideas, but I think this is some of his best work yet!

I really liked Slumber and Madonna. Very good, not disappointed!!

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daniellekat's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

2.5

Another spooky collection but I didn’t love this one. I thought the plots were not super interesting, and predictably all the women were victims in some way. Something about this felt rushed and lacked the attention to detail I’ve seen in the author’s other work.

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