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A review by literaryjunarin
Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales by Yōko Ogawa
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? No
3.0
It is quiet as it is dreadful, though I won't call this horror.
This is a macabre presentation of the mundane. Who knew a story about a landlord who plants carrots can be eerie?
I've read Ogawa's The Memory Police (which I loved btw) and The Housekeeper and the Professor so I enjoyed seeing her gentle elegance in a horror stories collection. The stories are not terrifying enough but the way Ogawa weaved the stories made it stunning. The stories are connected but they can also stand alone.
My favorite would be the story about the woman who has her heart beating outside her body so she asks an artisan to make a bag for it. But when the artisan saw the heart, he became so obsessed with making the bag that when the woman said she won't be needing the bag anymore, the artisan quietly made plans to still make the bag fitting happen.
A quick and satisfying read.
This is a macabre presentation of the mundane. Who knew a story about a landlord who plants carrots can be eerie?
I've read Ogawa's The Memory Police (which I loved btw) and The Housekeeper and the Professor so I enjoyed seeing her gentle elegance in a horror stories collection. The stories are not terrifying enough but the way Ogawa weaved the stories made it stunning. The stories are connected but they can also stand alone.
My favorite would be the story about the woman who has her heart beating outside her body so she asks an artisan to make a bag for it. But when the artisan saw the heart, he became so obsessed with making the bag that when the woman said she won't be needing the bag anymore, the artisan quietly made plans to still make the bag fitting happen.
A quick and satisfying read.