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A review by bread_mountain
The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike
2.0
A good ghost story ruined by a painfully boring first half and terrible writing. (Actually I suspect the translation is to blame but I can't be sure. )
Every paragraph has multiple cliches and idioms that I feel were added by the translator, because occasionally there will just be a line like "as the saying goes" followed by a Japanese saying that could have been replaced by a corollary in American English.
Every plot point is repeated over and over again. They really hammer home the fact that there are storage units in the basement. Are you sure that's a concept you can understand? Storage units? In the basement? You store stuff in them. They're in the basement. Just the same info repeated endlessly.
And almost every emotion and motivation is plainly stated. There's a sentence that's something like "Misao moved the salt shaker around on the table. This action was a manifestation of her anxiety." I imagine this is what it would be like if George Lucas had written novelizations of the Star Wars prequels.
Finally, and least importantly, the graveyard that has cursed this apartment building dates all the way back to... the 1920s. That's only 60 years before this book was published. Why make the cemetery so modern? It's just kind of funny to me.
Every paragraph has multiple cliches and idioms that I feel were added by the translator, because occasionally there will just be a line like "as the saying goes" followed by a Japanese saying that could have been replaced by a corollary in American English.
Every plot point is repeated over and over again. They really hammer home the fact that there are storage units in the basement. Are you sure that's a concept you can understand? Storage units? In the basement? You store stuff in them. They're in the basement. Just the same info repeated endlessly.
And almost every emotion and motivation is plainly stated. There's a sentence that's something like "Misao moved the salt shaker around on the table. This action was a manifestation of her anxiety." I imagine this is what it would be like if George Lucas had written novelizations of the Star Wars prequels.
Finally, and least importantly, the graveyard that has cursed this apartment building dates all the way back to... the 1920s. That's only 60 years before this book was published. Why make the cemetery so modern? It's just kind of funny to me.