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A review by blkoller_author
The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike
4.0
Japan has mastered the art of the ghost story. Graveyard apartment is no exception! Koike is a top seller in Japan and after reading this I understand why. I read and reviewed the English Translation, but I'd like to see if I can find the Japanese edition as well and give that a read. Fun Fact about me, I grew up in a bilingual household.
I must tip my hat to the translator, because even though this is a translation, it didn't lose any of its authenticity. In fact, it was so well done, my brain was 'hearing' the dialogue in Japanese. Not something that happens often. English translations can sound awkward, or clunky. This didn't read that way at all. Now with that out of the way, let's get into the book itself!
Japanese Culture has many superstitions for death. So an apartment building overlooking a graveyard is hardly desirable. One by one, each tenant takes their leave. Even before the move Misao is haunted by her husband's ex wife, who killed herself when she learned her husband was having an affair. (Another thing heavily frowned upon in Japan is divorce.) So rather than bring shame to her entire family, the wife takes her own life, to spare the rest of her family the shame. [That would come with divorce.]
But the ghost of her husband's former wife are not the only ghostly phenomenon. Tamao, her daughter's pet bird passes away after they move. The family dog, Cookie, seems to behave strangely. But it is not the buried restless spirits that should worry the tenant's, for evil lurks within the walls of this cheap Tokyo apartment complex.
I read this book in one sitting, which is not something I'm able to do very often.
I must tip my hat to the translator, because even though this is a translation, it didn't lose any of its authenticity. In fact, it was so well done, my brain was 'hearing' the dialogue in Japanese. Not something that happens often. English translations can sound awkward, or clunky. This didn't read that way at all. Now with that out of the way, let's get into the book itself!
Japanese Culture has many superstitions for death. So an apartment building overlooking a graveyard is hardly desirable. One by one, each tenant takes their leave. Even before the move Misao is haunted by her husband's ex wife, who killed herself when she learned her husband was having an affair. (Another thing heavily frowned upon in Japan is divorce.) So rather than bring shame to her entire family, the wife takes her own life, to spare the rest of her family the shame. [That would come with divorce.]
But the ghost of her husband's former wife are not the only ghostly phenomenon. Tamao, her daughter's pet bird passes away after they move. The family dog, Cookie, seems to behave strangely. But it is not the buried restless spirits that should worry the tenant's, for evil lurks within the walls of this cheap Tokyo apartment complex.
I read this book in one sitting, which is not something I'm able to do very often.