A review by minimicropup
Strange Pictures by Uketsu

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

2.5

I love visuals in books, so a visually driven mystery? Heck, yes! But I was hoping for an interactive experience, and ended up getting lost with the time-jumps and puzzles we can’t actually solve. Plus, the ending explained way too much.

 

Energy: Ominous. Mysterious. Different.

 

🐺 Growls: Convoluted logic for why some of the mountain drawings exist and what they were meant to convey. The ending just dumped a bunch of info and quickly wrapped up by rehashing everything that happened.

 

🐕 Howls: This felt like watching someone else solve a puzzle you can’t participate in. It’s super easy to get lost with who’s who and what timeline you’re in. Some pictures seemed pointless (like just showing what was already described). The dialogue felt kinda stiff (maybe it’s the translation). It was a bit too much with all the sad traumas for every character feeling thrown in.

 

🐩 Tail Wags: The images, drawings, and hidden clues (sometimes). The theory. The time jumps and shifting perspectives connecting (sometimes).

 

Scene: 🇯🇵 Various locations in Japan

Perspective(s): Multiple. A graduating university student in a paranormal club. A single parent and their 6-year-old child. A soon-to-be father. A daycare teacher. An aspiring reporter. An art club teacher and avid hiker.

Timeline: Reverse chronology. 2018 to 1992.

🔥 Fuel: What does the cryptic message at the end of the blog mean? Is someone stalking a woman and child? What happened to the art club teacher and why?

📖 Cred: Suspended disbelief

 

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Paranormal club. Blogs. Chorus of cicadas. Smudged drawing. Sleeping bags. Howling wind.

• Thrown into the story, observing from afar, pondering
• Detached, minimalist writing style
• Being in-the-dark for most of the story
• Found images and puzzles
• Murder mystery
• Imperfect characters
• Convoluted mysteries
• Journalistic sleuthing
• Domestic dysfunction, tragedy, and heartstring hits
• Perpetrator origin stories
• Plotting and scheming
• Maternal instincts gone wrong

 

Content Heads-Up: Animal cruelty (pet bird). Cancer (brief mentions). Child abuse (recall). Loss of parent (as child). Loss of spouse. Missing child. Murder. Parental rejection (unloved). Physical violence, torture. Potential false accusation. Stalking. Suicide.

 

Rep: Japanese. Cis. Hetero. Pale skin tones.

 

📚 Format: Library Digital

 

💖 Musings powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Child abuse, Death, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder