Strange Pictures was... well... strange. A who-and-why-dunnit unlike anything else I have ever read, I was expecting a truly unsettling mystery, shot through with intrigue, racing inexorably toward a thrilling climax. Instead, I found an occasionally creepy mystery novel, which named its own frustrations, and shifted between narrators with a sometimes confusing rapidity. Whilst I suspect this might be stronger in its original Japanese (sometimes you just know), Strange Pictures had some clever twists amongst its meta and far-fetched plot-lines, and came together in unpredictable but intriguing ways.

Now, I am not one who is usually creeped out by horror novels, let alone thrillers, so I'm not exactly an expert witness when it comes to scare-factor! And (so as not to spoil the story,) I am not going to talk about any of the specifics in this review... so where does that leave us?

Let's start at the top. Strange Pictures opens by explaining its premise, that the pictures, included through out, can help us understand the mysteries of this story. It's unique. and it's not poorly done. The pictures are well rendered, even in my e-copy, and their arrangement and ordering has been considered from the first.

Then the characters, Uketsu is a master of interiority. Most of this book is inside people's heads. What they see. What they feel. What they know. And yet the world feels expansive. The web of intrigue seems to spiral out far beyond the view not just of us, the reader, but whomever we are living inside of, and that is addressed. We are reassured that our confusion is allowed, and brought to understanding alongside our host, through clues and interactions.

And finally, the overall... Overall, this book could have been stronger. I wanted to be creeped out. I wanted to be thrilled! But it had strengths, moments of profound impact and creeping fear in an otherwise mysterious and engaging story. 3 stars.

Interesting concept.
I was very hopeful about and excited for picking up this book.
It fell flat for me. The drawings were not what I thought they would be, but moreover, the story is not to my liking.
Hope the others find more thrill in it.

I enjoyed this book very much. It is a mix between light thriller, mystery and also kind of literary fiction. You have to keep up with your brain to make the connections between the stories but it is a lot of fun. I really enjoy this authors works but I see many similarities in trope choices and since I am also currrently reading the manga adaptation of 'strange house' in the Japanese original and am up to date, I must say it probably took a bit away since some things are just too close. But I am very happy to have found that we have a reappearing character from 'strange house' and that even though the manga adaptation of 'strange pictures' and 'strange house' are by different Japanese publishers and artists, they kept the character design similar.

Overall this is a super fast read and it reminded me somehwat of 'Confessions' by Kanae Minato except you don't have any repetitions until the end reveal.

4/5

In some ways this felt like a classic Japanese mystery/crime read. But then in others it felt completely new and unique. I enjoyed the classic Japanese style of writing and the slow build that we often find in translated fiction, and then I especially loved the addition of the pictures and puzzle-like element to the mystery.

The story was very far fetched, and I had to look past that and just take the story at face value. But overall I enjoyed it as a work of fiction and a fun crime thriller. Not particularly scary so I wouldn't call it horror, but absolutely a chilling read.

I really wanted to love this, the idea of horror stories based around creepy drawings just makes so much sense, but i just didn't like them. I didn't find them as creepy as i'd hoped and a lot of the stories just seemed to end without finishing the story properly.

As an avid reader I'm always interested in reading "something different", and Strange Pictures by Japanese Youtube enigma Uketsu is certainly that.

The book progresses with a seemingly unrelated series of events that all involve the interpretation of drawings, the "Strange Pictures" of the title. These include a psychologist's reading of a young murderer's suitability for rehabilitation, warnings from a very worried pregnant woman, dark secrets and clues left by murder victims pointing to the identity of their killer.

The reader is invited to study these pictorial clues to solve the various parts of the mystery , something way above my intellectual capabilities sadly but I had fun trying. As the story progresses and the clues are solved the tale knits together ,and an engrossing and involving story it is.

While the pictures and their cerebral solutions are the centre of the book Uketsu also has a sparse and often brutal writing style, almost like a Japanese James Ellroy with his almost casual descriptions of violent acts and the worse of human nature.

A very clever, and unique, book that has already been a massive hit in Japan and I'd fully expect the English translation to enjoy similar success.

I can genuinely say that I've never read anything like this book. It kept me engaged and curious throughout. The images plagued my thoughts and I found myself wondering what it all meant if I had to put the book down. I think this book is brilliant and I loved the interconnecting chapters and piecing the story together. I think this book is brilliant and a must read for any thriller or translated fiction fan.

This was eerie and so so clever! At first take, it looks like a series of short stories that seemingly have no connection. However, the connection soon becomes clear and I was gobsmacked. It is basically a full circle moment! The images included really made the story feel that much more intense and creepy. I was hooked.
This is definitely a perfect book for spooky season.

Cult Japanese author Uketsu’s ‘sketch novel’ features a wealth of eerie, unsettling scenes but it’s much closer to crime than horror, an intricate murder mystery with an unusual structure. The majority of the book operates like a puzzle. There are no easily distinguished unifying characters. No detective, amateur or otherwise, to guide readers through Uketsu’s maze. Instead, readers have to figure out how disparate pieces might fit together, although Uketsu’s narrative slowly builds towards a big reveal finale. Loosely connecting the novel’s different sections are themes of perspective and interpretation, an emphasis on the attitudes, and viewpoints that might dictate how we understand our everyday world - and the tendency to force fragments into some semblance of a coherent whole.

Images are key to Uketsu’s approach here, which draws on the concept of child therapists using patients’ drawings to understand their likely state of mind. This idea is introduced at the start via a lecture given by a child psychologist. The psychologist talks her students through her process, aided by a crude drawing made by a former patient, a matricidal killer dubbed Little Girl A. The psychologist explains how her reading of Little Girl A’s pictures became instrumental in dictating Little Girl A’s treatment and her identification as a candidate for rehabilitation and eventual release.

This chapter’s followed by a series of seemingly disconnected episodes, featuring a succession of characters and crimes - from suspicious deaths to obvious murders. The shift from one section to another sometimes so abrupt it felt like the verbal equivalent of a jump cut. His narrative’s highly visual qualities are in keeping with Uketsu’s background as a Youtuber who made his name through a series of eccentric videos. He wants his fiction to appeal to audiences who rarely read as well as those who do. The extensive illustrations incorporate numerous diagrams as well as charts highlighting potential plot developments. These suggest Uketsu’s deliberately blending conventions from locked-room style Golden Age mysteries with aspects of manga: Uketsu’s stated influences are contemporary Japanese crime writers like Honobu Yonezawa, he’s also a fan of Holmes and Watson.

There were moments when Uketsu’s concept felt a bit contrived and gimmicky but, for the most part, this was a gripping, entertaining experience, laced with striking twists and turns – whenever I worked out a possible link between one crime and another, I felt surprisingly smug. The only remaining enigma was Uketsu himself, apart from his pseudonym and gender almost nothing’s known about him. A bestselling author in Japan, Uketsu’s core readers are women between 30 and 50; often referred to as the Edogawa Ranpo of the Internet, Uketsu digitally disguises his voice and never appears without his trademark white mask and all-encompassing, black body suit. Translated by Jim Rion.

I am thrilled to be one of the first to read and review the English translation of Strange Pictures, the debut novel by masked Japanese YouTuber Uketsu. This unputdownable read delivers a perfectly constructed puzzle that comes together with a fantastic precision. As with many Japanese mystery novels, the themes are very strong, and Uketsu masterfully blends horror, psychological suspense, and brutal realism. I especially love the blunt, straight-to-the-point narrative style, which kept me hooked from start to finish. The strange pictures are truly mesmerizing!

This was unlike anything I’ve read before. From the get go there was something unnerving about the book, and the strange pictures only added to this feeling. The book starts with a mysterious blog post and unsettling images as the reader slowly finds out more about the images and how they’re all connected. The multi media aspect combined with the drawings made for a thrilling read, I found myself unable to put this book down. As the reader slowly finds out more about the initial image and all the ones that follow, the plot reveals itself and it’s insanely clever and imaginative. I really enjoyed this, both for the horror element and the visual elements too. Such a unique story!