| Title | : | Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1421536447 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781421536446 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 350 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1996 |
Black Fairy Tale is classic J-horror: a young girl loses an eye in an accident, but receives a transplant. Now she can see again, astonishingly what she sees out of her new left eye is the experiences and memories of its previous owner. Its previous deceased owner.
Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse Reviews
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A collection of three short stories of varying length and creepiness level, this was a truly perfect addition to my find-horror-stories-that-impress-me quest.
"Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse" is told from a dead girl's perspective, it features two children who "accidentally on purpose" kill their friend, and are then forced to make increasingly unrealistic plans to hide the body.
"Yuko" tells the story of a maid whose master's odd behavior leads her down a rabbit-hole of investigations. *cue ominous sound effects*
"Black Fairytale" is an extremely disturbing story told from multiple perspectives, about a girl who starts seeing strange things following an eye transplant.
I may have mentioned before, that horror stories in print rarely leave a lasting impression on me, even though scary movies have me twitch and jump 10 minutes in. So I'm always on the lookout for just the right mix of horror to send shivers down my back, without leading to serious nightmares.
For reference, most of my nightmares stem from fairly mundane real life memories, while gore imagery only tends to get me mildly intrigued. So what you consider hair-raising, to me it might just raise an eyebrow. *insert dubious smile*
For this reason, I really enjoyed the order in which the stories were presented, steadily upping the gore and creepiness factors.
The first story is not particularly graphic, with the unsettling feelings caused by the culprits' young age. The second story reveals all its creepiness in hindsight, due to the narrator's highly unreliable (and rumor-prone) nature. And finally, in the third story the author completely immerses the reader into all sorts of spine tingling terror and gore.
Score: 4.3/5 stars
For all that I enjoyed the heightened creepiness factor, that came with additional revelations in each story's epilogue, it also felt a bit like cheating. Some more consistent clues linking events wouldn't have gone amiss. Plus, the "loss of eye" premise from "Black Fairytale" screamed lack of credibility from all its pores.
On a more positive (hah!) note: I suspect this is the sign I've been waiting for to finally give the original
Ring a go. *cue preemptive shuddering* -
¡Me encantó! Le doy 4 estrellas porque creo que la última historia pudo ser mucho más corta y hay algunos cabos que hasta el final no sé si me encantó como se ataron.
Un autor que no se tienta el corazón para contarte una historia desde el punto de vista del cadáver de una niña, tener personajes verdaderamente retorcidos, dar unas vueltas de tuerca inesperadas y macabras y describir con la mayor naturalidad tripas que acaban colgando de las heridas de sus personajes.
El libro cuenta con tres historias:
-Summer, fireworks and my corpse
-Yuko
-Black fairy tale
Las tres son buenas, pero Yuko quizá fue mi favorita. Pensé que sabía perfecto por dónde iba a ir esa historia (que además tiene unas muñecas/maniquíes bastantes siniestros) y el final me sorprendió. Muy recomendable. -
Loved it !!
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This book contains three stories of differing lengths. The title story concerns the killing of a nine year-old girl and subsequent cover-up by the boy and girl she thought were her friends. The added twist is that the story is told by the victim all the way through, even after her death. I found it a little implausible that two kids could outwit the police (and others, though this is partly explained in the end) for so long, but the suspense is genuine as they come close to getting caught again and again.
"Yuko" is the shortest story and is about a housekeeper who works for a kind but eccentric man who won't let her go into one of the rooms, where his ill wife resides. After a while, she begins to suspect that there is no wife, but the truth about the events that unfold are not what she (or the reader) will expect.
"Black Fairy Tale" is a short novel (a little over 200 pages) about a teen-aged girl who receives an eye transplant, and starts to see visions. She soon realizes that she is experiencing the memories of the eye's previous owner, and finds herself immersed in a mystery involving a missing girl and a writer with a disturbing power. This story is not for the faint-hearted. A black fairy tale, indeed. -
Well, that was fun :) I especially loved the title story, which was wickedly funny. The second story was more in the three star range but still pretty interesting.
With Black Fairy Tale, I found myself thinking of the 1993 film
Boxing Helena and then my mind wandered from that and I started wondering how much of the torso has to survive in order for a person to survive. Does it have to be below the waist or can the intestines be moved up higher into the body cavity? So now everyone knows a bit about the way my brain works and a whole lot more about this book. Especially if you've actually seen Boxing Helena.
I enjoyed the whole thing but the title story is the only one I would be tempted to reread. There were gruesome parts, although I'm only remembering them in Black Fairy Tale, but it wasn't 100% of the time. Still, if gruesome isn't your thing, I don't think I would read this. If you like horror and you can overlook the gruesome qualities, then this is one hell of a lot of fun. -
This one fell short for me. Perhaps because I read
ZOO first and loved it. I didn't connect to the characters as I did in ZOO, so the stories did nothing for me, not even the most talked about story, 'Black Fairy Tale.' The beginning of the story was marvelous, then I got bored. -
বইয়ে ২ টা গল্প রয়েছে। দুইটাই অদ্ভুত। ফ্যান্টাসি ফিকশন। কাহিনী বাঁক নেবার আগে ধারণা করাও যায়নি কি ঘটতে যাচ্ছে। যদিও প্রথম লেখায় গল্পের অনেক ভুল/ফাঁকফোকর ধরা যাবে। তারপরও গল্পটায় নতুনত্ব আছে। সবচেয়ে অবাক হলাম যখন জানলাম লেখক এই বইটি তার হাইস্কুল শেষ করার আগেই লিখেছেন। এত অল্প বয়সে কোন লেখকের এমন গল্প লেখা আজ অব্দি পড়েছি বলে মনে হয়না। যেহেতু ইদানিং জাপানি সাহিত্যের প্রতি আগ্রহ বেড়েছে। আর এই জনরা আমার পছন্দের, সেহেতু লেখকের লেখা ভবিষ্যতে আরো পড়ার ইচ্ছা রাখি। গল্পে ফাঁকফোকর থাকায় ৩.৫ দিতে চেয়েছিলাম।
অনুবাদ ভাল হয়েছে। -
This review will be difficult without revealing anything.
I will be reviewing three stories…
I don’t know how and when I came across this book, but I read it anyway – it was just eerie how the book ended up in my hands.
Onwards, I don’t regret reading it. It was just… perfect. I have admit that there were some parts that uninterested me, nonetheless the very, very detailed and atmospheric parts compensated for it. The stories were so disturbing and twistingly beautiful, so much that throughout the book I was disturbed, tense, gloomy, and even scared.
The book has a random selection of two Novellas, ‘Summer Fireworks and my Corpse,’ and ‘Black Fairy Tale.’ Furthermore, the book also contains a short story called ‘Yuko’. I enjoyed all – especially the two Novellas.
Summer Fireworks and my Corpse, about how powerful emotions – in this case jealousy – can lead to the main protagonists death, her murder had occurred on I believe to be page 17. This story is very different for obvious reasons – the first is the fact that she is dead, and thoughts flooded my mind like, “Well this isn't going to have a good ending, she’s dead!” Still I found myself hoping for the situation to be resolved even though she can’t be revived.The second thing that makes this different it that it’s from a dead girl’s perspective! She is written just as an onlooker like any other reader reading this, including me. This brings the character closer to us, so you experience more emotions. I was so frustrated when her body was almost found (happens on many occasions), it’s tense as well. And the last thing that makes this story different is the end. That is all I will say.
Yuko. A short-story good, but not my favourite. At first I thought I was going to be disappointed but I wasn't. It is creepy, and disturbing. The whole tone of the story is quietly normal, and something very dark. A very quick read, and I recommend not skipping it, because the end is just one big, giant twist that will make you look back in the story in your head, even though you may have predicted something. At the beginning I was like “Okay, it’s too normal, something obviously is happening.” Then as the story progresses it changes.In the end, puzzles will be completed, questions asked. It was very good.
Finally, My favourite, Black Fairy Tale. It is confusing at first but fits together like a puzzle, which is interesting. It is a story of three stories that entwine together. I am at a loss for words because of this, and the fact that it was the most disturbing story I have ever come across. The only words that come to mind are, “Well this is a tinge disturbing. What am I reading?” It presents darkness all throughout the story, and this scared me the most. It was too disturbing, so detailed, so much that it creates and image in your head like you’re just watching it but as a film.
Overall this is a brilliant book that exceeded any suspicions and expectations. -
Arrived here following a friend’s recommendation and was completely knocked out by this short collection. ‘Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse’ is narrated by the dead body that two kids are trying to dispose of. It’s a fascinating story with a totally surprising end that really caught me out. Yuko, the second story is less interesting, but the final longer story, Black Fairy Tale, ramps up the creepiness to new levels. Great read!
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I didn’t know anything about this book and honestly I only bought it as it was by a Japanese author and I’m always looking for new ones to read.
I’m not hugely into horror books, short stories aren’t my thing and the cover wasn’t that exciting either.
I really, really wasn’t feeling enthusiastic when I picked this up to read a little.
What a pleasant, dark, twisted surprise. The first story told from the point of view of a murdered 9 year old girl was very original. The factual and emotionless telling of her story was something unexpected.
The second and shortest was the most slight, but still enjoyable.
The third is virtually a novel in itself and so dark, disturbing, creepy, compelling.
I am so glad I picked this up and I’ll definitely be reading this author again. -
[3.5*] Not as good as "Goth" by the same author.
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I looked through a Japanese Horror stories list and came across this and decided to give it a go. The book has three stories, but I decided to read the title story only, and wasn't disappointed! The story is told by the corpse of a little girl. Interesting angle on things. Lots of fun suspense regarding how these kids are trying to hide/dispose the body. I have to say, I didn't see that ending coming at all! Also cool to learn more things about the Japanese culture.
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A Japanese horror with three stories in it.
Summer, Fireworks and My Corpse
I really liked this one. A story about murder narrated by the dead child herself, the horror was very subtle with hints of black humor. This story made me realize how jealousy can lead even children to commit such crimes. The ending was predictable and creepy but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Yuko
This is the shortest story in the book with a lot of creepy dolls. Just as you think you've figured the story out, it throws another twist at you. Not my favorite one, still a good story.
Black Fairy Tale
This story stole the show, I loved it! This one is primarily about a teenage girl who gets an eye transplant and starts seeing the memories of the previous owner captured in that eye. Losing all her memory after the accident, the girl enjoys the short episodes of the memories captured in the eye, but she gets more than she bargained for... This is my favorite among all three stories in the books. It was absolutely gripping, loved the sinister vibes we get throughout the story, very twisted, and will definitely make you cringe. -
The first half of this book wasn't great. Black Fairy Tale made up for it all, as well as Otsuichi's always entertaining 'afterward'. If you want to read something beyond fucked up, Black Fairy Tale is where it's at.
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বরাবরের মতোই গ্রে একটা টোন নিয়ে গল্প বলা শুরু হল আর গল্পের শেষে পার্সপেক্টিভ আর ফোকাস শিফিটিং এ মুগ্ধ হলাম। দুটো গল্প নিয়ে সাজানো বইয়ের অনুবাদ পড়েছি, রোদেলা প্রকাশনী থেকে প্রকাশিত। অনুবাদ এ অযাচিত কিছু ভারী শব্দের ব্যবহার ছাড়া মন্দ না।
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September#2
Summer,fireworks and my corpse অৎসুইশির প্রথম বই। ১৬ বছর বয়সে এই নভেলাটি লেখেন তিনি। পরের বছর প্রকাশিত হওয়ার পর বইটি শুধু আলোচিতই হয়নি,জিতে নেয় অ্যাওয়ার্ডও। এছাড়াও একই বইয়ে Yuko নামে লেখকের আরো একটি বড়ো গল্প আছে। দুটোই আমার খুব ভালো লেগেছে।তবে fireworks খানিকটা প্রেডিক্টেবল ছিল। কিন্তু Yuko খুবই সুন্দর।
⭕Summer,fireworks and my corpse:
প্রিয় বান্ধবী Yayoi'র হাতে মারা যায় ছোট্ট Satsuki. ঘটনাস্থলে উপস্থিত হয় Yayoi'র বড়ো ভাই Ken। যাকে সে মাত্রাতিরিক্ত ভালোবাসতো। দুই ভাই-বোন একসাথে Satsuki'র খুন লুকিয়ে ফেলার চেষ্টা করতে থাকে। এদিকে গ্রামে চলছে ছোট বাচ্চাদের সিরিয়াল কিডন্যাপিং। তাদের আশা Saksuki'র খুনটাকেও কিডন্যাপিংয়ে রুপ দেওয়া। কিন্তু বারবার নানারকম বাধা বিপত্তি এসে তাদের পথ রুখে দাঁড়ায়।
গ্রেড ফাইভের একটা ছেলে আর গ্রেড থ্রিতে পড়া তার বোন শেষ পর্যন্ত কাজটা করতে পারে তো?
🔘পাঠ প্রতিক্রিয়া:
এই বইটা পড়ার সময় বারবার অবাক হয়েছি,কিভাবে ষোলো বছরের কেউ এতো ডার্ক আর সাসপেন্সফুল জিনিস লিখলো! এরকম মানসিক চাপ খুব কম বই পড়তে গিয়েই অনুভব করেছি। বইটা আর বইয়ের চরিত্রগুলো মাথার ভেতর ঢুকে যাচ্ছিল। সবথেকে বড়ো কথা,বইটা বর্ণিত হয়েছে মৃত Satsuki’র দৃষ্টিকোণ থেকে। তার বর্ণনায় বারবার ফুটে উঠেছে অসহায়তা আর নিজের মৃত্যু রহস্য সবাইকে জানিয়ে দেওয়ার অদম্য আকাঙ্খা।
বইয়ের গতিও অনেক ভালো ছিল। পুরো বইটা খুব উপভোগ করেছি। তবে শেষটা আমি যেমনটা চেয়েছিলাম তেমন হয়নি। আর খানিকটা প্রেডিক্টও করতে পেরেছিলাম। যদিও উত্তেজনা তাতে সমান্যও হ্রাস পায়নি।
রেটিং:৩.৭৫/৫
⭕Yuko:
যক্ষায় বাবার মৃত্যুর পর Masoyashi নামক বাবার বন্ধু Kiyone কে তার ঘরে আশ্রয় দেন। মাস্টার তার স্ত্রী Yuko'র কথার বললেও সে আসার পর থেকে এখনো একবারও দেখেনি মানুষটাকে। এমনকি মাস্টারের রুম থেকেও কখনো কোনো মেয়েলি কণ্ঠের কথা শুনেনি সে। ওদিকে সেই ঘরে প্রবেশ করাও তার জন্য নিষিদ্ধ। শেষ পর্যন্ত এমন আচরণের কারণ খুৃজে পায় Kiyone?
🔘পাঠ প্রতিক্রিয়া:
আগেরটার মতে এই কাহিনীটাও বেশ ডার্ক। সবশেষে মাথা ঘুরানো একটা টুইস্ট। একদমই আনপ্রেডিক্টেবল।Goth এর গল্পগুলোর মতোই অনেকটা।এইটা ভালো লেগেছে খুব।
রেটিং:৪/৫
💎বই:Summer,fireworks and my corpse
💎লেখক:Otsuichi
💎পৃষ্ঠা:111
💎ফরম্যাট:epub
💎রেটিং:4/5 -
A worthy effort of juvenile J-Horror, as if Edogawa Rampo wrote for the teen pulps: gothics for the high school set. Basically consisting of a short novel, a short story, and a full-length novel, the star of the collection is the latter, 'Black Fairy Tale.' Featuring eye transplants, amnesiac episodes, small-town murders, and enough bodily disfigurement to satisfy fans of the torture-porn sub-genre, it is a vibrantly layered tale, deceptively so. It starts with a teenager suffering amnesia after getting her eye poked out from a stray umbrella on a crowded city sidewalk. After she receives a transplant, fragmented visions appear to her, only they're not her own. Once she visits the small mountain town to find out more about the eye's mysterious owner, things take on a more sleuth-driven approach. It feels as though we're reading the basis for a Japanese ode to 'Nancy Drew gets lost in Twin Peaks.' While at times, the narrator has a tendency to repeat the obvious again and again, the novel loses none of its power as the mystery comes to a close. What is especially memorable is the story within a story: one can't go wrong including a psychotic raven hungry for eyeballs.
The other two entries, 'Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse' and 'Yuko', are solid pieces that suffer from repetition of the obvious, as well as conclusions that fail to transcend their pulp origins. One must remember that the author, Otsuichi, wrote these tales when he was 18 years old. -
"Summer, Fireworks and My Corpse" contains Otsuichi's early works - two novellas and a short story. As a collection of work, it's very good - not disjointed or thrown together, though I must confess some confusion at the order of the stories; from my point of view the book was named for the least effective of the stories, and they feel chronologically backward. [return][return]"Summer Fireworks and My Corpse" is a shorter novella from a dead child's point of view, as she follows the fate of her corpse, her friends and the impact her death has on the community. The horror here is more subtle, with touches of black humour and pangs of how people adjust to guilt and death. There are slight twists in the tale to keep it interesting, though I must admit I felt dissatisfied with both the ending and the lack of character development in comparison to his other early work,"Goth" (though the characters are vaguely reminiscent of those in "Goth.") I did, however, find the running commentary of the dead girl interesting- some of her observations are shrewd, while other comments show her growing detachment from her corpse. [return][return]"Yuko" is a short story about a girl who goes to work as a housekeeper for a man and his wife in an isolated traditional Japanese mansion. This is a gem of a short story, and though it is short, it feels more fully fleshed out than the previous novella. In a lot of ways, I was reminded of Victorian ghost stories, like those of Le Fanu, where there is both a supernatural and a more earthly explanation for what happens, both of which lend themselves to two separate horrors within the outcome.The writing is dense with atmosphere; creepy insinuations, misleading information and the curiosity of a lonely girl all make this an excellent short story. Again, the horror here is subtle, creeping in rather than jarring, and is all the more effective for it.[return][return]"Black Fairy Tale" According to Otsuichi's Afterword, this was the first thing he wrote after college that was "longer than two hundred pages of genko yoshi manuscript." Even as a entry point into writing, the The novella begins with a fairy tale story of a lonely raven befriending a blind girl, and bringing her eyes so that she could see dreams. The eyes would retain the memories of what the original owner has seen, and the little girl would see their memories, right up until the moment the eye was removed. From there the story is told by a teenage girl who lost her left eye, and has amnesia due to the shock of losing the eye; the writer of the fairy tale, who has a twisted gift; and the remainder of the raven's tale, all of which are woven into a tale of mysteries. The main character, Nami, is unable to remember who she was, and is rejected by her family who constantly compare her to her former self, and also suffers from image memories left in the donated eye. She is well developed as a character, which I would have thought to be a difficult thing to do as she is meant to be basically an empty vessel, though some of her reasoning is peculiar, it could be attributed to the eye's influence. The writer of the raven's story is less well developed, but seems slightly sociopathic, definitely dysfunctional. The scenes of his childhood are filled with black humor, twisted jokes, and the exploration of his ability. Both of them are curiously detached in some way - incomplete/disconnected from their actions, but this serves to help define them in very different ways. This is an excellent story, and makes up the bulk of the book (almost 230 pages of the 350).(Note to the squeamish: If you've ever read Grimm's fairy tales as they were originally written, the gore here is just a little updated, and a bit more twisted - enough to make you cringe, but not, say, Clive Barker "Books of Blood" graphic.) [return][return]Overall, this is a very good collection, and well worth reading, especially if you enjoyed his other works ("Goth" or "Zoo", for example) or enjoy either modern fairy tales or Japanese horror/mystery. Highly recommended.
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4.5 🌟🌟🌟🌟
As entertaining and compelling as his other novel, Goth, It had that same twisted, creepy dark overtones, which I mostly like in my reads.
The title story, Summer, Fireworks and my Corpse made me think that even kids can be evil, terrifying creatures. What I like about this one was it was told by the corpse's point of view. It was a bit absurd and funny at times coz the narrator seem detached from it all, (being dead and all) and just wanted to have her say and yeah, tried get on with it and move on, lol. It also reminded me of my childhood days with my playmates and friends when we were just silly, carefree, happy and contented with even the simpliest things. I was a bit miffed of the injustice and I was hoping it had more to tell, but it was still an interesting story although a short sad one.
The second short story, Yuko took me by surprise, it was very well set up that I had believe everything I read and then the author managed to end it with a wicked twist I didnt see coming..
But Dark Fairytale was the cream of the crop, however, some parts were quite upsetting and others would find it more disturbing so it should come with some trigger warnings. But if you get past that, this story was utterly gripping. It was shrewd, eerie and such a strangely unique read that I have associated with Otsuichi's impressive and unpredictable writing style. -
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review.
What I liked most about this story was that it was through a child's point of view. The comparative "The Lovely Bones" was through the point of a teenager and raged with all the emotions a young adult would feel toward events. Otsuichi managed instead to tell a story and captivate an audience without such passion.
Satsuki is nine years old when she is, as we are led to believe, murdered by her best friend out of jealousy over a crush on her brother. Never once do we see anger or despair in the emotions of our narrator, just simple observation. Is it inspiring or terrifying to see that children can easily accept things that so often are impossible for adults? It's almost cold the way she describes herself as everyone moves her body around. They was she mentions how her eyes and mouth are still open, that dust falls onto them. Clinical observations with a hint of sorrow.
I quite enjoyed the way Yakoi and Ken felt no real empathy or guilt toward what they were doing, because it is often overlooked; just as children can be truly kind, they can be truly cruel as well. It is the tip of the knife which way things can turn.
The ending itself was a real surprise, and I'm not sure I enjoyed it because, ultimately, there was no lesson learned. But maybe it's just another harsh reality of what life is: not as full of consequences as we desire. -
If you enjoy dark, twisted and nicely constructed stories, this is your kind of book. Each tale manages to stress you and keep you wondering what will happen next. “Summer, fireworks and my corpse” and “Yuko” are somehow predictable (lets’ consider these are earliest works) but still enjoyable. I was specially attracted by "Black Fairy tale". It is not only presented from different perspectives but the way such narrative lines collide is unexpected. In fact, something I like about Otsuichi is this ability he has for giving you plenty information and descriptions, make you believe you know what will happen just for turning everything around at the end. Best thing about these turns, once you think about them, they are totally coherent with the information you have, it is just that you were deceived into believing the easier/simpler connection among such facts.
Just a warning, some sections may be too gruesome and cruel for some audience. However, if you have read “Battle Royale”, “Out” or played the “Silent Hill” saga, you will be fine. -
I read this one for the title novella, Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse, an excellent juvie noir pageturner narrated from the POV of a murdered little girl. Also included are a short story, "Yuko," which reminded me of Hawthorne, and a novel, Black Fairy Tale, a J-horror story that weaves together an amnesiac and a serial killer, a winning combination if ever there was one.
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NOTE: This review first appeared at
The King of Elfland's 2nd Cousin on August 24th, 2011. If you like the review, please stop by!
Maybe it’s because I spent a decade living abroad, or because both my parents are immigrants. But for whatever reason, foreign techniques in storytelling and art have always fascinated me. Now and again, I find myself going on a binge of reading from a particular part of the world, and several months ago I started a Japanese binge – made all the harder knowing nothing about the language, and having only local sushi joints and the little otaku pop-culture I’ve been able to observe as culture references. But in my blind stumbles around Japanese literature, I picked up
Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse written by
Otsuichi and translated by Nathan Collins.
This is subtle, literary horror from
Haikasoru (an imprint of Viz Media that specializes in bringing Japanese genre titles to the United States). Reading it brought to mind old-school Gothic works by folks like
Sheridan Le Fanu or
Daphne du Maurier, with some of the creepiness of
Edgar Allen Poe. What made this three story collection stand out were the prose techniques employed by
Otsuichi (or possibly his translator). Using word choice and sentence construction as the subtle thematic bedrock is a rare treat in the horror genre.
The first (titular) story was written when
Otsuichi was still in high school, and it shows some of the still-rough techniques that he would hone in his later works. Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse is told from the perspective of a nine year-old girl’s corpse, and I consider it to be the weakest of the three stories in this book. I cracked open the spine unfamiliar with
Otsuichi’s writing or Nathan Collins’ translations, having been stung by particularly poor translations of other Japanese books in the past. As a result, the opening pages made me very concerned. The sentences were simple. Almost each one was a declarative statement. They were stilted. Choppy. The narrator’s observations were superficial and factual: this happened and then that happened and then something else happened. Reading these initial pages, I thought: “Great. Another lousy translation.” But I was wrong.
The unsubtle language that opens the story is purposeful.
Otsuichi (and his translator) use simple sentence construction to put us in the head of his nine year-old narrator. As the story progresses, we watch through her eyes as her friend (and murderer) and her friend’s older brother try to hide her corpse. The narrator, in a child’s spare and simple language, tells us the facts of what happened, but the narrator’s understanding is limited by her age. Once she dies, the language grows more complex as her after-death experiences change her perceptions of the world. The transition happens subtly over the course of the story, and
Otsuichi and Collins manage to make this transition smooth. If I were not looking for it, I might not have noticed it.
Once I realized that the author was doing this on purpose, I could get past the unsubtle prose and into the story. Despite being satisfied, I remain troubled by how superficially the narrator’s perceptions are presented. There was precious little introspection or abstract thought, and most nine year-olds I’ve met have some capacity for both. While this technique may be a cultural trait of Japanese fiction (
Yasunari Kawabata excels at such purposefully superficial presentation), the degree to which it is employed in this story made it difficult for me to engage emotionally with any of the characters. However, the story's disquieting ending relies on the narrator lacking an adult reader's understanding of its implications.
The second story in the collection, Yuko is much shorter, much more powerful, and from my perspective, the best story in the book. Taking place in an indeterminate time period (could be present day rural Japan, could be any time in the last couple of hundred years), it follows a young, uneducated housemaid who takes care of a writer and his bedridden wife, Yuko. The housemaid, however, never sees, speaks with, hears, or interacts with Yuko, only with her husband. Scenes are presented from both the housemaid’s perspective (where Yuko never appears) and from the husband’s perspective (where he interacts with Yuko).
Reading this story, the beautiful language matters tremendously: the author and translator use lyrical, literate language and style to pull a fast one on the reader. That is not a bad thing. Throughout the story – almost to its end – the language evokes a conviction in the reader’s mind of one reality. And then with just one word – one word placed in just the right spot – it flips the reader's genre expectations from horror to mystery. I had to go back to the beginning, and read it all again, before finishing the story with a new set of reading protocols.
That one word is the hinge on which Yuko pivots: before the hinge, the story is horror, generating that delightful sensation of creepy, disquieting terror. After the hinge, the terror is gone, replaced with an intellectual curiosity seeking an explanation: a mystery. When that explanation comes, the terror returns – but it is subtler, deeper, and darker than the Gothic terror inspired before that hinge.
Since reading this story, I’ve been wrestling with this technique. It is excellently executed, and manipulates the reader brilliantly. I had thought I was reading a Gothic horror story, and suddenly I found myself reading a Gothic mystery. Cleverly done. Yet at the same time, the technique stood out as a technique. It was like a slap in the face: there was no way I could have missed it. And I do not know if that is good or bad. Should the impact of word choice and sentence construction be noticeable to the reader as they are reading? Does seeing the mirrors ruin the trick? I loved this story, and the emotional ride it took me on. So I suppose it works. “Good” might be like pornography (and science fiction): I know it when I see it. But as a writing technique, I think it might be extremely risky.
The last and longest story in the book, The Black Fairy Tale, takes far fewer risks. It is a short novel told in three parts: the first is a grizzly, frightening tale about a raven who steals peoples' eyes as a gifts for a blind girl. This was my favorite part of the story, with beautiful lyrical prose that tells a heart-breaking story of love, devotion, and the light and darkness of memory. The second part is told from the perspective of a teenage girl who loses her left eye, receives a transplant, and now sees her new eye’s memories. The final part is told from the perspective of the raven fairy tale's author. On a superficial level, the teenage girl and the author's story are linked: they come into gruesome conflict. Below that superficial level, the stories are unified by the fairy tale itself, with its focus on memory, vision, and detachment.
The emotional terror evoked by the story is its most powerful aspect. The story's violence is depicted and described, and some of it gets fairly rough, but throughout it is handled tastefully; its horrific nature is in the emotional implication of what it does (or has done) to its victims. The story's language, and in particular the gradual evolution and progression of imagery throughout the three parallel parts, makes this story a delight to read.
The book's biggest problem is its organization. The Black Fairy Tale makes up over sixty percent of the book, yet it is the third story. The opening story – Summer, Fireworks, and My Corpse – is the book's weakest: I almost put it down before realizing that its unsubtle sentence construction was purposeful. I can imagine that many readers unfamiliar with
Otsuichi or Collins might have given up without getting to the good part. A better way of organizing the book would have been to start with either Yuko or The Black Fairy Tale.
Regardless, the book is well worth reading. Fans of western horror will enjoy a title that hearkens back to the strong, subtle, emotionally resonant horror of
Daphne du Maurier,
Sheridan Le Fanu, and
Edgar Allen Poe. I think this is a good intro to Japanese horror and I’m definitely going to be checking out more from
Haikasoru. -
(Edito: le doy 5 estrellas después de descubrir que Otsuichi escribió el relato que da nombre al libro en el INSTITUTO)
No doy 5 estrellas a este libro porque el final de cada relato me ha parecido un poco rebuscado (aunque absolutamente satisfactorio y bien pensado, no totalmente 5 estrellas en mi opinión), pero mi experiencia leyéndolo ha sido fantástica. El autor te transporta al Japón rural en verano y además, sabe mantener el suspense. Otsuichi consigue algo muy raro: convertir dos premisas interesantes en relatos buenos e interesantes por derecho propio. Es una lastima que la edición que he leído (no es es esta) tenga un prólogo de un autor americano que no ha entendido en absoluto la primera historia. -
读到的第一部乙一写的文章（确切是篇文章），也是他出道之作。
阅读时蝉叫环绕，热浪翻涌，似乎夏日。
却是在冬日里读着这本小册子。 -
I've been a fan of Japanese horror since my early youth. Cartoons at first, then movies. Reading it has been a great experience. Looking forward to much more.
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This book was AWESOME. If you love horror and thriller stories, with a strong helping of mystery and just a pinch of fantasy, this collection is for you! I loved the entire book, every single story, and I would really love to read more of Otsuichi's work in the future. Gosh, I feel like it's been a long while since I enjoyed a book this much. I wish I could articulate my pleasure more concisely. I guess it's hard to write a review when I feel like I'm just going to keep repeating, "This was great! And this was great!" I suppose I can at least sum up my experience like this: the writing is a perfect balance of easy to read and tricky. The author knows how to keep you at a pleasant level of confused and rewards you with delicious comprehension at just the right moment. All the stories are gory and dark but they include other elements that keep it from being gratuitous, sickening, or annoying. I don't go out of my way to read horror books, so it's extremely rewarding to have this be one of the few I've tried!
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这大概是我能承受的恐怖的极限了，读得时候好几次感到太压抑而不得不停下来，深夜一个人肯定是不敢看的了……但是这不意味着这是一本非常恐怖的小说，客观来说也没有涉及非常暴力血腥的画面，算是心理上的恐怖系吧，很有夏天的味道，环境描写和情节的反差很大……
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I'm stuck between 3 and 4 stars on this one. The title story was interesting and kept me on the edge of my seat, but it's one of those infuriating stories where justice is nearly reached before being snatched away until the end when . Maybe some people like that, but it's not my cup of tea. The second story was more interesting and just as strange for me. Ultimately, I'm giving it 4 stars because the author was seventeen years old when he wrote at least the first tale, making it all the more impressive.
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Othsuichi is not for me!
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