Shiver by Junji Ito

This entry is part 2 of 23 in the series 2023 Reads

I’m continuing with posting about the books I’ve read. The tag has changed to #booksread2023, but not much has changed: the posts get published with some lag—though I’m trying to shorten the lag a little, too. I’d had a reservation request on file with the local branch of the National Library for Shiver since sometime in early December. It took someone a long time to get it back to the library, apparently. I assume it was in a pile with some lengthier books, because personally it took me less than 24 hours to finish this one. Shiver is a collection of …

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Dissolving Classroom by Junji Ito

This entry is part 56 of 56 in the series 2022 Reads

As with other posts in this series, these #booksread2022 posts get published with some lag. I’m trying to be more punctual, though, and this one’s very recent. One last Junji Ito comic for the year. Dissolving Classroom was… okay? It didn’t really impress me, though, as it felt even more episodic—and though there was an effort to bring things back in the end, it felt half-hearted and unconvincing to me. This one was on felt like I just didn’t really get. Maybe too much of the same guy’s work all at once, I don’t know. Or maybe, having started with …

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Smashed and Tomie by Junji Ito

This entry is part 53 of 56 in the series 2022 Reads

As with other posts in this series, these #booksread2022 posts get published with some lag. I’m trying to be more punctual, though, and this one’s very recent. So, this post digs into two manga collections by Ito Junji: Smashed and Tomie.  When I recently posted about Uzumaki the other day, I said I’d probably read Tomie next, but I ended up picking up his anthology of shorter horror comics Smashed the other day, and finishing it within 24 hours. It felt very much like the horror comics I read as a kid: short, spicy, and punchy tales that exploded on …

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Uzumaki by Junji Ito

This entry is part 54 of 56 in the series 2022 Reads

As with other posts in this series, these #booksread2022 posts get published with some lag. I’m trying to be more punctual, though, and this one’s very recent. I’ve continued making my way through a stack of Junji Ito books from a local library. I’ve even less of a manga reader than a comics reader, but I’m enjoying these.

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Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur

This entry is part 52 of 56 in the series 2022 Reads

As with other posts in this series, these #booksread2022 posts get published with some lag. I’m trying to be more punctual, though, and this one’s very recent. Cursed Bunny is a collection of nightmares: curses gone infectious, an impossible pregnancy, a real estate horror, a fantasy set in a mythic desert, a few ghost stories with surprising twists. I was delighted to find a copy just sitting there on the shelf at one of our local libraries, crying out to be read.    I can understand why people have made comparisons to Angela Carter (despite my being only slightly familiar …

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