Koji Suzuki: The Ring and Dark Water
book review, horror books
Halfway through The Ring by Koji Suzuki (“ringu”) I realized I’ve not seen any film adaptations. On the other hand, how would that have happened, knowing what difficult time I have just sitting through a movie on my own? I’ve watched it since though, it’s pretty good, yeah.
The book is very tense, all the horror parts are condensed within these few, awful spots. Sadako had a strange ability to alienate people with her oddness. So, in a sense, her disappearance surprised no one. What might come as a surprise instead, or an explanation to hostility everyone felt towards her is that in the place of her death appeared a portal to hell. When a bunch of youths came to stay in a cottage near that portal, unawares, of course, Sadako used her willpower from beyond to make a video tape for them to find. The rest is history as we know it. Youths die one after another within seven days. And the tape eventually finds its way to a journalist. He watches it, and gets a call, a ring…
A pretty good book, one of my favorites when it comes to horror. Solid 4/5.
Second book by Koji Suzuki was “Dark Water”, and it was just as battered as the previous one. Almost like someone got proper scared by it. It contains several stories, a fact I missed when checking it out. And whilst at first, I thought I’ll review each one, think it’s best if I just provide the vibe.
Prologue and epilogue are told from the same exact point, so to speak. This elderly lady, her surroundings and adventures whilst living by the ocean, where she eagerly awaits holidays. During those, her little granddaughter comes around. Together they walk on the beach, and the girl begs gran to tell her more scary stories about things she found washed up ashore.
As I understand, the stories are what she tells the kid, whether true or not. They varied in levels of interest and horror. But it remained enjoyable, so, a 4 out of 5 again, and goes to my favorites too.