Uzumaki Review

 Hello Interwebs!

Three posts in as many days! I'm on a roll for my days off this week (don't expect this to continue although I'm hoping to finish one more book before I have to go back to work at six on Thursday evening). This book review is for Uzumaki by Junji Ito. This is a three volume horror manga that was published in a single volume in 2013. I read this book from October 7-12th and gave it a very happy 4.5 star rating. This is going to be a short and sweet review with no spoilers for once so just enjoy a picture of the book.  

This is my first completed manga and my first real delve into Japanese horror (aside from the novel Ring which the movie is based off of) and I was definitely not disappointed. In this book you follow a town on the Japanese coast called Kurouzu-cho which is contaminated with spirals. Specifically you follow a teenage girl, Kirie, and her boyfriend Shuichi as they deal with the weird goings on about their town. This book was both episodic and had an overarching storyline, especially the second volume. You have stories of people who become spirals, vampiric pregnancies, zombie jack in the boxes, killer storms, and people who become snails. 

Like I said I don't intend to have any spoilers in this review but it's safe to say there were no happy endings here and nothing good really happens to anyone at any point in the story. It was creepy and dark and twisted (pun partially intended) and I absolutely loved the art style, which was very much a Tim Burton kind of art style. 

I loved this book and I highly recommend this as a jump-off point for either horror Manga or for Junji Ito, who I've heard is the reigning king of horror Manga. I fully intend to read more of his work and might be making a trip to Barnes and Noble to see what else they have because I have issues with delayed gratification. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle