The trippy and questionable science at the surface of One Word Kill barely detracts from or adds to the novel’s fairly stereotypical coming-of-age style story. Not an astounding work but a fair one with its moments. If only it felt more like itself.
Tag: Novels
Jeff Long’s The Descent is a hefty novel overfull of plot and characters, many elements that are simply too underdeveloped to stand up to their own weight. Still, throughout its labyrinthine plotlines and setting, there are many elements that make it an interesting read.
Though published before Strange Pictures, this novel has been released as something like a spiritual successor to its follow-up in the English-reading world. Jim Rion does another great job of translating Uketsu’s work. This time, it follows a mystery that begins with discussing strange aspects of a house’s floor plan and then grows from there, culminating in a decently creepy story though the author (and translator) have left purposeful gaps in knowledge. It initially argues its central mystery from first principles and architectural drawings – i.e., how oddities in a floor plan might be linked to murder without any other proof besides a sort of Socratic debate. The abstract nature of the first half combined with the much more definite – and darker – nature of the second half might turn off some readers, but fans of Japanese mysteries, architecturally-themed mysteries, and mysteries that try something a bit unique: it should satisfy.