Ein abgelegener Ort in den japanischen Bergen wird einer Gruppe von Besuchern zum Verhängnis - wer kann dem Iwaiyama entkommen?
Die Autorin Minami steht in Tokio unter enormem Druck: Die Deadline für ihren neuen Horrorroman rückt näher – doch die richtigen Worte wollen ihr nicht mehr einfallen. Da meldet sich plötzlich Asako, eine frühere Freundin, und bittet Minami um Hilfe.
Asako erzählt von einem Ausflug auf einen abgelegenen Berg, von einer düsteren Ruine, und von einem Schrein, den man besser nicht betreten hätte. Vier Menschen waren dort – und keiner von ihnen ist unverändert zurückgekehrt. Seitdem geschehen Dinge, die sich jeder Erklärung entziehen.
Je mehr Minami hört, je mehr sie die verstörenden Fotografien des Ortes betrachtet, desto stärker gerät sie selbst in den Bann der Geschichte. Was als Recherche beginnt, dringt bald in ihr eigenes Leben ein. Geräusche, Schatten, Erinnerungen – und eine Angst, die sie nicht mehr abschütteln kann.
Fasziniert und zunehmend beunruhigt beginnt Minami zu recherchieren und stößt auf beängstigende alte Legenden über den Berg.
Als die Situation eskaliert, muss Minami erkennen, dass sie nicht länger nur Beobachterin ist. Was in den Bergen begann, hat Tokio längst erreicht – und fordert seinen Preis.
My thoughts:
A former colleague of mine asked me if I knew this book and while I didn't, I got my hands on a free copy of an ebook, so here I am.
This book is a little bit weird in the way that I felt like I'm doing homework while reading. I knew most words and references to "new religion" (them being cults) but when it came to what a tokonoma is I had to fold and google (it's... a decorative room inside of a room...?).
The story follows the author Minami, who is a free author living in Tokyo. She writes mostly horror stories for a living and her next book is due in a few months. As she struggles, she gets a mail from an old friend, Asako, and a few months later, after another mail from Asako, the two of them meet up. The story then unfolds in the form of a looming threat above the group of five people, because four of them did something at a "Ghost Spot" that they shouldn't have done.
I liked the horror aspect of this book a lot since it was actual dread and not just gore - Horror is not a synonym of Gore, those are two wholly different genres! I also liked the little peaks into japanese folklore that we got and how Minami believed in those things. I am so tired of protagonists being aloof and non-believing but then still doing all the stuff necessary to get rid of the evil entity.
I read one review of this book (on reddit of all places) that criticized that there was no character development in this book and hm. That's right, there was none! But this book was about 130 pages long, so I actually didn't expect any. And some characters did change a lot, so, again, hmmm.
All in all I liked the book, though I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't at least a bit familiar with japanese culture. The things that got mentioned in passing and that the reader was expected to know was a lot. Which is fair! This is a book by a japanese author, living in japan, writing for japanese people! If I mention Weißwurst and Sauerkraut or Fischbrötchen in my non-existing North Sea Crime Novel set in germany and written for german people, then I expect my reader to know them, too.
