Tombs - Junji Ito

By

⭐7.5/10

This is a collection of Japanese manga short horror stories. So ya know, a bit different than my usuals! I should also mention that I got this free at a little library in Toronto which is super cool, and I read it pretty quickly. 

It's super hard for me to know how to rate this. I have zero context with which to place it. I had heard the name Junji Ito before, but this is actually the first manga of any type that I've ever read. On the one hand, I really enjoyed it and was always happy to go through them, flying through each story in fifteen minutes. On the other, I can't say I felt anything too strongly throughout, and certainly never felt, like, scared. And yet I found these stories quite compelling, some of them super creepy and twisted and like they could be the backdrop for an awesome novel or movie. But my more prevailing thought was that rather than being great short stories, that these were beginnings of ideas that needed to better fleshed out. Just as they were getting good, they were over! 

That probably means I'd better enjoy one of his longer works, but alas, look at those prices. That said, I couldn't help but be impressed with the number of cool ideas here, most being wildly creative and offering just enough to get under your skin. It does that awesome thing in horror where it sparks the imagination and gets you asking all sorts of questions, and then because this is short fiction, can end before it needs to answer them.

There were certainly quirks i didn't enjoy, similar to that Ghibli quality where the stories get a little too creative and stop meaning anything to me. I also was consistently puzzled by characters' reactions to the horrifying things going on around them, often being seemingly super accepting. I think horror is harder to reckon with in the modern age because when supernatural things start to happen, it oddly all stays super well-contained and nobody seems to bother to inform, like, the president? 

Anyways, those are all pretty minor quibbles. This was a super fun entry into manga for me from one of it's all-time writers, and I'd love to get into it more one day. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Philosopher in the Valley & My Reflections on Leaving Palantir

By
Image
This book was perfectly timed to my paternity leave, a time where I was not actively working and could reflect on my job. The post will be a short review of the book, followed by a much longer section where I will attempt to verbalize all my thoughts on Palantir. Thoughts on my time there, what I did and didn't like, and why I am leaving. I am not writing this as some manifesto. I have been explaining to a bunch of people in my life why I have been considering leaving, and my thoughts never feel coherent, the reasons change day to day. This is for myself to reflect, and I might even continue to edit it as I remember things. I thought this book was excellent, a biography of Alex Karp, but also a tale of Palantir's history. The author was around Karp for an extended period of time, providing a lot of details that even I did not know. It lays out all the Palantir milestones over the years, many of which I remember quite clearly, but hearing about it with a bit more distance is co...
Read more

My Favourite Books of 2025

By
Image
    I read a lot of books this year as usual, and spanning a ton of different genres and categories. That's pretty evident in my favourites as well, as I have a book or two from most of the genres I read, and I loved them all for different reasons.     Most of these will be repeats from some of my monthly favourites, but these are the ones that really stood the test of time! Here they are, in no particular order.      This fantasy book from an underrated author is about Maeve, whose hands were badly burnt as a child, and so she has lost the use of them. She has spent the last ten years with her aunt and uncle, who were healers, but now she's finally returning home to the family she barely knows anymore. She feels misplaced as they're still adjusting to how she needs to do things now, but she finds solace in her youngest brother and the stray dogs she adopts. When they all disappear into the forest one day, she goes after them, and adventures begin....
Read more

July Reading Favourites

By
Image
Look at that cover! This is a YA horror book written by a trans Canadian author that knocked my socks off. A small town has secrets it's trying to hide, and after the death of a boy and a newcomer arriving, things start slipping out of control. It's a book about being trans or queer and living in a small town, and how a community creating a facade of a perfect town can backfire. Also maybe closing your eyes to anything that's "not your business" is not good actually! It's violent and full of rage, and I loved the way it played with time and perspective. Check the triggers, but if you're interested in reading it, I'd recommend going in blind without looking at reviews or a longer description! This is a short book of essays about ableism and disability justice, specifically relating to technological advances for disabled people. Most of the essays focus on a different type of technology for different disabilities (prosthetics, hearing aids, cures for aut...
Read more