Weird, but compelling: A review of Uketsu’s Strange Houses

I read Uketsu’s Strange Houses. Why, you ask, did I read the second book in a series that I knew nothing about? Because I had a flat tyre, and I was waiting for it to be fixed, and this was the only book my friend had at hand. And I had a good time reading it.

As I come to understand since then, Uketsu is an elusive online Japanese personality who makes short films and writes horror and mystery novels. And this is the second “Strange _____” book he has released, after Strange Pictures, and this is followed by Strange Buildings.

Coming back to the book, it is quite a strange read, with no intended reference to the title of the book. All of the mysteries are contained within the floor plans of these houses, and the author and his draughtsman friend, Kirihara decipher the secrets of these houses from them. Of main interest are the few houses they discover, which had walled empty spaces which have no apparent entrances. And they conjecture that these are “murder houses” and the empty spaces simply depict tunnels or spaces to travel between rooms in the house which would otherwise not be connected. Many times through the book, the characters have jumped to, honestly, absurd conclusions based on the information they have. Now, the book was engrossing enough that these did not stand out too much, and the actual thing that they jumped to wasn’t too absurd to be believable. But to get to that based on the evidence they had was absurd.

Without getting into spoilers, the things that they stumble upon are very creepy and horrible, in a very Japanese way. And the book ends by putting forward a few possibilities which are also pretty mind-bending. Despite all the qualms I have with this, I’d still recommend it. It’s a very innovative way to present a mystery, and the 2-ish hours it took me to finish the book were very enjoyable.