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book notes
title: Strange Picturesauthor: Uketsu, Jim Rion
published: 1.14.2025
publisher: HarperVia
source: Kindle Unlimited
genre(s): horror, mystery
pages: 236
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:
the blurb
The spine-tingling bestseller that has taken Japan by storm—an eerie fresh take on horror for fans of Hidden Pictures and Junji Ito, in which a series of seemingly innocent pictures draws you into a disturbing web of unsolved mysteries and shattered psyches.
An exploration of the macabre, where the seemingly mundane takes on a terrifying significance. . . .
A pregnant woman's sketches on a seemingly innocuous blog conceal a chilling warning.
A child's picture of his home contains a dark secret message.
A sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments leads an amateur sleuth down a rabbithole that will reveal a horrifying reality.
Structured around these nine childlike drawings, each holding a disturbing clue, Uketsu invites readers to piece together the mystery behind each and the over-arching backstory that connects them all. Strange Pictures is the internationally bestselling debut from mystery horror YouTube sensation Uketsu—an enigmatic masked figure who has become one of Japan's most talked about contemporary authors.
a few notes
trigger warnings: child abuse, family dysfunction
POV: 3rd person
setting: Japan
keywords/phrases: murder, mystery, interactive
tropes: puzzles, unreliable narrators, red herrings
spice: 0/5
language: 0/5
awards: British Book Award Nominee for Fiction (2025), Waterstones Book of the Year Nominee (2024)
my review
The book is written in four parts, which feel instead like a collection of four interconnected stories that come together to reveal the overarching story. Interestingly, there is no single detective role that attempts to solve the various mysteries. Instead, there are various characters who fill that role, coming and going to leave the reader to fill that role as well. The book is interactive in that, sprinkled throughout, are drawings that contain hidden clues.
There are some rather deep themes prominent in this novel, particularly those of child abuse and parent-child dynamics. The story delves into the exploration of the impact that dysfunction and abuse can have on children, and into how that affects them later in life.
I quite enjoyed the unique take on storytelling, the way it involves the reader in the solving of the mystery.
When faced with true sorrow, people lose even the strength to shed tears.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2026 52 Books Reading Challenge
- 2026 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge: Author Edition
- 2026 Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge
- 2026 Linz the Bookworm & Logophile Reading Challenge
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