A collection of stories with drawings as clues, this translated mystery horror was very unique and captivating. I would consider it more mystery than horror but still very eerie and macabre.

I was so excited to read Strange Pictures - a Japanese horror mystery centered around a collection of unsettling and strange drawings, each holding macabre clues that tie them back to a series of gruesome and seemingly unrelated crimes. And written by a mysterious, masked figure? I can see how it has taken Japan by storm - the premise is fantastic. And it started off strong. Unfortunately, I'd have to say that the last third of the novel, when the mystery is coming together and beginning to be solved, doesn't fully hold up. The motivations behind each murder seem a bit underdeveloped, and in particular, the characterization of the villains of the story (of which there are several) leaves a lot to be desired, veering into two-dimensional caricatures of "evil" that fell a bit flat for me. That being said, I'd still recommend this to certain horror and mystery fans - I think younger readers and teens wouldn't be so put off by the lack of character development, and those who really love puzzles and the challenge of solving the mystery before the protagonists would still definitely enjoy Strange Pictures. Thank you to HarperVia and NetGalley for this e-ARC!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback. Creepy, but also a gripping mystery. Ties together impressively.

Thank you, Uketsu, HarperVia and NetGalley, for the ARC.

This was an intricate and unique little book! I found myself reading long past my bedtime into the wee hours of the morning just to finish!

i received an e-ARC from NetGalley and am giving this review voluntarily

I LOVED this. Seriously, could not get enough. Read until I couldn’t keep my eyes open last night and first thing I did this morning was finish it. This was seriously brilliant, I loved how intricately everything was interwoven. This was the perfect length and an incredible story and mystery. I loved how it started and how the ending really and truly wrapped everything together. This was incredibly written, by someone who truly understands mysteries and storytelling

A unique reading experience of interconnected stories where each has a picture/pictures that act as a puzzle to solve. Ex. A child's drawing is examined by a psychoanalyst, the drawings of a deceased mother contain a secret message, an artist's last drawing contains a hidden message revealing the killer. Each story is contained but are all interconnected in ways that are fun to figure out.

This is billed as horror, but it felt more like a crime mystery to me. (I've noticed that books from Japan are often billed as horror when they involve a murder/death versus in the US where that same book would likely just be billed as a thriller/mystery)

Regardless, though, the format, pictures, and interconnectedness of the stories tickled my brain. I've never read anything quite like this, but I enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the pictures and seeing how the same picture(s) can be reinterpreted and "solved" for that story's mystery.

I'd recommend this for fans of mystery, puzzles / brain teasers, and books translated from Japanese.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for an advance copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Uketsu and NetGalley, for the ARC. I leave this review voluntarily and happily. Also, thank you publishers for your hard work!

I know if you follow my reviews, it seems I keep saying that the past few books are unique, but listen, this book blows those all out of the water! I love the use of pictures and the other details that were put into this, but It makes it so much more intriguing, and I couldn't stop reading through this book. I just had to know how it ended, which of course ended up with my phone on my face in the middle of the night. Just as this book is written, you don't expect how things end up until you see the connections coming together. Each section is like a different story, and it makes you very interested in looking at other people's art and wanting to know what their art is really saying.

When you look at drawings, is that what you think? That it's just a drawing. What if there was more to them. What if there were hidden messages or meaning in them, and all you had to do was just pay closer attention. They could be dark or happy meanings but looking much closer at these there is a story for each one and here we will explore what they are telling us and more.

This book definitely hits in my favorites this year. I loved learning about different ways pictures can tell a story and definitely be hiding something that isn't subtle. It definitely earned its stars from me.

I was drawn to this book because it sounded weird and creepy, and it was definitely weird, and a little creepy. I also saw that it is popular in Japan, so that drew my interest. Strange Pictures is made up of different stories revolving around these strange drawings. The stories are all linked and form a bigger picture of what is happening by the end.

I loved the concept of this book. It felt similar to Hidden Pictures. I love when books include drawings and other types of multimedia. It just makes the story more interesting.

This was a very fast read and the story definitely kept me intrigued. Each story involved characters trying to decipher clues in these strange drawings. A lot of what happened seemed way too out there and unbelievable. Some things just made no sense to me.

This was definitely a unique and strange book that I think lovers of weird fiction will enjoy.

3.5⭐️

Thank you to the publisher for providing an eARC via NetGalley for review.

This was such a fun read! I loved putting together the mystery along with the characters. Everything came together really nicely.

This was a fun mystery where each chapter revealed a connection to the previous one. The addition of drawings as clues was also an innovative twist.

I wasn't a fan. I don't know what to so say. I just didn't like it. I read about half and it just wasn't for me I guess. Sorry,

I'd recommend going into this one blind because guessing at and discovering the connections between the stories was one of the most rewarding and engaging bits of this book. The author incorporated the titular "strange pictures" into the stories so they were a facet of the mystery rather than just a gimmick (unlike some others -- looking at you, Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak).

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was an interesting concept! I liked the mixing of photos, drawings and logic puzzles. Some of the puzzle results were a little lack luster in terms of "scare" but all in all it was fun.

This is such a cool concept for a book! I've been a little obsessed and showing/describing how the pictures in the book are laid out and explained.

I think this would be a good one to have a physical copy for and maybe even paper that let you layer the images yourself.

I love how the story was enhanced with the drawings and woven together. I really enjoyed the book and will check out more about this mysterious author!

Thank you to NetGalley, Uketsu, Jim Rion, and HarperVia for the opportunity to read Strange Pictures. I have written this review voluntarily and honestly.

3 stars.

Translated from the Japanese by Jim Rion.

This is billed as mystery/horror; each of the three stories revolves around drawings, the first is about the pregnant partner of a blogger, the second a primary school child and the last a murder victim. There is a mystery within each and an overarching backstory that ties the three together.

This sounds way more interesting than it turns out to be, unfortunately. It’s also not mystery/horror, it’s just mystery. It is, however, a wonderful concept and the book definitely has the tenor of Japanese mysteries….if you’ve ever read any, you’ll know what I mean. It’s just a better idea than it is when executed here. According to the copy on the book the author, “Uketsu” is an enigma in Japan and the book is very popular there. Cannot confirm. But I’m huge in Belgium.

Thank you to Harpervia Publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Strange Pictures by Uketsu. Artists, visual artists in particular, require not only vision and skill, also a kind of compositional and stylistic know-how—the ability to not just represent what they see, but also to tie the lines, colors, and shapes together into some kind of meaningful whole—to build on parts for a synthesis, often creating something new or unique. Uketsu, the pseudonym of a writer and visual artist in Japan, has uniquely done this through both images and stories based on the images. Strange Pictures is Uketsu’s first published work translated into English. According to the author bio at the end of this book, Uketsu only appears online and masked, where he has published other sketch mysteries. I haven’t checked these out, but after reading Strange Pictures I am more intrigued about what these sketch mysteries might be like and whether they are other stories that are different narratives, but stylistically related to the four stories in this book.

I definitely enjoyed this book. There are four stories that all feature drawings. The story is framed by a child psychologist sharing an picture created by a client. Dr. Hagio walks us (and the class) through an analysis of the image, examining finer details of the drawing and suggesting aspects of the artists/client’s character and psychology. In many ways, readers (and characters) will also apply these analytical skills to the other stories and the drawings they feature. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but the stories are all somewhat different. We do learn about the common underlying thread that links them all by the end of the story—and I think this is mentioned in other reviews. I won’t give it away, but from my reading, I enjoyed knowing this and trying to figure out how the stories were connected.

I liked the first two stories the most. Both had some kind of supernatural and ghostly quality to them. I especially liked how strange and mysterious the first story was. Yet it was also somewhat relatable and kind of like a creepy pasta story. Two college students, members of their paranormal club, gather together to discuss a mysterious blog that starts of seemingly normal, but eventually devolves into a sad story of the death of a wife in childbirth. The posts between the beginning and the end document the couple’s pregnancy and feature “Strange Pictures” that are somehow linked. The final post also presents another twist to the mystery, and sets the two members off on a quest to see how the images are related. I’m not quite sure how they figured it out, but it is a really inventive story and use of images to further the plot. Plus, I found the whole aspect of examining an older blog and speculating about the author’s life to be fascinating (and something I’ve done as well). It was cool to see how the author used this medium and some of the personal clues to kind of create and try to solve a mystery of this person’s life. The other stories don’t use drawings in the same way, although the third story “The Art Teacher’s Final Drawing”, does make more use of the image than stories from Chapter 2 or 4. Chapter 3’s story about an art teacher’s murder is the longest, and is more like a mystery. There were definitely parts that were compelling, but also some parts that were somewhat unbelievable. The mystery really centers on some highly technical information that isn’t probably common knowledge, and I’m not sure how someone would find out. However, I kind of found the murdered art teacher, Miura, a little humorous. He was described as not a very likeable person, someone who was quick to anger, and people close to him didn’t seem that upset by his death. This was mentioned repeatedly and seemed much different from other characters who are murdered in mysteries. Regardless, it is a compelling mystery and kept me guessing and reading. Similarly, Chapter 2’s story “The Smudged Room” relies on knowledge of kanji to interpret what happens in the drawing. It is an interesting story, and there are some kind of mysterious and creepy elements to it as well. The final chapter also ties things together, and it was a quick read.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and I loved the use of images and pictures to further the stories. I can’t wait to check out Uketsu’s other online work to read more of these kinds of sketch mysteries. This book was a quick and enjoyable read. Very unique and interesting, and I hope that there are more Uketsu books to come.

I wasn't familiar with author/Youtuber Uketsu prior to reading this short novel, but the cover had me intrigued and the blurb from Janice Hallett convinced me to give the book a try.

The book opens with a college student stumbling across a defunct blog that contains a series of drawings which conceal a much darker truth. The following chapters seem to veer off onto different stories centered around separate drawings of completely different origins and styles, but the reader soon realizes that these stories are intertwined into a larger whole.

The content of the mysteries reminded me of the tone I would expect from anime, and the level of complexity of the mysteries and the amount to which they were "talked through" reminded me very much of the Ace Attorney series of video games. Neither of these comparisons are meant as a slight to the book as I am a fan of many anime series and adore the Ace Attorney games. However, they are not to everyone's taste. and I think that this book will have limited appeal as well. The reading level feel a bit juvenile, but that may be due in part to the translation. It is difficult to know.

For mystery readers looking for an interesting, international twist on the genre, this book is worth checking out. It might also be an appealing choice for high school readers who are getting introduced to the genre.

Special thanks to Harper via and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

While I love pictures, reading and mystery, clashing pictures and these stories did not work for me, at all. The pictures were very, how do I put this, childlike maybe, and juvenile and I felt any drawing Uneasy used to the solving of the mysteries, could have been any picture worked into the story, because I can draw a picture right and glean any clue from it I want to.

I really was excited to get this book. What a real letdown for me. Good concept but not executed.

I believe the biggest issue I encountered with the book was the translation. Unfortunately, it did not do the story justice. Much of the dialogue felt unnatural, almost reminiscent of AI-generated text. There was a lot of telling instead of showing; for example, phrases like "[character] was happy" were common.

On a positive note, I enjoyed the puzzle aspect of the story. The intricacies of the plot and how everything unfolded kept me hooked. The mystery aspect made me eager to continue reading. From what I’ve learned about the author, I am intrigued by their anonymity and am excited to explore their other works online.

I truly believe that a better translation of this book could resolve my issues with the reading experience and elevate it to a 4 or 5-star read. I honestly wish I could read it in the original language.

The concept of this book sounded very interesting. Sadly the writing style was just not for me and the stories fell flat.