“Strange Houses” follows the author as he researches into the phenomenon of a house with a very strange floor plan as a request from one of his friends. What follows is an even stranger sequence of events and disturbing theories.

The story is moved forward primarily by extensive dialogue between the author and a few other characters; usually his architect friend, Kurihara, who is the mind behind the most alarming of the theories surrounding the houses. Interspersed throughout the narrative are visuals of the various strange floor plans of homes, which were massively helpful and made for a fun element.

I think my favorite thing about this book was that I could never predict where it was headed, which I enjoyed immensely. It’s not often that I can’t predict the ending of horror or thriller novels, having consumed a crazy amount of them, but this took me by surprise at every turn. The cult-y element was intriguing, as well, especially considering how it plays into the overall narrative. Highly recommend!

A writer is asked by his friend who is looking at buying house for his opinion on the schematics which show an odd dead space in the drawing. The writer shows it to an architect friend, and between them they surmise something possibly nefarious about the house. After he writes about the experience, a woman approaches him with information about a similar house and a tragic story which only solidifies the speculations he and th architect had. As they delve deeper into the story of the houses, they soon find a sordid family history with shocking revelations.
Much like Uketsu's previous Strange Pictures, this book quickly entrenches the reader in a unique kind of mystery, full of schematics that are much more than they initially appear. While the purpose behind the strange architecture that the two friends speculate on seems rather over-the-top and strange to come up with merely due to oddities in the layout, but they do open the way for an addictive, mesmerizing story. The one major weakness in the book is its finale, which felt somewhat underwhelming and unfinished. Otherwise, this is a fun, exhilarating, unique kind of mystery tinged with horror.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for an ARC of Strange Houses.

I was late to the game reading Strange Pictures, but as soon as I finished it I added Strange Houses to my TBR so I was really excited to receive an early copy. I think I actually enjoyed this more than Strange Pictures because I was more accustomed to the formatting this time. Overall, a really fun and unique concept! It felt like a mix between a book, a puzzle and an escape room. Definitely recommend if you are looking for a quick, odd, and clever read.

4.5 stars

One of my worst recurring nightmares is about bedrooms that can only be accessed by crossing through other bedrooms. Of course I'm all in on a horror novel called Strange Houses that promises creepy blueprints. And they are creepy! I had fun pouring over them as they were presented.

Strange Houses is told by an unnamed author who is contacted by a friend for advice about a home that his young family is interested in buying. He is concerned about a "dead space" in the kitchen for seemingly no purpose and the fact that the home was newly built a year ago and already abandoned by the family who built it. The friend sends along blueprints for review by our author. The author consults with another friend who happens to be an architect. Together they discover that the format of the home is very strange, indeed, and what secret ritual the walls may have hidden, terrifying.

The excitement builds with the gradual introduction of more blueprints, more details, and more characters as our author explores the mystery. While our author does find some answers, he also finds more questions. This is a book that you could re-read and continue to spin theories. I may just do that.

I enjoyed this--I read it straight through without stopping because I found the mystery so compelling. I only wish I could have intuited a few more answers on my own, so I could feel like I was a part of "solving" the thing. A quick, fun, and very creepy read.

*Thank you to HarperVia and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my feedback.

Having loved Strange Pictures, I was eager to read more by Uketsu. Well, I flew through this book in less than three hours! It was impossible to put down once I started reading because I had to know what was going to happen. The blueprints in Strange Houses lead to an incredibly chilling discovery. I noticed a lot of weird things when I looked at them, but I never would have guessed something so horrifying was happening. This story is creepy and disturbing and I loved it, but I'm not sure about the ending. It gave me chills, but it was also more open than I prefer. I believe there are YouTube videos, manga and a Strange Houses 2, so I'm not sure if the story is continued elsewhere or not. Either way, I highly recommend this creeptastic little book and I can't wait to read more by Uketsu!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperVia for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Strange Houses.

Since this is Japanese horror, you know it's gonna be cuckoo! And boy, is it!

The unnamed author in the story is approached by an acquaintance about a house with strange floor plans he's interested in purchasing for himself and his family.

This sends the author on a curious investigation as to why the house was built in this way and for what sinister purposes.

There's a definite Ready or Not and Cabin in the Woods vibe to this plot; it's creepy and bizarre and outlandish and abandon all disbelief at the door before you enter these strange houses.

There's no character development in this sparse novellas as it centers around only a few characters and the author is merely an instigator and chronicler.

This is a strange story and not for everyone but this is why I love Japanese horror.

They go all out and make no excuses for it.

These books are a hit in Japan, and it’s not hard to see why. Creepy, easy to read and very entertaining, it was hard to put down. The characters are not too well-developed but it doesn’t matter, as they are in service of the story. And what a story it is! OK, you do need to leave any sense plausibility at the door, but I enjoyed it enormously. It’s like a big jigsaw puzzle that the author builds with the help of an architect friend, and the reader. The action happens in three houses. All we see is the plans and there are small details that don’t make sense. One I got immediately (a master bedroom with no easy access to a toilet? Old people will probably catch on!), but the rest were harder to notice. I’m not sure how the characters went from what was obvious to their theory, but it was fun and full of twists. The final reveal involved many names that made it confusing to me, but it is not the fault of the novel that it’s hard for me to understand Japanese names. Still, it’s a lot of fun,
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/HarperVia.

I didn’t expect a floor plan to scare me. not until I read this book.

At first, the story feels almost normal you know, a writer investigating a strange house for sale in Tokyo. But the deeper you go, the more you realize that the true horror isn’t in what’s said, it’s in what’s hidden. Tiny dead spaces between walls, doorways that lead nowhere, rooms that don’t quite make sense. Every floor plan in this book felt like peeling back a layer of something rotten just beneath the surface. Reading it made me feel like I was part of the investigation, studying each plan and trying to spot the flaws before it was too late. And somehow, the quiet, methodical uncovering of the house’s secrets unsettled me more than any jump scare ever could. I kept looking away lol

There’s something deeply wrong about seeing a place that should feel safe (a home) and realizing it was never meant for people to live in. Maybe not even meant for people at all. Even after I finished it, I caught myself looking at my own walls a little differently… wondering if there was something just out of sight, hidden where I couldn’t reach.

This book was so unsettling it creeped me out. It's the kind of horror that follows you home. 4 ⭐️

Thank you so much HarperVia for the ARC. I read this in one sitting it was such a page turner.

SPOOKY! I had chills the entire time I was reading this book. A house with dead space hidden between the walls. What is the purpose behind the houses disturbing design?

What a chilling short story. So many twists and turns. I just couldn’t put it down. I really enjoy Uketsu’s writing style, it’s so different and creepy. There’s always just enough going on in his stories to keep you invested and entertained without feeling like the story is dragging on.

I really enjoyed Strange Pictures so I was really excited when I saw he was coming out with another book.

I’d definitely recommend checking out Strange Pictures and then Strange Houses when it comes out on June 3rd 2025!

Thank you so much NetGalley, HarperVia and Uketsu for the eARC!

Rating: ✨✨✨✨

#StrangeHouses #NetGalley

By the time I read this, I’d already read (most of) the manga adaptation and, I’ll be honest, the manga is both much easier to follow and much more compelling. So much of this story is dialogue that without seeing the characters and their active engagement with the various floor plans, the story loses some of its impact. And because so much of it is dialogue (and speculation at that) we kind of lose some of that “so what” - because it lacks the immediacy of having those characters actually involved. The “author” character never directly interacts with any of the perpetrators or suspects and never enters any of the buildings, so it all feels a little unmoored.

It’s still wildly imaginative and I would definitely want to read other works by the author - but maybe the manga adaptations if they’re quite so unanchored.

My thanks to NetGalley and HarperVia for an advance copy of this book that is both a written and visual mystery about the strange architecture of a simple house, and what dark secrets it might hold.

One of my favorite quotes is from the science fiction writer, scientist, giant pulsating brain and more Isaac Asimov. "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...". I have found this quote useful in a lot of different ways, and it holds up well. I am sure many a scientist has said it, about DNA, LSD and other things that have changed the world. I am sure more than a few philosophers have said this too, when looking at the sky they suddenly thought of something that could change the way humans see themselves. This quote is also how this story begins, one of a simple favor to a family, and expanding into something more. Something far darker than anyone expected. Strange Houses is the second book by the mysterious author known only as Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion from the Japanese and is s story about walls, plans, family legacies, and the darkness that people are willing to do to keep power and wealth.

The author is talking to a young family who is looking at a house in Japan. Everything seems fine, but there the family gets a feeling that something is wrong. The house looks great, is fairly new, but the family left quickly one night. The author knowing an architect tells the family he will have his friend look at it and get his opinion. Looking at the plans the architect notices that there are strange walls and hallways in the small house. Walls that cut off rooms, a hallway that makes it hard to get around, even bathrooms that seem out of place. The architect is a fan of mysteries, and along with the author that begin to see strange scenarios to why this house is designed the way it it. The family contacts the author to tell him they are passing on the house, as a body has been found nearby with a missing left hand. Now the author and the architect are really intrigued, investigating the owners of the house, and the people involved. The more they find the darker and more twisted thing become.

The author Uketsu is known only by this alias, appears on media only wearing a mask and with a voice changer. Also, Uketsu writes some weird stuff. The book is both prose with lots of illustrations of three houses, all which factor into the mystery of what is going on. The writing is quite good, losing nothing in translation. The style is slowly unfolding mystery, with ideas appearing, being shot down, more ideas appearing, clues in both text and pictures, with a little bit of a red herring or two for fun. The plans of the house are well drawn, and are repeated enough that no flipping around in the book is needed. The mystery is dark, deep and pretty gruesome, with a lot at the end to wonder at the end. Once one starts reading it is hard to put down, and I pretty much read this in one sitting.

I fun story, with art, one that carefully unfolds and gets pretty dark fast. One doesn't need to have read Uketsu's first book, though I do recommend it. These are a lot of fun, and reward the reader in many ways.

I really liked Uketsu's first book "Strange Pictures" so I was excited to see what they had coming up next with "Strange Houses". While this book has the same focus on puzzle solving as the vehicle for the mystery, I felt like the story was not quite as well developed as "Strange Pictures". The story felt like it jumped to an extreme conclusion a bit too quickly, and the ending did not offer a lot of closure. Some threads were dropped entirely, such as the secret basement in the second house. I enjoyed it, just wish that it had gotten a bit more development before it went to the printers.

Thank you netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Really stumbled onto this one but wow. Unlike anything I have read before. Kind of like a more tragic and traumatic creepy pasta but the author is targeting you specifically. I don't know if that makes sense... it felt personal and like I was being put in the middle of some of these situations. Will def recommend. And will def leave this without warning on my friends bookshelf for them to stumble upon and question their existence.

Uketsu's Strange Houses is perfect for fans of books featuring odd architecture and buildings like "House of Leaves" and "We Used to Live Here." The premise is engaging: look at this blueprint and see what you notice. There is a lot that can be extrapolated just from this.

The author presents everything in a format that includes interviews, letters, blueprints, and a narrative framing the whole thing. Altogether, it gives the impression of found footage in written form. This format is quite effective at immersing the reader. Being as short as it is, "Strange Houses" really does feel like watching a quick documentary.

If you like dark tales of family secrets, crime, and cults, you will like this one.

In Strange Houses, author Uketsu once again delivers a uniquely chilling horror tale, weaving a narrative that invites readers to unravel its haunting mysteries alongside the characters. With every turn of the page, you're pulled deeper into a world where the familiar becomes frightening, and nothing is quite as it seems. Both eerie and deeply unsettling, this book masterfully blends psychological tension with supernatural dread. It’s another standout from Uketsu—and a must-add to your 2025 TBR list.

Strange Houses is a scary and wild short story. A friend reaches out to Uketsu about a house they are thinking about purchasing, but the floor plan is a tad bit strange.

Uketsu then decides to reach out to his architect friend to help him understand why it seems strange, but can't quite put his finger on it.

Then the architect comes up with this disturbing story about the reasons on the strange floor plan. And then a murder man was found near the house. Uketsu then writes a story about the house and a woman reaches out because her husband was murdered in the same way a missing left hand.

The story then takes on crazy twists and turns that go to these crazy dark places. It will keep you intrigued and captivated the entire time.

Wow what a story! I was hooked from page 1. The story is incredibly fun and easy to read while being thrilling and full of so many twists and turns! I really enjoyed this so much I want to purchase my own copy and read it again to see if I can discover any more hidden secrets!

4.5 stars, rounded to 5. Despite associating enjoyment with horror being a bit strange itself, I very much did. I have a paper copy of Strange Pictures that I’m looking forward to reading next.

Based on Strange Houses and the reading experience I imagine Strange Pictures to be, I think of Uketsu and Grady Hendrix as kindred spirits from different continents. Both share a similar sensitivity, though I can’t quite put my thumb on how to describe it. Maybe it’s the diagrams/artwork that accompanies it. Then again, maybe it’s a something else, like a distant cousin to Horrorstor.

Strange Houses is the story of a psychopathic killer family who builds or renovates the family home to support the family business of murder to contain the family secret within the walls.. This book - as all the Japanese books I’ve read and enjoy are - written from a distinctly Japanese POV, meaning they’re logically, rather than emotionally/intuitively driven. Murder and horror is chaotic, but through a Japanese lens almost becomes orderly and surgical and I mean that as a compliment.

Clever and unique in format and plot, reads fast, and had several twists I didn’t see coming. Not grisly or graphic, but not a cozy mystery either. Highly enjoyable reading experience and would definitely recommend to anyone who likes suspense and/or Japanese horror.

Strange Houses is an intersection between the horror I want (formatted transcripts, a 'found footage' vibe) and being the horror I hate (a 'thriller' described as horror, a show vs. tell approach). The result is just sort of meh.

Incredibly dry with little suspense, Strange Houses follow a writer and his friend's paranoid deductions about a house and the hypothetical murders which could've taken place based on the strange blueprints. It's a lot of paranoia, a lot of fanfiction-ication that I can't decide whether or not I'm supposed to take seriously, and a lot of delusion. It could've been fun if it was self aware - like if the characters knew they were being a bit wacky theorizing all the possible bloody nightmares which could've taken place within these strange buildings' homes, but the fantasy gives way to something more realistic, depressing, and nearly banal.

There's a lot of characters talking in this book - which is to be expected, since it relies mostly on transcripts of conversations and letters - but without a feeling of suspense or any descriptions giving us a certain aura, it's difficult to capture the atmosphere of the characters' world. There's a lot of heavy lifting on behalf of the reader to make this a horror.

It's not bad. This book is definitely for fans of Japanese fiction, specifically thrillers, but it lacked a lot of flavor for me.

Strange Houses is the second book translated into English by a Japanese author who goes by the name Uketsu. I really enjoyed Strange Pictures, so I was eager to figure out the mystery of Strange Houses.

The book follows a similar format with a type of questioning and answering by the characters in order to puzzle together a series of murders through odd blueprints. Unfortunately, the translation does come off a bit stilted in this one. While much shorter than Strange Pictures, I didn’t find the mystery as compelling as the first. I also had trouble distinguishing the characters from each other in the final reveal, as there are so many of them with similar names!

While Strange Houses is an intriguing short mystery, it just didn’t engage me as much as the first book.

3.25/5 stars rounded down

Note: “Uketsu’s real name and identity are unknown. He only ever appears online, wearing a mask and speaking through a voice changer. His innovative mysteries challenge readers to discover the hidden clues in a series of sinister drawings.”

Expected publication date: 6/3/25

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for the ARC of Strange Houses in exchange for an honest review.