I started from the beginning to the end in few hours and I got the thrill ran down the spine for the first half of Strange Houses. First of all the book cover successfully drew people eyeballs with shocking pink, bold book title and a gigantic floor plan. The story started with showing a floor plan which looked quite normal if you were not paying attention. Once you noticed some odd parts there, you would be hooked by the story. The story was mainly in a conversational style, First half of the book was very fast-paced, basically without a second of break. It also led the reader to participate and solve the mystery together.

Strange Houses is one of the most captivating and unforgettable reads for me lately. Highly recommend to you all!

Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for my copy.

Pub date: Jul 3, 2025

Thank you to NetGalley and Publishers for this ARC

Another winner by Uketsu, much like Strange Pictures this was a really lovely translation.

This was an extremely atmospheric read rooted in Japanese culture and spirituality. Set like an eerie documentary, this style format made for a perfectly paced read.

The real horror behind this, was that the premise is so outlandish it ends up being totally believable, mainly by the authors amazing ability to construct this tale.

Just as good as the first one!

This time the book had one larger story instead of 4 small tales that locked into one.

I love the unique style of these books where you feel you are part of the story and have pictures to Work our and follow along to.

The pacing was perfect and the level of interest was spot on.

More books please!

4.25 stars

Puzzle lovers rejoice!! Strange Houses is a unique Japanese horror that combines words and images to create a thrilling reading experience that will take you places you don't expect. I loved the multimodal design of this book, which combined with a lot of script-structure scenes, made this as super quick read.

The unnamed narrator is a writer fascinated with the macabre, and when he is approached by a friend seeking his opinion on a house they're looking at buying, what starts as a few strange design choices is just the first clue in a long line of unsettling discoveries. With the help of his architect friend and followers of this odd story who reach out to assist the narrator, this book unravels the mystery behind the last owners of this strange house. Is it one murderous family, a string of them, or nothing at all?

I would genuinely read a 20-part series with this premise, I had so much fun despite the dark themes. Uketsu is able to deliver really grim realisations in a "casual" way - I really don't have a better way to explain this but if you read his work you'll understand what I'm saying! If you're generally a fan of Japanese translated fiction and the dry delivery present in a lot of work, I think you'll really appreciate this one.

The few consistent characters throughout this book are straight-forward and the story doesn't require them to have a lot of layers or nuance, and it was fun to see how they connect. The only gap in Strange Houses for me was emotion, maybe it's intentional but this book is almost completely devoid of feeling which is important to me as a reader. I still highly recommend and I think this would annihilate a reading slump.

Uketsu does have a similar novel called Strange Pictures which I am really excited to get my hands on hopefully soon!

Oh dear. What do you do as an author when you have a brilliant concept, and still have to manage to fit it into a murder mystery? Well, on this evidence, you present it really well – and then bodge it all big time. Strange houses have become a thing for Japanese mystery books, and this aims to present more. And boy does it present them – the scenario is one person, then more, then more, worrying over a building plan that has some certain peculiarities. You're on board with this – the scenario they've come up with is nicely bizarre, and we're told of a very dark truth indeed – and then they find need to discuss a second building. Even richer, you think.

But when it comes time to wring the truth of the past out of things, is when this really goes down the pan. For one thing this proves there is zero action in the entire book – the first bulk is people learning about and discussing a certain situation, leaving the second chunk to be people talking about what once happened. There is no direct action in either part, for everything is either deduction or reported event.

And I so wanted this to be wonderful – I loved the idea of the buildings being designed due to what the people think is the case, and I loved the way this was presented in such a snappy, quickly-read way that the speech was delivered as per a play script. I mean, the building plans are shown far too often, as if we're thick or very forgetful, but that only made the pages turn more quickly. But nothing moves much with the big reveal, which is a stodge of unlikely, implausible and daft. A novel that promises much but delivers very little, then.

Very quick read, enjoyable and fun, mystery. I loved all the floor plans and thought it was a great mystery book overall.

This book was so much darker than the previous one but I enjoyed it nonetheless!

It starts off as a strange mystery where everything isn't quite what it seems. But then more of the backstory was revealed and that's when it got a whole lot darker! I tried to guess what was going on as each bit of the story was revealed but I would never have guessed what actually happened.

Actual rating 3.5.

I was absolutely obsessed with Strange Pictures, so couldn’t wait to read this one! Whilst it didn’t quite live up to the author’s debut for me, I still ended up devouring it in a single afternoon because of the easy mixed media format and addictive nature of the story - it just felt like it reached a whole new level of outlandishness that I couldn’t really wrap my head around, but then that’s part of the fun with this author! Would still recommend when you want a unique binge read.

Thank you Pushkin Press for the opportunity to read this eARC before the book was out because I had a MIGHTY need.

Listen, I knew already this was going to the a five stars from me, I absolutely loved Strange Pictures, I love Uketsu's writing and the approach to mystery/thriller in these books.
This time round Uketsu gives us a mystery surrounding the architecture of houses and their floor plan to craft a masterpiece and for me it has cemented how good these books are because they have twists at every turn and by the end you will be questioning everything.
Safe to say I ate this book up and I cannot wait for more of Uketsu's work as they have become one of my favorite authors.

3.5 stars. Another fun and creepy read from Uketsu. Although not quite as good as Strange Pictures.

I found myself getting lost in the family tree which took me out of the story a little.

I wanted a bit more of a mystery and spend more time working things out (trying to not give anything away here).

My final point (which has absolutely nothing to do with the content or author or has any affect on my rating) is that I would recommend reading the physical book of this. It's quite hard reading on the kindle when you want to be flipping back and forth to the pictures (unless this is just me) and the NetGalley format was quite tricky to read (random words, symbols, numbers added in or in the wrong place).

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This was a really fun concept that paid off brilliantly.

Having had Strange Pictures recommended to me by my nail tech, I knew that I had to get on this train very quickly and I'm glad I did.

I love the, for lack of a better word, strangeness of this book and the eerie vibes throughout. I'm not a huge thriller fan but I do love a mystery.

I was fully hooked from the start with Strange Houses. There’s a really eerie, unsettling atmosphere running through the whole book that stays with you. Uketsu’s writing is subtle but very effective - it’s the kind of weird, quiet creepiness that sneaks up on you rather than hitting you over the head haha!

The stories blend everyday life with the supernatural in a way that feels quite natural but still gives you the shivers. The characters aren’t overly explained, which I liked, which allows you to imagine the details yourself. It made me think twice about some of the houses I pass on my daily walks!

If you’re into unsettling, atmospheric tales with a hint of the uncanny, this is well worth a read.

I loved this just as I loved Strange Pictures.

It's basically a clever puzzle in narrative form, a little bit disturbing but absolutely riveting.

A house with murderous intent perhaps, it'll have you all checking your floor plans once you are done.

Quirky and clever. A fast, entertaining and intelligent read.

I loved strange pictures, and this book lived up to the expectations left after.

The follow along mystery is so fun and interactive, different from strange pictures but still so intelligent and unique.

I can’t wait to see what else this author produces.

Thank you for my copy!

I really enjoyed that the story was based around the floor plans of the houses as it gave it a realistic edge to the book.
I enjoyed exploring the floor plans as the story unravelled so I could visualise the story even more.
This book gets creepier and stranger as it goes along, it’s also not too long so I could not put it down!

Atmospheric and chilling
—
They say that the eyes are the windows to the soul; but are windows the eyes of a house, or a direct look into the perfection that the house’s owner wants the world to see? When the unnamed narrator of Uketsu’s next Strange book is asked by a friend for their opinion on a house that’s for sale, odd details leap out to the author. As they outline them, chills seem to seep from the book as the unlikely secrets of the house reveal themselves: rooms that shouldn’t be, hidden inhabitants, buildings designed for dastardly deeds. When the author publishes an anonymised article, a reader reaches out to him and on meeting, they discover another strange house, as in the title: surely this can only be coincidence?

Yet another disarmingly gentle book from Uketsu that will make you look at unfamiliar houses with a new eye. Is the return in that wall supposed to be there? Do these rooms on the first floor absolutely coincide with the ones on the next? This place is so light and spacious that there can’t be any hidden space, can there? And can you really know the history of the house you’ve just stepped into? But above all: are you certain that you’ll step out of the house again?

Four and a half stars

What a fascinating and gripping read! After reading Strange Pictures (which I loved), I was eager to read this one and I found myself enthralled again by the mystery surrounding these strange houses!

Uketsu really knows how to captivate the audience with an unputdownable mystery, giving only small tidbits of clues and creating a web from which the readers can’t extricate themselves until the last page. I could never have imagined the reason behind these strange houses and I do believe few people can.

As always, the use of images is genius, not only allowing the reader to follow the clues and the plot, but also to be part of the mystery.
If you love mysteries and weird plots, then Uketsu is the author for you!

Thanks to Pushkin Press and NetGalley for a copy and this is my honest opinion.

This one didn’t work for me at all. I found it completely preposterous. I accept that it’s ingenious and inventive, and it started out with some promise, then got sillier and sillier. It’s a mystery tale built around weird floor plans, dead spaces, windowless rooms and architectural anomalies, with a bit of folklore to add the fun, and the reader is invited to unravel the mystery at the same time as those investigating it. Architectural plans litter the text, which definitely doesn’t work on Kindle. Endless conversations don’t enhance the reading pleasure. But many other readers love it, so I guess it’s horses for courses.

I was so excited to receive an ARC of this after reading Strange Pictures, which blew my mind with it's ingenuity. I had really high hopes for this after the first book in the series, but unfortunately it really fell short for me. Whilst I did enjoy it, i think it was a bit of a drop after the first. I found this a bit draggy and also a bit farfetched with the theories from the characters so soon.

It’s ridiculous, It’s kooky… but it’s so perfec. Uketsu knows what they’re doing, and they do it oh so well. Apparently I’m a sucker for these types of books