I have to start this review with an admission - I read this book because I am too frightened to watch the films, yet I was intrigued as to what I'm missing out on.
The Japanese film was released in 1998, and the American one came out in 2002, which was 2 years before the book was translated into English. So I'd imagine most readers have at least a vague idea of the story of the book.
Set in early 90's Japan, a journalist sets out to investigate the mysterious deaths of some teenagers, and in doing so falls victim to fatal curse. Ok, sounds like it could be a little bit scary.
The curse comes from a haunted VHS tape. Maybe in the early 90's, when videotapes were new technology, this would have been more scary than it is now. Perhaps it is due to the success of the movies, but the person watches a video and dies 7 days later story seems like it has been done a hundred times, and I thought it was maybe even a little bit cheesey.
But there's more to the story than just a cursed video. There's the whole backstory, there's a big analogy for the curse, and there's the story of the investigation into how the lift the curse.
And it is scary, at points. To me it was scary to start with, and sort out fizzled out towards the end. I think this was due to me thinking the films are shit scary, so I was bit nervous before I even started the book.
The translation was a bit off at points, and incredibly clumsy at points too. For example the second page of the book contains the sentence "Perhaps owing to their inconvenience to for transport links, few of the lots had been sold". Whilst clumsy, at least the meaning comes across. This was on page 2 though, which goes to show how far the proofreader must have made it. Errors like this make me think this book was only translated into English after the success of the American movie, as a bit of a cash in. There's nothing wrong with that though - if it hadn't been translated I couldn't have read it.
It was enjoyable enough. The book was nicely paced and readable, and I can forgive errors in the translation, so for that I'll give the book a 6/10. From what I've been told of the films, there are a couple of differences between the book and the movie, so maybe if you are really into the films it would be worth checking out.
I started out too scared to watch the films and I still am.
What did you think about this book? Love it? Hate it? Agree with this review or not? Let me know in the comments
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