Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror by Junji Ito

25 reviews

thegayestghost's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Stalking, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Blood, and Death

bohboh's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Uzumaki by Junji Ito is a whirlwind horror read that picks up spectacularly in tension, terror, and mystery the further you probe into it. Every issue is just so imaginative and unique. Very rarely was I ever able to figure out what would happen next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, Child death, Blood, Pregnancy, Animal death, Gore, Medical trauma, Self harm, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Cursing, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

chazaiya's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

while, yes, dark and deeply unsettling, i think people are undercutting just how funny this story can be. there is an undertone of anxiety that permeates the whole thing, and certain chapters are greatly disturbing (the first two chapters and hospital section stand out to me as easily the most horrifying parts), but as the story progresses and the town sinks further into the spiral the scenarios get more and more absurd. like the whole snail thing? i was laughing my ass off that entire chapter. and those kids blowing away houses like a gang of big bad wolves? they say comedy and horror are closely interlinked, i find a lot of what happens here to be a perfect example of that relationship.
story-wise for most of the run it's alright. it goes through a new scenario every chapter with a new horrifying idea relating to spirals. it's cool how creative Ito gets with how exactly he can make something as simple as a spiral scary. but the real greatness of this work starts to show in the later chapters once Chie enters. at this point the story has more structure to it and Ito is writing not purely for the sake of being scary but to reach a logical conclusion. those last few chapters are incredible. 
and needless to say Junji Ito is masterful with his art and how he uses it for worldbuilding. the way he uses his pen draw such unnerving figures and settings is unlike anything i've seen. 
it's good. i get why people praise Ito so highly for this. i might check out some of his other multi-chapter stories like Tomie or Gyo. i'm particularly interested in his adaptation of No Longer Human, so maybe that next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Suicide, and Self harm

Moderate: Cannibalism, Confinement, and Gore

Minor: Stalking

kianga_black's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual harassment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Body horror, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Mental illness, Cannibalism, and Medical content

angryoppossum's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Stalking

mirrorbug's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I always like finding books with weird premises and this is definitely one of them. It's a horror classic for a reason. The body horror in this manga is absolutely fantastic, that is one of its strong points.

Spoiler

The snail people is probably my favorite part of this story due to how absolutely odd and disturbing it is. The mating scene cemented it in my head as one of my favorite sections.

The ending left me with questions that I wonder if there's a real answer for.
The bonus chapters were definitely the weakest. Even if it's not technically a part of the main story, there are things I would've preferred to explore in the bonus chapter. It's not the horror in them was bad or anything, it was great, but it wasn't anything particularly special to me.
Shuichi was my guy. Kirie has serious "this is fine" syndrome when it is, very clearly, not fine.

Spoiler

how kirie can stay in that town after her boyfriend talked about how evil the town feels in the first chapter is incredible to me. Maybe that's a symptom of the spiral, but shuichi should've just gotten the fuck out of there.

I do wish we saw more of kirie and shuichi being a couple. It didn't always feel like they were to me, mostly good friends.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Cannibalism, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Stalking, Pregnancy, Cursing, Confinement, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Bullying

Death is essential in this story, first chapter has a scene where a character finds their deceased parent, this is not a happy story

coryyalva's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

snails and talking babies were never something I thought I'd be afraid of but here we are

(would have been a five star read but I was actually super disappointed in the ending)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Violence, Medical content, Cursing, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Cannibalism, Child death, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Pedophilia and Stalking

dpugh91's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

This book is good but it's disturbing and will probably give you nightmares and start to convince you you're  cursed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Cannibalism, and Mental illness

Moderate: Stalking and Pregnancy

natcrash's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I really liked it, but wouldn't reread due to its length. The main topic of the book is the spiral, but the main focus shifts from chapter to chapter, eventually coming together around the middle of the book. 

I couldn't really connect with the characters a lot. I like how Shuichi's character changed due to the events of the first and second chapter. Kirie, the main character, I felt like she wasn't really there for the first half of the book, as the events start to really affect her later and we then see how the events affect her.

I don't know what I was expecting for the ending,

Spoiler

but I really wished that Kirie and Shuichi would have escaped Kurouzu-Cho. I think that was the point, though, to show how the entire town was consumed by the spiral and no one could escape it, in the end. I just like happy endings, to be honest.

Spoiler

Despite all of this, I still really liked the book. I found it entertaining and captivating. The art style is beautiful and the expressions are on point. I loved how everything was connected, and even though things don't make a lot of sense, it was a fun read. 

I can read manga and graphic novels in a short period of time, but i was still surprised that i was able to read this almost in one sitting/less than 24 hours (took a break to sleep and continued the next day).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Blood, Car accident, Child death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Medical content

Moderate: Bullying and Stalking

Minor: Grief and Toxic friendship

There is a lot of gory/graphic imagery, including: - blood - body horror - child death - injuries - (attempted?) murder - medical content. Bullying occurs once, but since the bullying is so brutal I placed it at moderate.

yiululu's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Gore, Animal cruelty, Blood, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Mental illness, Car accident, Child death, and Stalking