OVERALL REVIEW: This book resolves around Souichi and his family. I bought it to try appreciating Souichi a little more, and it helped at 100%. I'm now appreciating Souichi, despite him being such a brat, and such a living nightmare. The book contains fun stories, queer, and morbid ones too. I globally really liked the stories in it, my two favourites are the 2-parts "haunted mansion" stories, which were fun and morbid at the same time, and was much different from the other stories. I recommend this book!
Here's my review for each story, it doesn't contain spoiler, just my honest opinion of each story after I read them!
1- FUN SUMMER VACATIONS (楽しい夏休み) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
> A "calm" start for this book. The story isn't scary or gore, just strange. Souichi is definitely a disturbing character, which provokes some kind of uneasy feelings to the reader. I love how Ito drew his character, the thin traits, the sharp nails, the devious smile, everything is made to make Souichi look scary and disturbing! His personality too, seems to add a lot to our "love-hate" relationship with Souichi. I kinda start liking him. I like hating that devious, childish kid.
2- FUN WINTER VACATION (楽しい冬休み) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
> I'm really starting to like Souichi more than I would have ever thought! This story is really fun, and the other characters are endearing, which contrasts with Souichi himself! I really like the universe of Souichi and all the little "things" around him.
3- SOUICHI'S DIARY OF DELIGHTS (双一の楽しい日記) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
> I like that Souichi has weaknesses and that his victims can rebel up against him and even win sometimes.. seeing his victims turning his tricks against him is nice. This story was fun, and enjoyable!
4- SOUICHI'S HOME TUTOR (双一の家庭訪問) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
> It's safe to say I'm now used to Souichi and his craziness/devious self. This story was enjoyable as well, especially the little twist at the end which I really liked! It's starting to become a little morbid, I'm surprised in a good way!
5- CLOTH TEACHER (布製教師) ⭐⭐⭐
> Ah! This one is definitely morbid! I guess it's the continuity of the previous story, although there's a bit of "time skip" in between. This story is particularly morbid and provokes a real uneasy feeling to the reader. It was disturbing!
6- SOUICHI'S BIRTHDAY (双一の誕生日) ⭐⭐
> Am i glad to share a birthday with, not only Michina BUT ALSO SOUICHI? Absolutely yes! (idk, I had to mention it but, nvm). I guess I was meant to appreciate Souichi one day lol- Anyways, what a strange story (what was I expecting from Junji Ito?). I feel like the stories get creepier throughout the book- this one is short, and a flop for me, didn't really like it.
7- SOUICHI'S CONVENIENT CURSE (双一の勝手な呪い) ⭐⭐⭐
> I like it when Ito mixes humour and creepiness together, I enjoy the results most of the time. This story was quite long and a bit repetitive which made it a little boring, but the fun parts made it enjoyable!
8- FOUR X FOUR WALLS (四重壁の部屋) ⭐⭐⭐
> This one is on Netflix's animated series so I already knew what to expect from it. I remember finding it so, so strange when I had watched it the first time, I didn't understand what the f was wrong with that creepy little kid named Souichi, but reading it today, after reading other stories and knowing more about Souichi made me change my opinion of it as it was THE story that introduced me to Souichi (on Netflix). I'm still not a big fan of the story, but I appreciated it more than on tv. I chose to read it despite remembering the story entirely because I wanted to see Ito's artwork, and wasn't disappointed. The drawings made that "refurbishment dude" look so much creepier than on the animated series (just like in most stories).
9- COFFIN (棺桶) ⭐
> My least favourite one. I don't usually like stories about "afterlife" so I am not a fan of this one, at all. Too creepy, and odd.
10- RUMORS (噂) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
> I had already read this one in a compilation of Ito's selected short stories. This one is the last story of Souichi. Souichi isn't a character I was fond of, he's giving me chills lol. But I grew to appreciate him and understand him (like any antihero..) I really liked this story, AND MOREOVER, I absolutely loved that Junji Ito added another one of his well-known/famous characters in one story, it was an amazing idea!!
11- THE MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED HOUSE (お化け屋敷の謎) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
> AAAAH! That story is about ADULT SOUICHI, and I looooved it!!! We also have his older brother, Kouichi, as the other main character and I was really pleased by that! This story is really fun, I also loved seeing THAT "other famous Ito character" I mentioned above in it as well (I won't mention who it is), and understand why that character is recurring in Souichi stories lol
12 THE MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED HOUSE 2: THE SOUICHI FRONT (続一お個げ屋敷の謎 双一前線) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
> HAHAHA LMAO, this one is part two of the previous story and damn, I wasn't expecting that twist- I loved it as much as the previous one, and honestly, I'm glad we have the answers (as to whether it was real or not).
13- SOUICHI'S BELOVED PET (双一の愛玩動物) ⭐⭐⭐
> I knew this one from the Netflix series and I had to say, I was happy to read it. There was this part where I laughed way too much because of how hilariously "wtf" it was (so unexpected from Ito). I really love when humour takes over Ito's morbid, gore stories! Anyways, this story is absolutely weird, I only have "wtf" coming to mind, seriously.
14- SOUICHI POSSESSED (双一の勝手な呪い) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
> I'm sure I've read this one before but I don't remember in which book it was. Another famous character makes its appearance on this one, which I always appreciate. This is a very short story, but efficient, and terrible lol.
S.