忌館: 恐怖小說家的棲息之處

作家

by Shinzō Mitsuda

現實與虛構真有不可越過的界線嗎？
或許你以為的現實只是某人的虛構罷了……

恐怖書籍的編輯「我」－－三津田信三某日接到友人來電，對方說他收到了一篇登場人物也叫三津田信三的新人獎稿件。

對此毫無頭緒的「我」此時偶然找到了一棟自英國移築至東京郊區的洋館──「人偶莊」。「我」對人偶莊一見傾心，決定住下。

受到那篇出現了自己名字的稿件影響，「我」也開始以人偶莊為舞台開始創作恐怖小說。但是在創作的過程中，「我」卻發現人偶莊有著驚人的滅門血案連鎖；而「我」的生活也開始出現難以解釋的怪事，一切似乎都和「我」的小說中的詭異內容有關，虛構逐漸侵蝕了「我」的現實……

368 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

About the author

See 三津田 信三 (Japanese)、 三津田信三 (Traditional Chinese).

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book review for another book by the same author: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

To make a long story short, I love everything with Dario Arengeto's and Edogawa Rampo's references in it; and this book: House of Burial: The Residence of the Horror Novelist reads like a dream-comes-true to me.

PS: I'm not sure if House of Burial is the right translation, judging from the Chinese meaning of '忌館', the title can well be 'House of Death' or 'House of Taboo' or 'The Forbidden House', so...take your pick!

Had I said this before? I love Dario Argento's movies.


(Link: http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/10-...)

I also love Edogawa Rampo's novels.


(Link: http://moviespictures.org/biography/E...)

I love these guys' works so damn much, and seemingly Shinzo Mitsuda feels just the same. HAHAHA. (PS: according to the footnote in one of Chinese translation of Mr. Mitsuda's books, it's a known fact that Mr. Mitsuda is a huge Argento fan.)

Outline of the story: Looking for inspiration for his next book, novelist Shinzo Mitsuda discovered an empty two-stories British cottage at the outskirt of Tokyo, which he thought would be the perfect location of his next horror/suspense novel. After renting and moving into the cottage, Mitsuda found out the cottage is known to his neighbors by the unusual nick name 'The Doll House' and most of them believed the building was haunted. As Mitsuda started writing his new novel, strange things began to happen within and around the cottage...

If you love haunted house tale, suspense and endings with nice twists, then you will love this book.

This book works with a story-within-story format, and the characters' experience in the haunted house becomes increasingly frightening as the story progresses. The ending is pretty shocking as well...however, parts of the plot twists aren't explained so logically and clearly, that's a bit of a disappointment.

So, to sum up: Nice Opening + Strong and Intensive Development + Not As Strong Ending = a Four Stars Horror/Suspense Novel.

[Vivian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read five of Mitsuda's books before. Sorry to say this one is quite disappointing.

The plots goes between "Shinzo Mitsuda" life in the doll house and a story based on the doll house by the author. This story within story setting is quite refreshing. At first, it captured my attention and I could not put it down. After reading one third, the plots between the "real life" and the "story" were merged into one. It was getting too hard to follow and too fragmented. Also, the author kept listing all other detective stories references throughout the book. Too much and killed the "scary" atmosphere the author was trying so hard to build. I skipped them whenever I saw those references (not again).

Don't want to spoil the story too much. If you have other books on hand, go ahead and give this one a miss.

[W.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

恐怖書籍的編輯，「我」──三津田信三──某日接到友人來電，對方說他收到了一篇登場人物也叫三津田信三的新人獎稿件。對此毫無頭緒的「我」此時偶然找到了一棟自英國移築至東京郊區的洋館──「人偶莊」。
「我」對人偶莊一見傾心，決定住下。
但，彷彿和這棟神秘的洋館纏繞不清的稿件內容，似乎影射著現實中曾經多次發生的殘忍兇殺案，在洋館中的迷你版人偶莊裡，在小說中、在現實中都彷彿曾經／正在發生又一樁難以辨明的兇殺案件……

傳說中（？）的三津田信三。
雖然有書友頗為喜歡也推薦過好幾次（這位作者），但我就是一個想到才會開書的人嘛XD 意外的，我對之前看的《七人捉迷藏》覺得還好，卻意外的喜歡《忌館》。
對我來說這就是一個第四面牆是玻璃牆（咳），虛實之間模模糊糊亂七八糟有界線又沒界線的故事，恐怖小說與推理小說之間真的需要分界嗎？打破這個邊界之後，是否依然可以是一個能夠帶給讀者閱讀刺激以及「思考」一個事件是否／如何發生的故事呢？
對我來說答案當然是……肯定的啦，只要寫得好看我就不是很在乎分類，而《忌館》對我來說最好看的，也不是作者最終如何放置「真兇」的存在與否，而是那一整個房屋自外而內吞噬居民又吐出（或沒有）的過程，以及內／外被翻來整去打破真實／虛構空間的壓迫感。

閱讀起來彷彿是大屋恐怖故事，就連那個若有似無似真又假的「真兇」都有歌德小說的詭麗感，這個我真的是很喜歡。