Is It There or Not

怪談えほん [Horror Picture Book]

by Natsuhiko Kyogoku, Naoko Machida (Artist)

“It’s dark up there… I couldn’t stop wondering what was up there.”

Deceptively simple picture books with sinister stories.

You went to live with Grandma in her rambling old house. High above the rafters is a world of darkness. You can’t shake the feeling that something is lurking there.

Natsuhiko Kyogoku and Naoko Machida spin a riveting web of fear of the unknown.

Genres: Horror, Manga, Graphic Novels, Picture Books, Adult, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 28, 2012

About the author

Natsuhiko Kyogoku ( 京極 夏彦, also Natuhiko Kyougoku or Kyōgoku Natsuhiko, born March 26, 1963) is a Japanese mystery writer, who is a member of Ōsawa Office. He is a member of the Mystery Writers of Japan and the Honkaku Mystery Writers Club of Japan.

Three of his novels have been turned into feature films; Mōryō no Hako, which won the 1996 Mystery Writers of Japan Award, was also made into an anime TV series, as was Kosetsu Hyaku Monogatari, and his book Loups=Garous was adapted into an anime feature film. Vertical have published his debut novel as The Summer of the Ubume.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

okay, you know how i am always saying stuff along the lines of "oh, it is so hard to be me and not be able to find a book that scares me, ohhh i am just too tough!"

well, this 15-page japanese children's picture book (another wonderful thoughtful gift from brian and chizuru), gave me CHILLS! i didn't lose any sleep or anything, but i definitely felt disturbed and creeped out, which is more than a book's been able to do to me since i can even remember. so - kudos to Natsuhiko Kyogoku and kudos to brian's translations for getting that job done.

this book is not only spooky, it's also beautiful. brian points out that the illustrations are done in oils, and you can actually see the texture of the canvas in them, which is way cool. little blue's pictures are doing no justice to how spectacular the artwork is in this book, but he's doing his best.



i'm going to go into a ton of detail about the plot of this book, and all the things it could meeeeean, both my thoughts and those of brian. if you're wary of having a japanese children's book with no english translation available spoiled for you, take this opportunity to go on your merry way 'cuz i'm about to dissect this thing like mad.

so, a basic overview before i get all granular with interpretation and picking-apart.

if brian's translations are to be believed, and i trust him implicitly, this story is about a little boy who is sent to live with his grandmother, in a house which has more cats than can even be counted. which is not a plot point, but it should be, because there are cats EVERYWHERE here. just when you think you've seen all the cats on a page, you notice another one lurking in the shadows.





okay, right, sorry - i was distracted by all the cats



AAAAHHH - why are you so many!

okay so ANYWAY - he goes to live with her and while he's there, he notices something utterly terrifying - a man's face peering at him from the very, very high ceiling.

so, naturally, he's terrified, and he runs to his grandmother to tell her, and she’s totally unfazed by it, and she's all "yeah, i've seen that before. i just ignore it, though, and it's fine."

WHICH IS A TERRIBLE LESSON TO TEACH CHILDREN!

danger doesn't just disappear if you ignore it. no one has ever not been eaten by a monster by hiding under their sheets.

and this picture - are you registering the vantage point of this picture?



it is clearly from the scaryman's POV, but it's just dropped in the middle of the story without calling attention to it, like "doodley-doo, don't mind me - just looking at you from the ceiling, carry on"

even seemingly-innocuous scenes are made creepish by little details, like the gloves in this one, taking over the foreground and looking like disembodied hands:



there are only four cats in this picture. you can either squint or trust my math.

why is this book so scary? if we were to outline the story, nothing much actually happens. the first six pages are entirely taken up with establishing atmosphere; ordinary, but slightly creepy: the house is old and dark, the ceilings are high, etc.

in fact, since there’s no english translation, and i really need to share this thing with others, i’m going to type out all of brian’s translations, to make it easier for me to really demonstrate how chilling this book is.

the title translates to - Is It Really There, or Isn’t It?

and so we go:

It was decided I was to live with my grandmother. She lives in a very old house.

Everything about it is old. The walls, the rice-paper windows, the straw tatami mats…

And it’s pretty dark.

The ceilings are very high and very dark places.

Far too high for even the tallest adult to reach without a ladder.

“That goes up pretty high, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, very high indeed…Far too high to be reached.”

Even straining my eyes, it’s hard to see anything up there. There’s only a tiny, little window way, way up there, which barely lets in any light. It’s a blackness over us.

“It sure is dark up there, isn’t it?”

“Indeed it is. Very little light comes in.”

Down below, where we are, it is much brighter (because) we have an electric light.

“Grandma, have you ever gone up there?”

“Never. I wouldn’t go up there. It’s too high for me.”

But then…

One day, I happened to peer up into the blackness above and…

Within that oppressive darkness, high up on the wall I could suddenly make out the face of a man. A terrible, evil, angry face.

Terrifying.

I rushed to my grandmother.

“High up there in the ceiling, I saw somebody.”

Grandma refused to look up.

“You saw it too? Well I guess that means it’s real.”

“But who is it?”

“I don’t know.”

It’s the face of some unknown person. He has nothing to do with me, so I have no reason to be scared of it,” Grandmother explained serenely.

“If you don’t look up, you’ll have nothing to be scared of. In fact, if you don’t look up, you won’t even know if it really exists.”

Grandma tilted her head.

“Just don’t look up. If you don’t look up, you won’t even know if it’s there or not.”

“But it’s scary, isn’t it…even if I’m not sure when it’s there?”

“It isn’t scary to me, if I can’t be sure it’s there.”

“So you aren’t scared of anything if you don’t see it?”

“Nope, because it’s so high, not seeing it is the same to me as if it wasn’t there at all.”

But I can’t help it. I have to look. And because I look, I am terrified.

Because the face IS ALWAYS there.


i mean - come ON! if that isn’t as skin-crawling as The Tailypo: A Ghost Story, i don’t know what is. that maddening repetition, those empty conversations with a woman so emotionally detached that it feels like talking to an echo, the instructions to ignore a threat that has breached the safety of one’s home - it is such effective domestic horror. and so ambiguous! because what the what is even going ON here? is there really a face in the ceiling or is the grandmother just misguidedly indulging his imagination? and if it IS there, what does that mean? has the grandmother lived with this … thing all these years unharmed? or is it responsible for that air of drugged complacency she’s giving off. has it been preying on her until she’s just a shell? is she setting her grandson up for a similar fate? oh shit - does she have toxoplasmosis from all those cats? that’s…that actually makes sense. i think that’s the interpretation i’m going to run with, because it does explain everything - her blasé response to what is clearly a threat, the cats parading across every page like evidence at a crime scene waiting for detective karen to close the case. EUREKA, MOFO!

so there, i have, in writing this review, come up with an answer that totally satisfies me. good day.

brian had some other thoughts that were compelling, which i was going to share, but i just now realized he is no longer on goodreads. what the hell? so i don’t feel comfortable posting anything without his permission, and i’m feeling like a dick for not noticing his departure when it happened. guess i’m off to write a real letter and mail it overseas and hope he’s not mad at me, because i really am grateful for this book and all the others and i hate being the distracted loopy person i have become who doesn’t even notice when people are gone. i am as horrible as a face that lives in your rafters. and with a mirror-ceilinged elevator, i can actually be just that:



but if you want to see the "real" face from the book, here:



you decide which would be worse to see every day.

come to my blog!

[Stay · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If there’s light where we are, then everything had to be okay. At least, that’s what I told myself."

I had to use the restroom before reading this. After reading, I don’t have to go anymore….

[Mehsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book from the publisher in exchange of an honest review.


I have received three of these picture books on Edelweiss a few months ago, but since they weren’t due until October I wanted to savour them until then. And my first choice was this one. And boo, I am looking forward so much towards reading the other two. This one was so GOOD!

A spooky tale of a boy living with his grandma (in the countryside so ultimate spooky time), and what is looking down from the dark rafters at him (you know those big old Japanese houses with roofs that seem to go on and on? It was super spooky, and I love that grandma didn’t dismiss him, like so many adults would, but instead agreed with him and just gave him advice, do not look up in the rafters. Yep. You can guess how that one went, haha. I would also have a hard time not looking at those spooky rafters even though I know something is just there. Oh, and I loved the terrifying ending.

And the art, it was SO GOOD! I love that it looked painted (probably is, but you never know with an ebook, haha). Plus, I am happy that Viz Media published the ebook as being a two-paged spread instead of separate pages, because now you could get the whole scene.

Which yes, made reading was a bit hard, with a lot of Japanese stuff you know the reading order, but here at times I wasn’t sure, in the end I got it though.

Oh, and fun game to distract yourself from spookiness? How many cats does grandma have?? Because believe me, she has a lot. I had a lot of fun seeing which cats were in each scene and see where they were all hiding.

All in all, I would recommend this book to everyone! It was so epic. And this girl? I will be buying this one!

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really good. It felt like looking at paintings in a museum, it is beautifully drawn.

This boy ends up living with grandma, the house is old, dark and he is convinced something else is living there. It was scary being in that house, and grandma was not too much affected by the whole situation so the boy has to deal with his fear alone.
At times you feel sorry for him but the way this book flows made me feel scared too. Loved it.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

[Rustic Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps my favorite among the three Horror Picture book.

The two-page spread revealing the ending is just chilling, while arguably 100% supernatural. It'd been even more creepier if it is just a living human being.

[akane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this picture book as a child. It is easily one of the eeriest books I read back then. I only rediscovered this traumatic book today, and realised it’s written by the one and only Kyogoku Natsuhiko, which explains a lot of what happens in the book, haha. The illustrations only add on to the creepiness of the story. A simple yet haunting, typically Japanese ghost story worth reading at any age.

[Babsidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

That last page has haunted me for DAYS.

[Bookmeaway]

Lu en anglais, review in english coming later.

Profondément malaisant et terrifiant.

Les livres de cette petite collection me laissent toujours un sentiment que j'ai du mal à exprimer et à vraiment décrire, mais ils me saisissent. C'est vraiment un style d'horreur à part. J'adore à quel point c'est perturbant. On n'a pas nos réponses. C'est très frustrant aussi. Car on a peur avec les personnages. On ne sait pas bien la finalité car il n'y en a peut-être pas. Et on ne saura jamais... C'est la force de ces courtes histoires.

Un jeune garçon doit aller vivre chez sa grand-mère... Et quelque chose le perturbe vraiment dans cette maison étrange... Il y a quelque chose de vraiment perturbant. C'est presque trop calme. L'utilisation de ses perspectives, vues par les yeux d'un petit garçon qui regarde ces très hauts murs, ces combles et poutres sombres. Ces angles étranges. Et cette obscurité, le jeu dans les contrastes entre sources de lumière et d'ombres...

On sent la tension. Le silence. Les angles choisis pour les dessins, l'œil du l'illustrateur, c'est déstabilisant. Et le discours de l'enfant, qui est inquiet, insiste sur ces hauteurs. Et la grand-mère qui ne semble pas dérangée du tout par les inquiétudes et la curiosité de son petit fils. Ça rend le tout mystérieux. Et installé une tension.

Il y a littéralement un jumpscare dans le livre. C'est vraiment bien fait. Le visage vraiment apeuré presque figé sans expression mais on comprend la terreur, la méfiance. Quant au visage de la grand-mère on le voit jamais. Comme si elle fuyait cette réalité...

Vraiment envie de découvrir et lire plus de ce genre de petites histoires illustrées, d'ouvrages creepy et mystérieux.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Horror Picture Book: Is It There or Not.

The idea of a horror picture book is awesome because I'm a horror fan and was watching horror movies at an age when I shouldn't have been doing that.

The text is simple and unsettling, and paired with the artwork it powerfully captures what it feels like to be a vulnerable child in unfamiliar circumstances—aware you’re small and helpless and that nothing is really in your control.

I love the art. It has an old-school, painting-brush quality that is classic and fits the tone and creepiness of the story.

I wouldn’t read this to my almost-two-year-old nephew, but I definitely would when he’s older—especially if he enjoys scary stories like I do. I hope he is!

I didn't mind the open-ended ending, which is consistent with how Japanese storytelling often treats these genres.

I would have liked more exposition or world-building, but I think the author prefer readers to lean on their imagination—and that works here, too, if you want to use your brain more.

[RaeCantWrite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kyogoku and Machida build the story around a child sent to live with Grandma in a rambling old house, where the darkness above the rafters becomes an obsession. That’s the entire premise, and somehow it’s enough to get under your skin. No explanation, just a kid a new environment and the specific dread of the unknown.

What works: the restraint. Machida’s illustrations do the heavy lifting, letting negative space and shadow carry the tension instead of over-explaining the threat. It’s horror built on suggestion, not spectacle… closer to a held breath than a scream.

I’ll keep one star to myself just because it’s over almost as soon as it starts. The mood is so well-built that I wanted to stay in it longer

Full Review @ https://blog.bronston.ca/reading-room...

Thanks NetGalley & VIZ Media for the ARC!

[The Loco Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations were easily the strongest part of *Is It There*. They were genuinely unsettling and did a great job creating an eerie, uncomfortable atmosphere. Unfortunately, the story itself didn't live up to that atmosphere.

I'm still a little confused by these being marketed as adult horror picture books because the actual storytelling feels much more like a children's picture book—very short, simple, and with little plot development. I kept waiting for the story to build toward something genuinely creepy or disturbing, but the ending was underwhelming. The big reveal was essentially just someone's face looking down from the ceiling.

The artwork succeeded in making me uneasy, but the story never gave me the payoff I was hoping for. Not particularly scary and, overall, I wasn't very impressed.

[Owli S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! All opinions here are my own and reflect my honest thoughts.

Part of a trio of standalone horror picture books releasing this month, Is It There or Is It Not? explores the creeping ambiguity of a potentially haunted house, focusing on the psychological tension of whether the terrifying presence is real or entirely in the mind.

The premise here was completely right up my alley! I love haunted house stories, and digging into the psychological concept of what is actually happening during a potential haunting made this a standout for me. Out of all three books in the trio, this one easily featured my favorite art—the visual style and the eerie narrative worked together seamlessly to deliver proper chills. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a quick, genuinely spooky read to kick off their Halloween season!

[East of Reality · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a genuinely creepy moment … and there are cats! Cats washing their feet, stalking, sitting eating, observing. Sorry, I got distracted for a minute. When you’re young, and in a new place, it’s natural to be wary of all the strange things. The way windows don’t have the right light, furniture doesn’t feel the same when you sit on it, even the air smells a bit different. And in all the unfamiliar corners, there’s a chance something could be there.

For the young boy in this book, he becomes fascinated with the high latticed rafters in the ceiling. Dark, foreign, and even his grandmother hasn’t ever been up there. So, is something there or not? What if there is? What if it’s just his imagination?

Another book that I think will be good for younger horror novels. It’s scary without being horrifying, relying on imagination and the fear of the potential of the unknown. Also a good starting point for kids just a little afraid of things in the closets or behind the doors. Thank you so much to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC!

[librariSAM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for access to an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The art style of this book is very fitting for an illustrated book for children but does have that creepy quality needed for a book like this one in particular. I like how the words are small and pushed to the side so the art can truly shine – but could also see issues with readability.

I like how this story is from the POV of a child going through a tough time full of loss and changes. His fear of the unknown is very fitting and the mystery of the face in the rafters is a great representation of what he may be feeling.

I really enjoyed this one. It was short and sweet but had the feeling of something longer. I really liked the pacing and the ending.

[Dannielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations created by Naoko Machida are fantastic and compliment the atmosphere of this picture book wonderfully. The author, Natsuhiko Kyogoku, has done an amazing job creating this sort of psychological horror story. Also, who doesn't love a bunch of cats casually lounging about?

If you have older children who are interested in spooky stories, this would be a good one to sit down with. There are many kids who are afraid of the dark, monsters under the bed and similar stuff. As you can imagine, the mind loves to be creative and invent stories for that unknown element. This book falls into that realm.

I'd have enjoyed a little longer of a story and a few minor tweaks, but it was delightfully eerie.

Thank you Netgalley and VIZ Media for providing this ARC for review.

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay so again, not a great story to read to your kids, especially right before bed, but this is a delightfully scary picture book in which a young boy living in a minka discovers that someone or something is living in the rafters above him. What makes the book so effective is the wonderfully eerie art and the slow build up of tension. The boy sees the face in the rafters early on, but we as readers don’t see it until the very end, and so the sense of curiosity and unease grows and grows with each off-kilter image and the weird dismissals from the grandmother.

This isn’t gory or anything. Not much happens. It’s just an exercise in building tension and fear.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A boy is sent to live with his grandmother and her many cats in an old house in the country. When he thinks he sees something in the rafters of the high, dark ceiling, the grandmother waxes philosophical in a manner he finds most useless.

Eerie and haunting.


Another horror picture book from the Horror Picture Book series. I'm not sure of the intended audience, but I certainly would not have read this to my daughter when she was younger or I would have paid the price in the form of forever bedtimes and sleepless nights.


Disclosure: I received access to a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com.

[Katies_bookish_adventure · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horror Picture book: is it there or not is another one that I just feel fine about. The art style is nice, some of my favorites bits to look at are the greenery of the plants/trees on the outdoor pages and the cute cats. It’s another story that has that unsettling kind of vibe however again I feel like it missing context, it feels off but it just doesn’t have that kind of horror oomph that i’d like to see. I also feel like it doesn’t give much context to even begin to speculate what happening. It’s another one that feels largely open ended. Thank you to the publisher for my complimentary review copy.

[Caitlin Teaches · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is something delightful about the concept of a horror picture book, and is it there or not does deliver on the concept. The text is simple and eerie, and when paired with the art it does an excellent job of capturing the vulnerability of being a small child in unfamiliar circumstances that are entirely out of your control. Rarely have cats slowly becoming increasingly present in the background of a book felt more ominous to me.

Definitely feels like something that might be fun for a kid with reasonable tolerance for some spooky stuff or a parent who grew up with things like Scary Tales to Tell in the Dark.


Thank you to NetGalley and VIZ Media for the ARC of this book.

[Ingrid Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short graphic tale of a boy who sees something above in the rafters. His grandmother seems unmoved by this information but her thoughts are "if you don't look, you won't see it." Therefore there is nothing to fear.
But he is a child, and children have big imaginations and can see what is there and what isn't there.
So simple yet so effective as a spooky story.
A quick read, recommended
Publishing date Oct. 6, 2027
Thanks to @netgalley and Viz Media
for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

[Kaycee McKee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a much stronger read than the other Horror Picture Book I picked up (A Bad Book). Even though it's the same length, it has a more developed concept and feels more like a whole story rather than just an unsettling idea. I especially liked that the story holds back its reveal until the last page. Not seeing what the boy saw until the end built up the suspense nicely and the payoff made that final image all the more effective.

[Jack Goff · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a deeply unsettling book. This genuinely creeped me out. When I saw this series of Horror Picture Books, I was so excited. Part of me was a little worried they wouldn't actually be scary, but I was very wrong. Art, gorgeous. I could stare at it forever. Can't wait to read the rest.

Thanks to Edelweiss and VIZ Media for the DRC!

Think I'm going to see about using these for a creepy adult storytime around Halloween.

[Kristall Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this picture book as an eARC! I greatly appreciate it!
When I signed up to read this, I was expecting a standard graphic novel, but no, it actually is a picture book! Pretty cool, honestly. The story is simple and spooky, and while the writing is amateurish and the art is unremarkable, I had a good time just the same.
Three stars to Is It There or Not!

[Ashlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this was new for me! I am such a sucker for artwork. And this cover, and ENTIRE book did not disappoint. This book didn’t keep me up at night, but I for sure am still thinking about it the next day. I walked away with such an odd feeling and for sure things felt creepy. This was a great pick. Quick read, but I can’t stop thinking about it.

Thank you NetGalley for the read. I’m for sure becoming a Graphic Novel fan!

[Danielle Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Viz Media and NetGalley for the ARC of "Horror Picture Book: Is it There or Not". I liked this one! 3/5 stars. It wasn't as creepy as I'm used to this author and illustrator being. I think if we'd gotten more of the creepy face throughout, it would have piqued my interest a bit more. Overall enjoyable, super quick read!

[Tayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you netgalley for an e-arc of this book.

This is a confusing one as it reads like a children’s book but from page one has a creepy vibe to it.

The artwork is stunning and for such a short and simple story, it was definitely creepy.

I could imagine this becoming a short series of books which shows this story progressing (what is the thing in the rafters, why is it there).

[Ali Suchy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a book I would read to kids if they wanted a scary book. This book wasn't nearly as creepy as the first book in this collection I read, but I still loved the art and enjoyed the scariness of it. Just creepy enough to keep me wondering and guessing until the very end. Good stuff.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all of Viz's horror picture books, this is the one that best understands childhood fears.

It also has lots of beautifully illustrated, not scary cats, because what's a grandma's big, scary old house without lots of cats?

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

NetGalley ARC Review:

I think this picture book is perfect for kids who like spooky or eerie stories. I loved all the cats in the art. I feel like there would be a lot to discuss with a child on each page as they try to guess what could be lurking up in the rafters. The ending was great!

[destiny ♡ howling libraries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, this is so much fun. Definitely a creepy read that would be enjoyable for lovers of horror of any age!

Thank you to the publisher for the gifted copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.