Exit 8

by Genki Kawamura, Sameeha Anwar (Translator)

Inspired by a cult video game and now adapted into an acclaimed film, Exit 8 is an innovative work of storytelling, and an ingenious locked-room mystery unlike any other.

A young man is riding the Tokyo subway when he receives a life-changing text message from his ex-girlfriend. He exits the train, but extraordinary things begin to happen, and he finds he cannot escape. Why is he trapped? Is it related to the text message he received? Will he solve the clues before it is too late?

The subway will loop endlessly unless he follows precise
Do not overlook any anomalies
If you find an anomaly, turn back immediately
If you do not find any anomalies, do not turn back
Get out through Exit 8

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Thriller, Fantasy, Novella, Japan, Mystery

112 pages, Hardcover

First published July 9, 2025

About the author

Associated Names:
* Genki Kawamura (English)
* 川村元気 (Japanese)
* คาวามูระ เก็งกิ (Thai)

Genki Kawamura (川村元気) is a Japanese film producer, writer, screenwriter.

中文 >> 川村元氣.

Genki Kawamura is an internationally bestselling author. If Cats Disappeared from the World was his first novel and has sold over two million copies in Japan and has been translated into over fourteen different languages. His other novels are Million Dollar Man and April Come She Will. He has also written children's picture books including Tinny & The Balloon, MOOM, and Patissier Monster. Kawamura occasionally produces, directs, and writes movies, and is a showrunner. He was a producer of the blockbuster anime film Your Name, which is currently being developed into an live-action film by J. J. Abrams.

Reviews

[Liong · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a PC game and a movie of Exit 8 before this book, so I was curious to see how the story would work in book form.

This is a short, strange, and slightly creepy book. 😅

The story is about a man who gets trapped in an endless underground passage. The rule is simple: spot an anomaly, turn back. See nothing strange, keep walking.

Make one mistake, and you are back to Exit 0.

I like how the story makes you pay attention to every small detail. After a while, even normal things start to look suspicious. Is that poster different? Did that man just do something strange? 🤔

The book is not only about escaping the tunnel. It also makes you think about our choices, the things we ignore, and whether we sometimes keep walking through life without really looking at what is happening around us.

It is a very easy and fast read, but the idea stays in your head after you finish.

Short book, strange journey, and lots of “Wait… was that different just now?” moments. 😂

[aly ☆彡 · Rating 3 out of 5]

You want to know how much a frog in a well I was (or maybe I just have a totally different interest) because I read this book as part of my monthly releases TBR only to realize that this was not some brand-new psychological horror novel I had stumbled upon.

Apparently, Exit 8 started as an indie psychological horror video game which was then adapted into a movie in 2025, and the novelization came later. Meanwhile, I was here reading the book with absolutely zero awareness of any of this. Evidently, I was not keeping up with the lore.

At first, the setup seems almost ridiculously simple:

Do not overlook any anomalies.
If you find an anomaly, turn back immediately.
If you do not find any anomalies, do not turn back.
Go out through Exit 8.

The protagonist finds himself trapped in an endless underground passage after receiving a call from his ex-girlfriend, who tells him she is pregnant. Every attempt to escape brings him back to the beginning.

Now, there is not much in the way of conventional puzzle-solving here, which might disappoint anyone expecting the novel to recreate the game's mechanics. Instead, the repetition becomes the puzzle. He has to keep questioning whether what he sees is actually an anomaly, while every decision to look the other way becomes another thing he has to carry with him. The passage gradually feels less like a physical place and more like a maze inside his own head.

And this is where I thought Kawamura's idea was genuinely clever.

This is not really a horror novel. It wears the skin of one, but underneath, it is asking something more uncomfortable of what do you do when life presents you with an anomaly you would rather ignore? Just like how in the beginning of the novel, the protagonist sees a man yelling at a crying baby on the train, but he does nothing. He notices it, yet he chooses not to intervene.

Most of us have probably encountered situations where something feels wrong and decided that it was easier not to get involved. Exit 8 takes that familiar human instinct and turns it into a literal nightmare. Henceforth, the underground passage works beautifully as a metaphor for modern existence — we walk the same routes, repeat the same decisions, maintain routines that make us comfortable, and sometimes convince ourselves that everything is fine because we have learned how not to look too closely. And so, the horror is not necessarily that something terrible is waiting around the corner but the possibility that we have been walking past the deviation all along.

I expected something absurd and creepy, a novel to enjoy for its atmosphere alone. Instead, I found myself thinking about my own choices and moments of convenient blindness. That is rare for a book this short. And the infinity symbol tucked into Exit 8 is a clever touch too. The loop, the number, the endless return to the starting point. It made me smile when I caught it.

Similarly, the atmosphere worked especially well for me because the setting is so mundane. A Japanese subway corridor is not inherently terrifying, but imagine being completely alone in one, with no idea where you are, no obvious way out, and the same stretch of hallway appearing again and again. I have happy memories of travelling around Japan, so I was not exactly reading this and thinking the subway was scary. Still, the book made me look at those long, empty corridors differently. It is the familiarity of the setting that makes the premise work.

I also appreciated how the characters function as symbols. The ex-girlfriend represents the life he ran from. The boy represents the version of himself that still believes in escape. The silent old man represents the future that waits if he keeps walking without paying attention. None of them are fully fleshed out, but they do not necessarily need to be. They serve the story's larger purpose.

Looking ahead, what does not seem like a good fit is perhaps... the length? I'm not really sure. The story feels like it is building toward something significant, and then it ends. The open ending does not help. I am an idealist at heart, so I want to believe it resolved well, but the ambiguity leaves too much space for doubt. I do not know if I am stupid or if the book simply refused to commit.

There is also a sense that something is missing. The novel does not fully explain the phenomena or the circumstances behind the loop, which that ambiguity could be intentional, magical realism and all that but it left me with a hollow feeling. It is almost as if the book assumes you have seen the film or played the game, and that is not a fair assumption for a standalone novel. If anything, this reads more like a supplement than a complete work. I found myself wondering whether the movie would fill in the gaps.

For all its philosophical weight, the aftertaste is surprisingly light as well. The description promises a confrontation with views on life, death, and guilt, but the book never pushes that hard. It raises the questions and then steps back. That might work for some readers as it does not force one interpretation onto you, but I wanted more teeth.

For all it worths, for a short and easy read, this novel offers more substance than most novels twice its length. I have read another of Kawamura's books before (Whispering Rooms, and the tonal shift here is striking. His versatility is impressive, even if I do not know much about him as an author.

At any rate, if you are looking for something different from your current read, this is an easy one to pick up. It won't take long, but it might make you look twice the next time something in your life feels just slightly off.

[Katie Colson · Rating 4 out of 5]

short, creepy, fun and very gripping mentally

[Angel Manzano · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's 2026 and liminal horror has become a mainstream hit with the movie Backroom smashing multiple box office records and became the highest-grossing film of everyone's favourite cinephile hipster "independent" studio, A24.

Liminal horror itself is nothing new, especially within literature. Novels like House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and the novella A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck were published a decade or two prior, and even older works such as Lovecraft's short stories like the well known The Dreams in the Witch House or Arthur Machen, who was doing cosmic horror pre-Lovecraft and his novella The Great God Pan encapsulated liminal horror in the late 19th century. These work captures the horror-ness of liminal spaces and plays with the concept. The liminal aspect itself is the existential threat and dread as the psychological aspect with the story dealt with the creeping, alien, liminality of a certain places.

The 2026's film, Backrooms by a young twenty year-old Kane Parsons deal with liminal horror in a different way. Parsons' take on the Backrooms concept deal less with the place as this dreaded existential dimension, rather explores what humanity would fill these empty spaces in-between. Instead of being just a physical labyrinth, the backrooms function as a collective, shifting dream space that beams back the demons of those that went into the backrooms. While Parsons' take seem to be the most cerebral out of all the Backrooms concept, its most basic idea, in that the backroom holds something more ala monsters is very much the common execution style of the Backrooms story. In essence, the horror of the place's liminality becomes secondary to the externalized manifestation of human trauma, grief, and personal demons brought by those that found themselves in the backrooms.

Enter Exit 8, an analogous Japanese counterpart of the backrooms concept. It was at first a 2023 indie horror puzzle-box game that if executed poorly could've been just another boring walking simulator. It was however a successful game that brought liminal horror to the mainstream in Japan, so much so that a movie adaptation was made.

This novelization is written by Genki Kawamura, the director and co-writer of the movie adaptation. While there are a few exceptions, I do find that novelization done by the actual creative behind the movie a rare occurrences. Directing movies and writing novels are such radically different disciplines that few creators cross the streams but Kawamura himself is an accomplished author making the transition to the medium less awkward or gaudy.

The story is minimalistic, even if there were more added to a barebones puzzle-box game. Written in first person, the novel follows an unnamed narrator who found himself stuck in a loop while walking through a metro station passageway. Similar to the Backrooms movie, this weird little location that the unnamed narrator found himself in, while projected some creepy and downright sinister atmosphere and phenomenon, was more about the psychological aspect of the narrator's mental state was in and the examination of Japanese culture in the modern climate. Prior to finding himself stuck in the loop, the narrator received the news that his ex is pregnant and she is in a crossroad of wanting to keep the baby or abort.

Despite the small page count, the novel is anything but simple. It's minimalistic, sure, but is also dense with multilayered imagery, symbolism and subtext. After watching the movie and seeing the discussion around it, many (from the West) interpreted the subtext and symbolism from westerner point of view like the number 8 referencing the months or stages of pregnancy before childbirth on the 9th month or this was an atonement by going through hell inspired by Dante's inferno or this was about fatherhood while there were criticism about the "pro-choice" message because Japan are (in 2026) facing a decline in birthrates. Even with "Death of the Author", horror stories are uniquely tied to the anxieties of a certain culture or society. Japan’s historical and legal landscape regarding abortion is vastly different. Abortion is legal and the norm. The unnamed narrator was in the situation where abortion made most sense as it wasn’t even with his wife but his ex while knowing too well the Japanese society is unkind to single mothers. The 8 refers to the Eightfold Path in Buddhism, a direct means to nirvana and brings a release from the cycle of life and death in the realms of samsara. There were a lot more imagery and references to Japanese society like baby dumping into coin lockers, the legacy of Samurai stoicism and wartime imperial culture that still permeates within the salaryman lifestyle or mindset. There are a lot to unpack from the story that uses pregnancy as a narrative catalyst for an entirely different theme of male emotional cowardice and apathy that leads to social alienation.

The novel is a work of translation so it's hard to really judge the prose and the writing's atmosphere. There are writers like Akane Tanaka or Mieko Kawakami who called the english translation of their works to be the works of their translator more than their books because the translator had to adjust for it to make sense or flow better in English. Similarly, there are authors like Keigo Higashino and Yume Aso who works closely with their translator in the hopes for a 1:1 translation. Where Exit 8 falls in that category is unknown to me but Sameeha Anwar did a great job on the translation because the novel's writing aesthetic matches well to what was aesthetically on the screen. There's a cold and emotionally muted aspect to the narration that became more and more phantasmagoric while also becoming more and more claustrophobic and oppressive in scope. The prose are understated and precise. The coldness and detached narration created a deadpan precise observation that paints clear pictures of the metro station but it became a lot more strip down and less clinical as the plot progress. The story jumps perspectives, starting with the unnamed narrator, then jumping to the Walking Man and, finally, the Boy. If there's one aspect I didn't like, it's the addition of images like the floor plan, tiled walls and scenery to spot where the anomalies are. In my opinion, it was just not need at all.

In Japan, the craft of writing fiction is hold up in high regard, no matter if it's literary fiction or genre fiction. The craft of writing a genre fiction novel is not seen as lower on the totem pole or dismissed by readers. It's why the Naoki Prize, a prize explicitly awarded for popular fiction or genre fiction or entertainment literature is seen just as prestigious as the one for literary fiction in Akutagawa Prize. Exit 8 by Genki Kawamura and Sameeha Anwar is a novelization that stood on such high level.

[Lakshmi 🌸 · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Maybe when you finally escape, your wants are that simple.”

“Living each day with guilt, averting my eyes from the things I don’t want to face. Is that the life I want to return to?”

Review ~

There is something deeply unsettling about walking through a familiar place and suddenly realizing that you can no longer trust what you see.

Exit 8 takes an ordinary underground passage and turns it into a strange little universe of repetition, observation, and dread. The rules are simple: notice what has changed, and if you make a mistake, you begin again. Yet beneath that almost game-like premise, I found something much more human, the exhausting feeling of being trapped inside your own patterns, searching desperately for the one detail that might lead you out.

What affected me most was the repetition. At first, it feels like a puzzle. Then it becomes claustrophobic. Then, almost without noticing, I began to feel the protagonist’s uncertainty myself. How many times can we walk through the same place before familiarity becomes frightening? How carefully do we really look at the world around us?

Kawamura creates an atmosphere that feels cold, fluorescent, and strangely dreamlike. The tunnel becomes more than a physical space; it feels like a limbo between one life and another, where every wrong turn carries the possibility of having to relive everything again.

Sometimes the most frightening thing is not being lost.
It is realizing that you have been walking in circles for far longer than you thought.

(ebook)

[Toribetweenpages · Rating 5 out of 5]

A one sitting read that made me forget about my phone, sounds like a five star to me.

Was absolutely not expecting a 125 page book to pack such an emotional gut punch, as well as being scared and thrilled. The parallels to Dante’s Inferno really inspired me to put it on my tbr.

“Which was better? To keep walking, lost in a dream of happiness? Or to stumble through reality, never knowing what happiness was?”

[Carolyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

jakbym była niemiła to powiedziałabym, że ta książka jest anomalią, bo nie widzę za bardzo sensu przenoszenia gry, która tak mocno bazuje na aspekcie wizualnym, na powieść. Cały myk w tym, że to my dostajemy pierdolca przechodząc ten sam korytarz na zapętleniu i przestajemy ufać swoim oczom. Nie potrzebuję do tego dodatkowego loru jakiegoś astmatyka, który boi się powiedzieć swojej byłej, żeby zrobiła aborcję (xd), właściwie próba dopisania do tego jakiejś umoralniającej historii zabija horror imho, ale w sumie czego oczekiwałam od a gdyby ze świata zniknęły koty guy

Plus: na okładce „anomalie” a w środku „nieprawidłowości”, trochę lazy

[Makmild · Rating 3 out of 5]

*ไม่เคยเล่นเกม
*ไม่เคยดูหนัง
*เคยอ่านหนังสือของเก็งกิมาแล้วสามเล่ม (ไม่รู้จะบอกทำไม)

สารภาพบาปเลยว่าไม่เคยชอบอ่านงานเก็งกิ อ่านทีไรได้แต่หงุดหงิด ทั้งเอพริลชีวิว ทั้งดอกไม้ ทั้งบิลเลียนแนร์ไรสักอย่าง ไม่เหงาก็ล้น ตัวละครของเก็งกิน่ารำคาญมาก การดำเนินเรื่องก็ slow เหลือเกิน แวะนู้นแวะนี้

แต่ทั้งหมดที่กล่าวมาไม่มีในเล่มนี้!! ยะฮู้ ยกเว้นตัวละครน่ารำคาญ อันนี้เป็นเอกลักษณ์ว่าไม่ได้

ทางออกหมายเลขแปด ในเกมเหมือนได้ยินมาว่าเป็น horror game ที่ดังมาก ส่วนหนังได้นิโนะมาเล่น เหมาะสม ไม่เกี่ยวกะหนังสือ อะ หนังสือ เออ ด้วยความที่มันมีเส้นเรื่องชัดเจนอะเนอะ ติดลูปในสถานีรถไฟ ต้องหาทางออก มันเลยไม่ได้แวะไปไหนเยอะ มีย้อนอดีตบ้าง เห็นนิมิต? บ้างเป็นคำใบ้ในการหาทางออก

การหาทางออกไม่เจอก็ความหมายตรงตัว ว่าคิดไม่ตกกับปัญหาชีวิต การจะหาทางออกได้ก็คือต้อง realize ว่าปัญหาหรือควผิดปกติคืออะไร ก็จะย้อนมาถามว่าแล้วความปกติอะไร อะ ก็ไปอ่านกันว่านังพระเอกจะหาได้มั้ย ทั้งทางออกจากรถไฟและปัญหาชีวิต (เฉลย หาได้) เอาหน่ะ ความสนุกคือหายังไงต่างหาก

รูปเล่มทำสวยมาก มีการใส่รูปประกอบเป็นระยะ ตัวอักษรในเล่มก็มีการเล่นคำ, สี เพื่อให้คนอ่านสนุกไปกับการหารายละเอียดความผิดปกติว่าคืออะไร ตอนอ่านก็ไม่ค่อยกลัวเท่าไร แต่คิดว่าถ้าเล่นเป็นเกมหรือดูหนัง ไอ้จังหวะตุ้งแช่แบบนี้เราสะดุ้งตัวลอยอยู่

[Jimmy Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up because I saw a movie poster at the cinema. This book is highly entertaining and creepy that I enjoyed it very much, to the point that I finished it in a day! I went to the cinema the next day so that I could compare it to the book. The movie actually did the book justice. If you like eerie and creepy atmospheres, I would suggest you to try this book.

[spicykatzreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

watch the movie

[Erin Talamantes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the idea of liminal space horror and I enjoy watching anomaly horror games, so I was interested to see how this would work in written form. It was fun, maybe a little too rushed at times. I think these ideas work better visually, but I appreciated the attempt!

Thank you netgalley for the copy to read and review!

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

♾️ Exit 8 by Genki Kawamura ♾️

Step off the subway and into a liminal hellscape of Exit 8. I was such a huge fan of both the game and the movie, so was excited to see a novel as well!

The book follows the plot of the movie while adding a bit more insight inside the character’s minds. Our main character must spot Anomalies that pop up in the never ending subway station. Get eight turns right in a row and your exit may appear.

I only wish this varied from the novel and added more depth to the world. When I requested this, I didn’t realize it was purely a novelization of the movie. While I still had a good time reading it, I was just looking for something more.

Regardless, I highly recommend all forms of Exit 8! It’s a blast and perfect for fans of Observation Duty and PT!

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

convoluted anti-abortion propaganda?

[fiza nasri · Rating 5 out of 5]

a short, quick read novella and i finished it in a sitting: so exhilaratingly absurd, fastpaced and i kind of love its repetitive running in a loop plot though it makes me super anxious like i was stuck along through the mysterious passage under the panel of Exit 8 signboard

of question on identity and regret, and how the endless loop mirroring one’s choices to make in life, a slow suspense for its psycho horror yet it leaves me with a creepy feel on the after-read. 5/5*

[Miss Jools · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t know this was a film or a game before being a book but chose it because I’ve read from this author before and enjoyed his books.

Aa a short horror novel, i quite enjoyed it. Felt it could have been a bit fleshed out - liminal horror like this kind of needs the build up and suspense and sense of creeping horror - but i assume he was limited by the pre-existing story.

Definitely would like to see the movie now though! See how it compares.

[Tyler Foskitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exit 8 had an interesting concept and some creepy ideas, but I found the story surprisingly confusing even though I was already familiar with the game. I liked the idea behind some of the anomalies, but the ending didn't really land for me. Overall, it was an okay read, but nothing that really stood out. 3 stars.

[Jolin (twentycharm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. super spoilers ahead!!! this is really short so best to read it blind :-)

i’m always quite wary of how abortion is portrayed, especially if it’s brought up as “killing a child”, but then again we are not in america and this is different. i think it’s not so much commentary on whether abortion is killing the child but more about his choice to become a father or not.

his sin is his inaction in his daily life, and in this case, from choosing to shirk responsibility from committing to raise the child with his ex, he may have caused her to choose abortion.

he needs to face the fact that no matter what stage of life he is, from inaction or even when he moves forward in life, he will still feel lost. nobody knows where their life will take them. how could we?

even the ending wasn’t a clear cut one, like i believe (hopefully) that the boy had a good ending because he’s not that evil, but the main character omg he didn’t make it to exit 8 and instead went back to the train. but i guess by “going back in time” to when he stood with inaction he had the chance to change and be a better person, so it’s an analogy. because of course it is. analogy for life. we will only exit the endless cycle of inaction when we (literally) actively choose to make a difference. there’s no point wishing and wishing we’d change, no point feeling bad but doing nothing. only by truly 改过自新 can we improve and stop feeling bad

i was genuinely creeped out at times and i felt bad for the big man omg :( he did not find enlightenment but i guess according to what the MC said he lives the rest of his life(?) seeing beautiful things, the birds outside, like in ignorance.

actually not sure if the boy is real i guess he has a conscience but he was also there to remind the big man of his own son and then the MC of his yet to be born son. ok la i think he is real because he has his own “sins”

overall this was a quick, creepy read and it’s made me very interested in the game! and movie! also i didn’t know it was based on the titular Exit 8 game, as the synopsis reminded me of Chilla Art’s Shinkansen 0, which is also about finding anomalies, but from walking through the cars of a Shinkansen train and turning back when you see one.

[Elynor Kamil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Underwhelming horror with no real bite and flat characters. At least it was short.

[sophie_cbaker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really great concept, interesting metaphors on purgatory, sin and guilt. I like the game, I’m excited for the movie but this did not work in a book format unfortunately.

[Angustia⋆Cósmica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm too much of a scaredy cat to play Exit 8, so it was a nice surprise to find there was a novel! There's also a movie on the making, but that might also be a bit too spooky for me lmao.

Anyway, this was a nice, short read. I think there was too much packed into a small story, but nevertheless it was fun to see this universe into a brand new shape. Bunch of characters were added too, so it gave it a different twist to what we already know. The lil kid was so sweet, I really enjoyed his part in all of this.

Wish the ending wasn't as open too, but it was still a fulfilling one. I definitely recommend it this for a quick bite of horror.

[Sappie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today I saw my best friend again after her holiday to Japan, and we went to the big bookstore we always visit together. Neither of us had ever seen Exit 8 on the shelves before, so she couldn’t help herself and bought us both a copy.

We had already played the game together, or, more accurately, My partner and I watched her play while being completely useless at spotting anything, as I usually am with these kinds of games. I did yell “EEP” a lot during tense moments, though, which I am VERY good at. We’d also planned to see the movie in theatres but never got around to it. She gifted me the book, and I started and finished it the same day.

My thoughts are pretty simple: I loved it.

That might be slightly coloured by her gesture and the fun memories of watching her play both Exit 8 and Platform 8, but I genuinely had a great time with it. Where the game gives you almost no real story or characters, the book turns the idea into a much more structured narrative about purgatory, regret and being unable to move forward.

It was also a very visual read for me because I already knew those endlessly repeating corridors so well. The book opens by warning you to turn back if you want to experience the film first, so I suspect this is closer to the movie than the original game. That only makes me more excited to finally watch it.

A fun, quick read that I’ll probably always associate with a very lovely day.

Thanks for getting me this ❤️

[Roberto Carrasco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A ver, no puedo ser muy objetivo porque soy un fan fatal del videojuego, pero es que menuda maravilla. Amplía el lore del juego y la película, convirtiéndose en el tercer vértice de la experiencia EXIT 8. Además, me ha tocado la patata. Quién me iba a decir que se me iban a saltar las lágrimas con un señor japonés que se pierde en el metro de Tokio. ¿Es muy pronto para decir que es mi mejor lectura de 2026? Quizás sí, pero quién sabe...

[Tom O’Connell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to Exit 8 as an audiobook in one sitting while I was really sick and feeling a bit delirious. This might just be the optimal way to experience this strange book!

This is a taut horror novel about an unnamed man trapped in a liminal space: an endlessly looping subway tunnel. To escape, he must identify and respond to randomly occurring ‘anomalies’ in the loop. These range from overt, deadly horrors to subtle, almost imperceptible variations in the environment. Each correct response moves him forward to the next exit, while a mistake sends him back to square one. The result is a twisted supernatural puzzle that is rigged against him.

Exit 8 is also an excellent adaptation of a viral indie game of the same name. In the game, the protagonist was a blank slate, a faceless avatar for the player. The horror was mostly random and circumstantial. In this novel, it becomes more personal and sometimes specific, closer to the tone of Silent Hill 2 or Jacob’s Ladder.

The novel adds lots of necessary context to strengthen the themes and give the story more weight. Surprisingly, this new characterisation is entirely additive, improving the framework established by the game significantly. The protagonist is at a major crossroads in his life and can no longer avoid making a difficult decision. But before he can do this and escape the purgatory created by his own indecision, he must confront the trauma he has spent his whole adult life running from.

The character work isn’t groundbreaking or anything, but it’s effective. As someone who struggles a lot with fear, doubt and inertia, I found the personal story at the heart of this novel unexpectedly moving and inspiring.

I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to checking out the movie.

[Santa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting reading experience. The concept of a temporal and spatial loop is incredibly engaging. Watching the protagonist search for anomalies while constantly doubting his own perceptions creates the effect of an unreliable narrator, which, in turn, makes the story even more immersive.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. For such a short novel based on a game, it is remarkably well written.

[RavenReads · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of the original video game, I couldn't wait to experience both the book and the movie. My only regret is that I didn't read the novel first, because the film is an incredibly faithful adaptation. Scene for scene and beat for beat, it's about as close to a direct translation from page to screen as you can get.

That said, I still had a great time with it. Genki Kawamura captures the same unsettling atmosphere that made the game so memorable, turning an ordinary underground passage into a place of mounting paranoia and existential dread. The tension builds with each repetition, creating that nagging feeling that something is deeply, fundamentally wrong.

Despite its brevity, Exit 8 packs a surprising punch. It's eerie, thought provoking, and quietly terrifying. Whether you're already a fan of the game or coming to the story for the first time, this is a creepy little read that delivers exactly the kind of unsettling experience I was hoping for.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Genki Kawamura for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Marcello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished this one in an evening, after finding it in a bookstore. The movie trailer had me intrigued, so I thought "Why not try the book"?
Overall, it was the perfect read for the evening. Things never get quite stale, owing to the rather short size I assume, and the climax felt satisfying.
Very high chance I'll be picking up this booking often to reread.

[Mella aka Maron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really quick, really quirky book that I really enjoyed! It’s a tiny bit horror but mostly introspective. I liked the idea it was telling us: to not ignore things that are wrong in this world.

And I also really liked that it was so short! It didn’t need more pages to tell the story and I appreciated that it was succinct.

[Callum Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spooky little 100 pager, inspired by an indie game with a simple concept but given a deeper meaning by following the trials and tribulations of a fleshed out protagonist.

The looped, inescapable setting is by no means revolutionary but Exit 8 brings its own creepy and existential twist to it, making this a thought provoking experience wrapped into a neat little package.

Movie adaptation released recently is firmly on the to do list.

[Kylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first I wasn’t vibing with the way this was written (it might just be the translation) but fell in love with it. Exit 8 and Backrooms are both so deeply rooted in politics, mind, memory, and being a person, and I love it

[sav · Rating 3 out of 5]

picked this up because i’ve been wanting to watch the movie and finished it in one sitting. it wasn’t anything crazy since it was only 100 pages but still entertaining i couldn’t put it down. also didn’t realize it was the same author as another book i love genki kawamura u will never fall off