Birthday

リング [Ring] #4

by Kōji Suzuki, Glynne Walley (Translator)

Basis of the Hit Movie Ring 0: Birthday !

Birthday is Ring -master Koji Suzuki’s return to the Ring universe, a collection of short stories focusing on the female characters with a theme of birth. An exploration of extraordinary circumstances from the perspective of memorable women, this expansion of the Ring , Spiral , and Loop world was adapted into a hit movie less than a year after the book’s publication.

Thirty years before the tragic events of Ring , Sadako Yamamura was an aspiring stage actress on the verge of her theatrical debut. The beautiful and ravishing Sadako was the object of every male’s desire involved with the company including n the director. There was one thespian she was interested in, but…

Fast forward past the events of Ring , Ryuji Takayama’s distraught lover, Mai Takano is struggling in the wake of the professor’s mysterious demise. Mai visits Ryuji’s parents’ house to find the missing pages of his soon-to-be published article. There she is drawn to a curious videotape and a fate more terrifying than Ryuji or Kazuyuki Asakawa’s.

Reiko Sugiura questioned the purpose of bringing a child into a world where there was only death. She already lost one son, and the father of her unborn child, Kaoru Futami, had disappeared in search of a cure to the deadly disease that threatened all life. Despite Kaoru’s to meet again in two months, he has not returned. Despondent but driven for answers Reiko is led to the Loop project, where she will discover the final truths of the Ring virus.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Japanese Literature, Short Stories, Japan, Science Fiction, Thriller

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 1999

About the author

Suzuki Kōji (鈴木光司) is a Japanese writer, who was born in Hamamatsu and currently lives in Tokyo. Suzuki is the author of the Ring novels, which has been adapted into a manga series. He has written several books on the subject of fatherhood. He is currently on the selection committee for the Japan Fantasy Novel Award.

Reviews

[Dorian Jandreau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, as I loved all previous Ringu books, I loved this one too. Mostly I was shocked when in 180 page in first sentence was written date June 27, 1991 (one day before I got into this world). I WAS BORN ON JUNE 28, 1991. So I was very surprised by that date. Never found such thing with my birthday in a any book. And it is even more mysterious that this book is named "Birthday".

My favorite chapter of course was about Sadako's life in theater. I saw movie by this book...and I think right now I'm gonna find that DVD and watch it again.

Koji Suzuki was first Japanese author I noticed in Lithuania when I still was a teen. When I bought this book, I thought it will be very hard to read in English his book, but it wasn't at all. In fact very easy to read. Maybe other 3 books would be hard to read in English, but I read them in Lithuanian any way. I really wish to read more of his books. They are very interesting, have deep feelings, and they so calm me that I fall asleep reading his books.

So in any case- I LOVED THIS BOOK VERY MUCH.

[Stacy (Gotham City Librarian) · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Watch until the end. You will be eaten by the lost.”

I have LOVED my journey through this series in 2023 and I’m so sad that it’s over! I will miss Sadako’s scary, deranged ass. Koji Suzuki is such a smart writer with twisty ideas, and very good at making you worry that something bad is going to happen to a character. (Most of the time, it does.)

I love how the act of watching the cursed videotape is described in these books. Most of the actual images aren’t that creepy, (a few of them are), but the way the viewer is affected both mentally and physically while watching is disturbing enough. And the lore of everything goes so deep that I wouldn’t even be able to explain it to you in one review even if I wanted to. It’s so complicated!

In “Birthday,” these are stories involving characters you will already be familiar with if you’ve read the other books in the “Ring” series, and the major twists and revelations will not be new or hold quite the earth-shattering impact that they did the first time around. But you will get a deeper appreciation of a few of the main characters, a more rounded backstory for Sadako herself and a better grasp of how the major plot concluded.

And just like with all the other books, there’s enough explanation that you don’t HAVE to read the entire series. But I would still recommend doing so. It’s such a shame that there’s technically one more book in this series, but it was never translated into English so I can’t read it. I know that eventually the charm would probably wear off, but I would honestly keep reading this series for the rest of my life if I could. However, this one did serve as a nice, moving ending.

TW: body horror involving birth, terminal illness, suicide, Depression

[Edward K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The three short stories presented in this novel are intriguing and thought provoking. Birthday gives the reader insight and fills in loose ends with new and reoccurring characters.

I can’t seem to get enough of the Ring universe. I adored this book and if your a fan and you want more answers and more mystery then please read it. Suzuki is amazing at story telling, but I think you know that already.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coffin in the Sky - 2 stars
Lemon Heart - 4 stars
Happy Birthday - 3 stars

[Myles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Satisfying conclusion to characters from the Ring trilogy

[itchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

titular sentence:
p140: Happy birthday.

spelling:
p3: There she is drawn to a curious videotape and a fate mor terrifying than Ryuji's.

ocr:
p40: If I could do it all over, who would I spend my hfe with?

p139: Somehow it seemed like the baby was reluctant, as if, having gotten a glimpse of the outside worlc^ it was trying to decide if it was a place worth going out into.

p140: The baby's coining!

Sadako's world is intriguing, but somehow I don't feel the same for Reiko's. It's just too outlandish. Not that Sadako's isn't. It's complicated.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite loving the other Ring novels I had been passing on this one out of dislike for the film version, which I thought ruined the mystery of Sadako by giving us her "origin story." But recently I took another look at it and saw that it was in fact three stories, only one of which was connected to the film, and decided to finally read it.

They are really supplemental stories that won't make any sense unless you've read the previous books (nor would there be any point reading them.) In "Coffin in the Sky" we learn the details of what happened to Mai after the death of her mentor Ryuji, from her own perspective. "Lemon Heart" takes us back to 1966 when Sadako Yamamura was an aspiring actress in a live theatre troupe. This is from the point of view of her supposed lover. Sadako's uncanny ability to imprint her thoughts onto recording media is in evidence here, prior to the era of VHS. "Happy Birthday" concerns the Loop project from the third novel and the race to eradicate the virus that is devastating the world.

While I suppose I don't mind having completed the run, I am ambivalent about the stories themselves. They feel unnecessary to me. Mai's awful experience could have been left to our imaginations, Loop didn't really need an epilogue, and I still feel the same about doing away with Sadako's mysterious quality.

I'd suggest skipping it and going straight on to S. If you do read it, do so shortly after finishing Loop, so you don't forget who the characters are like I did!

[Ondrej Sakachi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slight spoilers, but not for what happens, rather I will spoil a bit the structure.

At first looks like additional extra lore dump, but during the second half it becomes something more than just a collection of disjointed stories. In fact all three short stories even if they do not seem like it are quite tightly intertwined and complement each other.

Coffin in the sky - Really short story about what really happened to Mai Takano during Spiral's most mysterious moment. 3/5

Lemon heart - Interesting love story of one of the Ring's Troupe members and Sadako Yamamura 3.5/5.

Happy Birthday - The final conclusion of the trilogy. We are shown what happened to the Reiko, Kaoro and the world after the events of the Loop book. 4/5

I would say the book is 3.5/5. It is nice but definitely not too important to the series.

After reading so much Suzuki in such a short period of time I have to say the worst thing about his books and writing style is how much he repeats himself. Not across the series but even in each book itself. It was the most noticeable in the final short story where he on a span of +/- 50 pages repeats the same explanation about 3 times. Like sure man... We got it the first time.

Sometimes he starts a chapter by explaining the same thing he explained at the end of previous one which seems like either he wanted this to be read on not one sitting or I do not even know.
I guess now I understand how mansplaining feels like.

The Ring series (first 4 books) is definitely one of the more interesting book series. It is flawed yet so originall that I just can not dislike it. Solid 4/5 series.

[Houston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe the best book in the whole Ring series? It’s unnecessary, giving more story to elements for which we don’t necessarily need it, but some of Suzuki’s strongest horror/emotional beats can be found in here. And they’re not even ruined when you remember that two of these stories take place inside of a computer.

-Coffin in the Sky, 4.5: The best pure horror that I’ve read by Suzuki thus far. Horrifying, scary, and heartbreaking. My only problem with it is that, having read Spiral, I knew the story’s tragic outcome beforehand.

-Lemon Heart, 3.5: I wish this was told from Sadako’s perspective like the movie. I feel like certain moments in these books hint at her being a more complicated character than we’re led to believe, and I was hoping for some insight here. Still, there’s some solid teen horror/romance to be found here. Oh yeah, and Sadako uses her lover’s semen as hand lotion. Do what you will with that information.

-Happy Birthday, 4: Loop is Galaxy-brained sci-fi nonsense that I reluctantly enjoy. It also happens to feature the most mature human relationship to be found in these books, so it was kind of nice to catch up with Reiko in the aftermath of Loop after her being absent for the last third of the book. And, like Loop, it’s the most hopeful of the bunch.

[ν1ятυα · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two out of the three stories take place during the events of Spiral while the last one takes place during the events of Loop (the book that takes place during the events of Spiral...man this is confusing). That being said, I actually like this one better than Loop, it wasn't as boring as the previous book and it provided a lot more insight to the characters that didn't get the characterization that they deserved in their proper books. Overall, an okay book, not fantastic by any means but definitely better than its prequel. I'm rather excited to see where the next book falls in the Ring timeline.

[Sylvia Flora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book because it complements Koji Suzuki's previous novels about The Ring universe. Its tone is more like a sci-fi mystery than a horror novel, though. As a standalone book, it would probably be rather confusing because about 2/3 of the way through the book the novel drastically shifts focus from the past to the future. If you've read Suzuki's Ring trilogy (Ring, Spiral, and Loop) Birthday is a real treat because it ties up all the loose ends and questions left by the trilogy's conclusion.

[Domiron · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first story doesn't contain anything particularly new, and makes Spiral look bad (which it's not)
The second is the kind of thing that could be expected as a sequel to the original Ring, though it's not particularly exciting either.
The last isn't particularly good either, though is maybe the least re-tready of them.
It's still not bad but it's basically what one, with low expectations, would expect of a set of three stories tied to the Ring series like they are.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of 3 short stories that focus on the women surrounding the birth of that cursed tape! It’s a really strong entry in the series! It kind of plays out like a J-horror greatest hits compilation

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Koji Suzuki never ceases to amaze! Taking the outstanding plot of the ring trilogy a step further, Birthday gives the reader much needed closure from all three books. I finished it in 4 hours, despite the anthological structure this book felt fluid. If you loved the trilogy then give it a read!

[Sarah Haque · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Three lovely bizarre stories, they looked connected although idk how, I just picked it up to get a background on the series.

So far so good.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 stories from the original trilogy, all good, review later maybe

[Griffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mai’s story really does not add anything new or that interesting, but I liked Sadako’s extra backstory

Reiko’s story is definitely the best & a great epilogue to Loop

[Ricky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoilers for Ring, Spiral, Loop, and Birthday

As if in direct response to my review of Loop, this collection of stories focuses almost entirely on the female cast of characters that I wanted to hear more from. It's interesting how each entry changes my opinion on the previous entries in subtle ways. Loop shifted gears from horror to sci-fi, and I was fine with that because I felt it made for a more ambitious and conventionally engaging story. However, revisiting the horror elements of Ring and Spiral made me realize how much I'd missed them, and it makes me reconsider if I actually did like Loop the best out of the Trilogy. Since these stories are linked to the previous novels, I will discuss them in the context of the broader whole.


- Coffin in the Sky

Perhaps the weakest story to me, we experience Mai Takano's final moments before her virgin birth of Sadako-reincarnate. I find Mai's role in the series to be an interesting one. We generally don't know much about her: she's beautiful, young, hardworking, and has a special bond with Ryuji. In Ring, I feel that her presence is mostly meant to complicate the audience's perception of Ryuji. If someone as lovely as Mai Takano sees something in Ryuji, maybe he's not the menace we were led to believe he is. Unfortunately, I think that Ryuji's past is by far the weakest and most baffling part of Ring. I really disliked the rapist redemption angle, even if it turned out to be a lie. It just didn't go anywhere, and it made me dislike Ryuji, which is unfortunate because he's definitely the most important character in the series. I was looking forward to getting to know more about her in Spiral, but that was cut rather short. I do like the idea of a missed connection between her and Ando, but for all we know it appears to have been a one-sided infatuation. This would have been interesting to explore more in-depth, but Mai's role played more as a plot device than a fully fleshed-out character.

As an individual, we know that Mai is a little insecure, precocious, and seems like she's on track to make a name for herself in whichever direction she'd like to head in. I like her, and I was rooting for her despite her lack of detail. Perhaps these brief impressions of her, the glimpses of potential, are meant to underscore the tragedy of her fate. Who could she have become had she not gotten wrapped up with the ring virus? Similar questions could be posed about Sadako, which I thought was a nice way to draw parallels between their circumstances beyond their deaths.

As for the story itself, the scenario was indeed quite chilling. I was dreading it as soon as it began. I did not want to envision someone as guiltless as her suffer, and knowing that she was lucid made it all the worse. The dread I felt ended up being somewhat unwarranted, however. Being, essentially, buried alive and forced to give birth is, of course, incredibly harrowing, but Mai's thoughts drift to unexpected places that soften the blow - but not necessarily for the better. She recalls snippets of her youth, past boyfriends and such. A sizeable amount of this short story is spent by Mai recalling an instance of sexual rejection that she attributed to her small breast size. This led to her shying away from future sexual advances to spare herself the possiblity of another rejection. And, like, who's to say what goes through someone's mind while they're entombed and forced to give birth to something supernatural? Definitely not me. However, I was just unsatisfied with this musing. It felt silly and dampened the shock of the birth itself, which was actually disturbing. I was hoping that, now being in the mind of one of the, oft-sexualized, female characters, we would get a more nuanced insight into their character, but sadly it was just the same sort of voyeurism we were exposed to through the male characters' lenses. Aside from that, I thought this story was alright. Spooky, sad, gross, a decent introduction to the mood and themes of the remaining stories.


Lemon Heart

This was the standout story to me that made me reconsider my slight preference for Loop over Ring and Spiral. Sadako is a fascinating character in her juxtapositions. She's innocent yet scheming. She's the object of desire, but also something to be feared. A bit of a wallflower, but desperate for recognition. Here, we can clearly see why and how people have such contradicting perceptions of her. Again, despite wanting more information from and about the female characters in the series, I think it was smart to make the perspective character for this story somebody else. I like that there are parts of her that are unknowable. It gives her an eerie aura - projected onto by others in a similar fashion to her own psychic projections. Ambiguous, vague, open to interpretation.

Lemon Heart feels gothic in the vein of Edgar Allen Poe. Coffin in the Sky also had this effect, but Lemon Heart has more time to breathe and allow the discomfort to seep into the reader. I like the theater setting as well. I always found this part of her to be a little odd and unexpected. Why would someone so resentful of society want to perform for them? After some thought, I realized it actually makes a lot of sense. She and her mother were performers of sort during their period of psychic fame. A pursuit like this also makes sense for someone as vague as Sadako. It allows her to slip into different identities and masks. I like that we get a little bit more information into her powers as well without fully knowing everything about them. She's been able to project her experiences into more complicated technology since before her death, but it's still unclear whether or not this was intentional, and, if so, to what end? I liked her relationship with Toyama. It was appropriately off-kilter and psychologically complicated. I get the sense that one of her peripheral powers involves planting a seed of obsession.

In short, this was an atmospheric story that answers as many questions as it raises in a satisfying way.


Happy Birthday

This was the sweetest story. Like Loop, it sticks out a bit for its tonal difference. I don't have too much to say about it beyond that. It's a nice conclusion to the story of Loop, and fans of it will likely like this as well. The reason why this collection made me reconsider my rankings of the books in the trilogy is that it makes the significant differences in atmosphere and priorities all the more apparent. Loop, despite its convoluted premise, is actually quite straightforward. There is a hero, there is a clear threat, there is a solution to that threat, and there is a love story happening concurrently. It's the most Hollywood (which I don't mean as an insult). Those disappointed by the world-within-a-world plot of Loop will not be less disappointed here, but as a story in itself, it is a pleasant goodbye. I wish I could appreciate the love story more, but because of my aforementioned distaste of Ryuji, I was a little less invested than I should have been. Kaoru does grow and evolve as a character, of course, but I still struggle to see him with the same kind eyes that Reiko and, presumably, the author does. Yes, Kaoru and Ryuji are different characters, but it just felt like I was being forced to like Ryuji by association. It's actually kind of wild how one minor plotpoint from book 1 impacted my perception of this incredibly important character so negatively. That said, I am happy to know that these characters were able to have as happy of an ending as possible after everything they went through.

[Chris Greensmith · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Let's meet again two months from now. Until then, you have to keep living, no matter what."

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent enough, but nothing particularly special! I enjoyed the theatre troop story the most. Now most interesting, there seems to be a sentence in the last story that hints Sadako’s origin in Loop to be the same as Kaoru’s?! Do we infer Sadako is from our universe? Scanned and uploaded to Loop?!

[Connor Stompanato · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst it definitely isn't a completely necessary book to read to understand the 'Ring' series, 'Birthday' fleshes out the world and some of its supporting characters in an interesting way. I enjoyed all three short stories and I think that it helped me understand the weird, whacky world of 'Loop' better.

Suzuki's writing (and credit of course to the translator) is always gripping and even when the events on page aren't necessarily the most exciting, he makes you want to continue reading to find out what happens next. I also always like when an author clearly enjoys revisiting a world or story that they have created, something that is very obvious here. Suzuki loves 'Ring' and wants to continue expanding on it and pushing its boundaries. That comes through on the page.

Ring | Spiral | Loop | Birthday | S | Tide | Ss&Sc | Film Reviews

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's "only" three (largely supplemental) short stories, but manages a lot of emotional heft. The best is the second, but even the third story works pretty well despite it having to wrestle with the incomprehensible bullshittery of Loop.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This filled in the gaps between the previous novels while also wrapping everything up into a neat little bow, at least until Suzuki decided to write two more books in the series.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book to give you nightmares. The science fiction/horror-noir style of this tale reminds me of Murakami. But unlike Murakami, Suzuki leans more toward shock and the grotesque.

One of the many premises of the tale is that two "realities" exist simultaneously. There is the real world and "the loop." Technology allows for the inhabitants of the real world to view the inhabitants of the loop, through what seems like virtual reality sets. The dynamic between the two worlds is unclear, but there is interplay.

Sadako is probably the most prominent character. A beautiful woman, she is introduced as a the love interest of a young man who meets her when they are both actors in a theater troupe. Later, it is revealed that she is not a human being, but some kind of a mutant.

There are numerous Sadakos, and they all appear to be beautiful women with the same appearance. They are born and reach full adulthood within a week's time. They are irresistible to men. Sadako is at fault for all of the fatalities that take place. A group of men die (at different times over a ten year span) after hearing her voice recorded on a tape.

When he hears of his former acquaintance's fates, the man formerly in love with the theater troupe Sadako begins to fear for his life.

Toward the end of the tale, a new dimension emerges, in that a "cancer virus" is threatening to wipe out the human race. One man is determined to find a cure and charts out on an international odyssey with that intention, heading first to the United States desert (from Japan).

Complex, fast paced. An entertaining read. Although I did not know when I selected the book, it is a volume part of "The Ring" series. I have not read other books in the series and do not plan to do so in the immediate future:)

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last book in the Ring-series and this is a book that actually consists of three separate stories (though that are still connected to each other) To read this book you must definitely have read all of the previous installements because the information given there is vital.

It is fun to learn more about some of the minor characters from the previous books and to see how their experiences with the Ring virus ended (in most cases any encounter with the Ring ends in death but hey, never to late to look for exceptions, you might just find one in this book, who knows).

Even though this extra character background is a nice addition, I could not really enjoy this book. I really liked the first book in the series but after that everything got a bit too weird and complicated for me to really enjoy. I didn't enjoy the scientific sode of the story, and in the third book they completely lost me with the paralel computer dimension aspect of the story. Therefore this third book did not really leave me satisfied since it builds so heavily on especially the previous 2 books and less on the first.

The first book in this series is reduced to be merely an introduction to a far grander scheme while I still feel like the first book was the best because of the emphasis on horror and mystery, not on science. But again that might just be personal preference.

So yes, glad I finished it but also glad that it is over...

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

three short stories from the perspectives of multiple characters not really explored in the main series and ultimately I thought it was a very interesting supplemental piece. for stories 1 and 3 at least.

The middle section of this book drags. the plot is not interesting, the characters aren't interesting, it feels like filler to be able to hit a page count. But the first story was a very interesting and uncomfortable expanding on some lore and the third was genuinely very emotional and made me really happy to come back and finish up this story.

[J. Stout · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ring, Spiral, and Loop are the series that lead up to this book and it is.....a total and complete let down. Have you ever enjoyed something you read so much only to have it completely ruined for you? Because that's what this book does, if I could take back reading it, I would. It ruins the entire series and makes it meaningless. In my opinion if you loved any of the Ring series of books do yourself a favor and don't read this one. Pretend like it doesn't exist.

[flum · Rating 1 out of 5]

when 90% of your novel is reiterating the events of the last three novels (two of which were also highly regurgitant) it's time to stop writing.

[Javi Pons · Rating 4 out of 5]

El Aro parte 4, aunque no lo parezca

Spoilers por doquier, cuidado.
Apreciación: 8.5 / 10

La saga de Sadako sigue, y aunque la sinopsis del libro no lo aparente –en todos lados dice que esto es una colección de cuentos "relacionados" a la historia– la realidad es que la obra es tanto la continuación como una mirada a los momentos más sobresalientes –y también espeluznantes– de las mujeres de Ringu... o del Loop, como ya sabemos.

Tenemos tres historias:

La primera nos lleva a los acontecimientos vividos por la pobre, pobre Mai Takano. Novia de nuestro querido Ryuji Takayama, a quien aprendimos a odiar en Spiral y a amar con locura en Loop. Como recordarán, la pobre (pobre, pobre) Mai desaparece un día sin dejar rastro y en su lugar encontramos a una criatura que parece mujer pero que eventualmente se revela como la pesadilla –o glitch en la Matrix– que es Sadako. Esa desaparición nos queda clara y bien narrada, a mi gusto es la historia más horrorosa de la colección y nos deja con esta sensación de "por fin", porque uno sólo podía imaginarse los hechos... pero leerlos es reconfortante. Gore del bueno, de ese que se lleva uno a las pesadillas por siempre.

"Coffin in The Sky", Ataúd en el cielo, es este primer momento, memorable, que aún al escribirlo me crispa los pelos de la piel.

Después viene una historia que da origen a la película de "Aro 0" u "Origins". Nos muestra la vida de actriz teatral de Sadako, su efecto de sucubo en los hombres que conoce y el crush que, desafortunadamente, tendrá con ella el (pobre, de nuevo) técnico de audio de la compañía. Como recordarán, desde la primera novela (Ringu) las pistas nos llevan a esta etapa de nuestra protagonista, quien desaparece despúes de que el dierctor de la compañía teatral sea descubierto muerto... bueno, aquí se narran los hechos que llevan a ello; sin embargo, hay un giro sensacional que nos trae al cuasipresente y que reanima la llama de Loop y la "Sadako Invasion". Hay una imagen siniestra en este cuento, de un cordón umbilical, que también abona al shock value y memorabilidad de la historia.

"Lemon Heart" o Corazón de limón, es esta segunda narración, la más larga de las cuatro y que hay que degustar de a pocos porque cambia el ritmo muy abruptamente con respecto a la primera. Y sí, es lenta y para algunos aburrida, pero más lento va cualquier cosa de Dostoyevski...

Tercera historia: "Happy Birthday", Feliz cumpleaños.
La continuación lineal de Loop. >>SPOILERS, SPOILERS>>> en donde nuestro protagonista Takajima, ya de nuevo en el Loop tendrá que enfrentar las consecuencias de acabar con la invasión de Sadakos; mientras tanto, en la realidad prima –que al final ya no nos queda claro cuál es– Reiko sigue con su embarazo, aprende las aventuras que tuvo que pasar Kaoru y hasta consigue un set para poder mirar el Loop y seguir de cerca a su amor en la distancia. La escena final de Loop se ve complementada con esta historia en donde el mundo renueva su forma –los mundos, he de decir– y la esperanza de una nueva vida se ve salpicada por un guiño de malicia sobrenatural que, seguramente, tendrá cabida en la quinta entrega de la serie.

Como comentario final.
Sigo pensando que esta es una saga adelantada a su tiempo. Birthday salió a librerías en 2007 y la mezcla de horror sobrenatural con ciencia ficción y distopía sigue tan fresca como entonces. Mi valoración no es tan alta como en las anteriores entregas porque el nivel de sorpresa se redujo muchísimo y fue cambiado por la explicación de lo que sucedió y sucederá; yo, particularmente, agradezco este gesto, ya que este tipo de hisotiras pueden divagar en las mentes de lectores menos complejos y terminar en bobadas públicas; con este tipo de entregas, la historia y sus personajes siguen alineados a los designios del autor y no permiten significaciones fuera del universo que éste plantea –digamos que así se blinda la obra de sandeces como la que le pasó a Cixin Liu con "The Redemption of Time".

La traducción al inglés de Glynne Walley es superior, fluida y bien lograda. El diseño de Chipp Kid es sensacional, sigo pensando que tendré que poner un negocio bollante para comprarme algún día la edición en pasta dura con camisa transparente. ¿Sí existe, verdad?

Entonces, haaaarto recomendable, sobre todo para dar cierre en más de un momento a los libros anteriores. Y bueno, queda pensar: ¿qué sigue? Porque este libro en verdad es concluyente.

Me emociona iniciar "S" para poderlo reseñar en el Spooky Season de este año. ¡Allá nos vemos!

PD. Amo el universo de Ringu. ❤️

[Samuel Guglielmo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unlike the other three books, Birthday is a collection of three short stories that give more details on certain points of the Ring story.

The first one, Coffin in the Sky, follows Mai, the woman who gives birth to the second Sadako in Spiral. She is mysteriously pregnant despite being a virgin, and that baby wants out. She has periods of blacking out and coming to hours later, not knowing what she did. Eventually, she falls down a shaft, gives birth to baby Sadako, and the baby proceeds to Mission Impossible climb out of the shaft via a rope and escape. It is... kind of overwhelmingly stupid. There's some good isolation horror in here, but overall it's hard to really be scared when it proceeds to describe a newborn Sadako talking to Mai and then climbing up a rope like it's High School gym class.

The second, Lemon Heart, is easily the best of the three and it was eventually adapted to a Japanese movie called Ring 0 and it's easy to see why. Toyama is a man who fell in love with Sadako before the events of Ring. He's an audio technician who works for the theater group that Sadako briefly belonged to. Him and Sadako have a fling. He accidentally captures some of their RAW HARDCORE FUCKIN' on a tape. Some guys find it and use it to embarrass Sadako out of the industry, leading to her eventual fate in Ring. But the tape was cursed just like her video tapes, and they slowly die. It's good. It reminds me a lot of the original Ring, and how that managed to capture some solid creepy 'running out of time' stuff. I kind of want to see Ring 0 because of this now.

The final story, Happy Birthday, is basically an epilogue to Loop, the third book in the series. Reiko, the partner of the main character of Loop, finds out he died to go into the simulation to do... something. Then she watches the first two stories in VR. That is never brought up again and is a waste of time, and only seems to be there so the author can yell "META!" Reiko is depressed for a bit, then uses VR to look into the Loop where she finds out the army of Sadako clones from the end of Spiral are just living normal lives. Then she checks back a week later and they all got sick and died of old age, and also the Haunted Murder Tape lost its powers for some reason. The end. Wild way to just sort of awkwardly stop your story. What, genuinely, was the point?

I'd say the purpose of Birthday was to kill the series so he never had to write them again, but 13 years late in 2012 a new Ring book would come out. I guess I'll have to read that at some point.