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Kowabana #1-5
Kowabana Collection: Vol. 1-5
What really lurks in the shadows?
Japanese horror has long thrilled not only Japanese audiences, but Western audiences as well. With this digital collection, featuring Kowabana: ‘True’ Japanese scary stories Vol. 1-5 in one neat package, you can experience horrors like you’ve never seen before.
From haunted shrines to abandoned buildings, supernatural stalkers to cursed rituals, Japan puts a unique spin on horror as we know it, and these are their untold tales.
If you’re looking for your yurei and yokai fix, look no further. Scroll up to grab the Kowabana Collection Vol. 1-5 and save now!
1494 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 28, 2019
50 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Tara A. Devlin
62 books160 followersTara A. Devlin studied Japanese at the University of Queensland before moving to Japan in 2005. She lived in Matsue, the birthplace of Japanese ghost stories, for 10 years, where her love for Japanese horror really grew. And with Izumo, the birthplace of Japanese mythology, just a stone’s throw away, she was never too far from the mysterious. You can find her collection of horror and fantasy writings at taraadevlin.com and translations of Japanese horror at kowabana.net.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 12, 2019
I recommend getting this collection instead of buying each book one by one; most of the books categorise stories by theme but vol. 4 categorises by the year the stories were posted. This means a couple stories have appeared in the other volumes before, but not all of them so I still reco getting vol. 4 anyway.
Because these are stories that are translated from essentially the Japanese r/nosleep, some of them aren't the most lucid thing you've ever read, but for the most part it's all good and spooky fun. My favourite stories are the longer ones, the ones with a lot more padding and background, like 'Kotoribako' and the series of stories involving B and the creature living inside her. With those kind of stories where an explanation (or an attempt at it), I find it hard to stop reading even when it's past midnight.
Unlike with Toshiden, Tara Devlin only steps in when explanations are needed (like in stories that are scary once you've read the ending, which might need some translation notes or cultural explanations). She also adds notes in vol. 4 on how creepypasta has evolved in Japan throughout the years. I really love reading her notes and her introduction to these books, so it was nice to see them there.
I think what I like about these creepypasta (versus horror novels) is they tend to know exactly the right moment to stop. Ofc you're not getting the sweet royalties from writing a 5,000 word horror story, so I can see why horror novels get like that, but it's certainly something I noticed in novels that began really strongly (Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box is one and also Susan Hill's The Woman in Black. Meanwhile, Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger maintains the atmosphere from start to finish). In creepypasta, the writer can just drop the story at its strongest point and that's somehow more satisfying.
Anyway, this isn't really a book about creepypasta--since it's a book of creepypasta translated from Japanese--so I'll stop my rambling. Kudos to Devlin for the effort and wanting to share these spooky stories to the non-Japanese speakers!
Because these are stories that are translated from essentially the Japanese r/nosleep, some of them aren't the most lucid thing you've ever read, but for the most part it's all good and spooky fun. My favourite stories are the longer ones, the ones with a lot more padding and background, like 'Kotoribako' and the series of stories involving B and the creature living inside her. With those kind of stories where an explanation (or an attempt at it), I find it hard to stop reading even when it's past midnight.
Unlike with Toshiden, Tara Devlin only steps in when explanations are needed (like in stories that are scary once you've read the ending, which might need some translation notes or cultural explanations). She also adds notes in vol. 4 on how creepypasta has evolved in Japan throughout the years. I really love reading her notes and her introduction to these books, so it was nice to see them there.
I think what I like about these creepypasta (versus horror novels) is they tend to know exactly the right moment to stop. Ofc you're not getting the sweet royalties from writing a 5,000 word horror story, so I can see why horror novels get like that, but it's certainly something I noticed in novels that began really strongly (Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box is one and also Susan Hill's The Woman in Black. Meanwhile, Sarah Waters's The Little Stranger maintains the atmosphere from start to finish). In creepypasta, the writer can just drop the story at its strongest point and that's somehow more satisfying.
Anyway, this isn't really a book about creepypasta--since it's a book of creepypasta translated from Japanese--so I'll stop my rambling. Kudos to Devlin for the effort and wanting to share these spooky stories to the non-Japanese speakers!
Displaying 1 of 1 review