百蛇堂〈怪談作家の語る話〉

作家

by Shinzō Mitsuda, 三津田 信三

(講談社文庫)

Paperback Bunko

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

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

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG I'd just finished this book and it's so fucking mind-blowing! But I'm not saying this book is flawless but OMG OMG! The entire story is so frightening, intensive and twisted.

Outline of the story: Shinzo Mitsuda, editor of horror novel series and a part-time novelist, is introduced to an indie author, who wrote his frightening childhood experience into his soon-to-be-published debut novel. Mitsuda is intrigued by the author's strange tale but he soon realizes the manuscript gifted to him seems to attract a series of strange events: unseen eyes watching him, strange noise in the dead of night, shadows lurking at the corners, a strange woman in black showing up to haunt Mitsuda and his female coworker; plus the mysterious indie author and his beautiful 'daughter' are also hiding something and it doesn't take long for people around Mitsuda to start disappearing without a trance. So where does reality end and where do fantasy and nightmares begin? Mitsuda, our horror novelist, is going to find out at personal cost.

PS: this book is related to a prequel, more information here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

And the author, Shinzo Mitsuda (the real guy, not the fictional horror novelist, you know), demonstrated with his book that he has the proper taste and knowledge of a horror fan, why would I say that? Because this guy obviously knows some tasteful and legendary bunches of old horror movies and novels, etc.

For example, movies directed by Mario Bava:


(Link: http://www.filmcaptures.com/lisa-and-...)

Movies by Dario Argento:


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(Link:http://journeysinclassicfilm.com/2012...)

There're more reasons for me to adore this book as well, I will mention them here:

I like the haunting scenes in this book, those scenes are first-class spooky and at the same time, they are tastefully done without relaying too much on the shock value. If you like Japanese horror movies, you may most likely enjoy those scenes too.

I also like how this story ends, surprisingly there are reasonable explanation for most of the mysteries! Shocking, right?

However, I did find part of the 'explanation' for the secrets of the remote village to be a bit forced and too surreal.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

适合黑灯瞎火阅读（。）跟《作者不详》是一种风格，三津田信三在三津田信三的故事里陷入人生大危机。前面铺垫部分有些啰嗦，关于日本恐怖小说的背景介绍占了不少篇幅，不过怪谈开始之后的气氛营造依然优秀（来源不明对长头发和黑暗里苍白的双脚从不让人失望）。

[Wini Sham · Rating 4 out of 5]

氣氛很棒，但太拖拉，結局的謎底也有點牽強。