Francesca Danielle’s Reviews > Strange Buildings > Status Update

File 10 finally gave us some Holy Mother lore! So, Yaeko was a woman that was in debt with the yakuza and lost her right leg from a car accident. She entertained Hikura, who we despise and Uketsu also seems to despise him too because he's always up to no good, who paid off her debt and then... made her a religious figure in a cult? There's still a blank space to explain the gap in the timeline. Very intriguing

File 9 gave an alternate theory to the reason presented in the previous one which I enjoyed -- it also shows that the characters that were found in the files actually did interact with each other rather than it being a bunch of really creepy coincidences (which, tbh, is also fine). Somehow, I feel like this is panning out to be a revenge novel instead of a horror one, but maybe the real fear is found in people (LOL)

File 7 was a hard read for me because I can’t stomach a child suffering, especially because of abuse and neglect. Despite this, it still provided insight on a few questions from the previous file — now we know who Naruki is; how he could be the bastard of one of the elites involved in the cult. How his “Uncle”’s house had a “brown doll” that served as the house’s beating heart. All interesting stuff

File 6 got me shivering in my timbers when you put all the drawings together. What I like most about Uketsu’s writing so far is the fact that he makes use of a lot of different writing media — for instance, he has files that are magazine clippings, old journal excerpts, interviews, etc. It keeps the reader engaged and enshrouds the whole book in even more mystery. It’s gimmicky, but it works.

Done with File 5! Okay, everything is finally connecting! Aside from the Hikura Homes, finally the enigmatic watermill is being “expounded upon”! I can’t wait to read the rest of the files. I’m starting to think that I should have a map of Japan while reading this.

So, I’m convinced that Hikura Homes is imbuing evil in all the houses that they design that somehow is able to elicit violence and murder. Just a deeply negligent and corrupt institution. It’s strange how Hikura actively prevents individuals from seeing houses as homes and instead condemns them for even trying to live in it. Its like these buildings hate people and actively prevent others from inhabiting it

File 3 is really weird 😭 Just a random watermill far from water? So was the gear moved by people outside to unveil the hidden room? I doubt the egret entered by accident — I feel like much of the building had been refined after it was first erected. Again, a lot of the explanations that Uketsu offers is "convenient" so I'm suspicious. The overarching theme of non-conformity = misfortune is clear though

Another instance of a house having evil feng shui and sha chi in the house. I find Uketsu enjoys giving convenient answers to mysteries in each file, but it seems to “simple” to just conclude that the layout of the house caused frustration to build up and ultimately lead to murder…. Compelling case though.

Just finished File 1! My gut instinct is that Ms. Negishi should have never been born, hence why her mother wanted to eventually tear down her room. Or perhaps there was some curse that was found in the area? Not sure what it is just yet.