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Suicide Club


My Thoughts

Based off of the cult film, Suicide Club, the distressing nature of this manga hits the reader hard and fast. A stunning thriller that is difficult to put down, I ended up reading it in one sitting. The story follows Kyoko as she watches the descent of her childhood best friend, Saya, the only survivor of mass suicide. Kyoko finds herself pulled deeper into the mysteries of a suicide cult as she attempts to save Saya.

“How do you relate to yourself?”

The scary part of this manga isn’t the gore, though it is very gory. No, the real horror here is psychological. Saya and the other girls of the suicide circle are suffering from depression, feeling that they have no one that they can talk to. It is this feeling of isolation that pulls them into a terrifying sisterhood where they can share each other’s pain. The group quickly becomes a mob driven insane with devotion to each other, like a hive.

I think that the concept for this manga was good, and it deals very directly with the dangers of apathy. It’s easy to become tangled up in our own lives and neglect the people closest to us that need help. It’s clear from the beginning that Saya was severely depressed. Kyoko witnesses it but becomes too busy with her personal life to address Saya’s issues until she is already too far gone.

Despite my praise, I do feel that this manga is lacking in some aspects. While the story is about Saya, it is told from the point of view of Kyoko, limiting the narrative. Saya acts out and starts doing terrible things because she is depressed which in turn makes her life worse, but why or what caused the depression isn’t clear. There is a gap between the normal Saya that Kyoko remembers from childhood and the outright psychotic Saya of the present, and the lack of steady development in between is disjointing and doesn’t feel consistent. I would have liked for more time to be taken to develop the two main characters.

Overall though, I had a hard time deciding how to feel about this manga. I initially didn’t care for it due to the poor character development, but after letting the story settle in my mind for a few hours, I ended up liking it more for the sheer insanity of the cult which makes this manga really stand out. I watched a little bit of the movie and I’m not sure if I want to watch all of it since it felt a little campy, but I feel that the manga is a good adaptation and a solid entry into the horror genre.


Warnings: violence, death, bullying


four-stars
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Ultimate Sacrifice


My Thoughts

A small town and a grisly ritualistic murder followed by whispers of a prophecy and sacrifice – the prospect of this book is terrifying. Ultimate Sacrifice is a young adult novel about a teen girl that finds herself and her family in the middle of a murder investigation with some horrifying implications. The book begins at a running start and keeps up a fast pace for the entirety of the book.

I could sympathize with Vickie and the stress of having her family flooded with hatred and negative press, the pressure of suddenly being in the spotlight, and suspected of the most heinous crime imaginable. I liked that the book showed realistically what something like this can do to a family and to a person’s sense of personal safety, making them question everyone and everything around them.

“How is it possible that any of this even exists and that I’m halfway convinced that it does?”

The hints at a cult in their small town were also seriously creepy, and the more that Vickie dug around the more uneasy I felt at what she was finding. It reminded me of the old slasher films I grew up watching from the 60s, 70s, and 80s with how weird and uncomfortable the town and its inhabitants were. The story definitely takes on a dark and disturbing tone and it only gets worse and worse, but I loved every minute of it.

Now the version that I had was riddled with errors, missing words or ones that I can only assume were auto-corrected and it was a bit off-putting. I was given a copy for a blog tour a few weeks before release, so I can only hope that it has been corrected for the full version. I also have to acknowledge that it’s a tiny bit predictable, but at the same time I kept telling myself that it couldn’t be what I suspected, I didn’t want it to be, so it did a good job of filling me with dread and making me feel invested in the story and characters.

This has got to be one of the fastest most fun reads I’ve had in a while. I enjoyed myself thoroughly despite mild issues, and while it deals in some pretty gruesome topics I think it’s a decent horror thriller for a young adult audience. It’s perfect for the Halloween season and I strongly recommend it.


Warnings: disturbing sex scene, death


four-stars