Book
Strange Houses (Henna Ie) by Uketsu
Synopsis
The author receives an unremarkable request from an acquaintance to look over the floor plan of a house that they’re thinking of buying. An odd detail in the layout leads to other unusual observations about the house, and unsettling speculation about what the previous residents might have been using it for.
Notes
This is the second book in a series by the mysterious Japanese YouTuber and author. I haven’t yet read the first book Strange Pictures, but that’s the one that was making the rounds in book recommendations last year.
Strange Houses is a very quick and propulsive read — I checked it out from the library this afternoon, didn’t intend to start reading it immediately, and had already finished by this evening. Many of the pages are taken up with repeated depictions of the floor plans, each highlighting a different portion of the plan described by the text. The rest is taken up by mostly by conversations between the author and other characters, presented as if it were dialogue in a script.
And the writing is simple, clear, and objective, to a fault. The translator makes note of this in an afterward, praising Uketsu’s style for being so completely committed to clarity and accessibility while still having room for ambiguity and layers of suggested interpretations.
In my opinion, the writing is so straightforward and minimalist, the story so lurid and convoluted, and the revelations so dependent on wild speculation and coincidences, that it feels more like a writer’s notes for a horror thriller that they intend to flesh out later. The bulk of the book consists of guesses that turn out to be exactly correct, or characters arranging for a meeting at which point they reveal entire swaths of backstory, or letters full of exposition.
That isn’t to say that it isn’t interesting, though. And the hints of did you catch this detail? ambiguity at the end make it feel a bit more intriguing and open-ended than you’d guess if you’d simply stopped before reading the epilogue. The author’s secret identity and internet persona help place the book firmly in the realm of pop culture thriller.
Verdict
Interesting and clearly an engaging read, considering I finished it in a few hours. But it does feel more like an entry from the SCP Foundation, or a series of creepypasta posts on Reddit, than a full novel.
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