Ring

Title: Ring

Author: Koji Suzuki

Genre: Horror, Mystery

Series: Ring#1

Pages: 282 pages

Synopsis:

A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.

Asakawa, a hardworking journalist, is intrigued by his niece’s inexplicable death. His investigation leads him from a metropolitan tokyo teeming with modern society’s fears to a rural Japan–a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic–haunted by the past. His attempt to solve the tape’s mystery before it’s too late–for everyone–assumes an increasingly deadly urgency. Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.

(from Goodreads)

My Thoughts:

Ring is a mystery horror novel about a man named Asakawa who investigates the mysterious deaths of four young people who died suddenly of heart failure. And what he discovers changes everything that he knows.

Oh and by the way this is the actual source material for the entire The Ring franchise.

There’s a few things I like about it. I liked the writer’s style. It was very accessible and I was able to devour this book very easily.

I really like the setting, it taking place in Japan helped make this book feel unique. I actually enjoyed the whole mystery part of this novel. It also had a nice time ticking clock device as our main characters only have 7 days to avoid the fate of death after watching the cursed videotape. The suspense definitely kept me reading. And the lore in this book was very interesting and I think a lot more detailed than the movies.

My biggest criticism is the deuteragonist Ryuji. As he is a rapist as he raped a girl. And he made zero apologies for it. I’m sorry but this is a character that we are supposed to care about??? A rapist? Why the fuck should I care or get emotionally invested in a rapist? Now at the end, the book suggests that he never actually raped a person but I was just not convinced by this and just feels like a last minute attempt to make us empathize with this character.

Not to mention rape doesn’t seem to be a big deal in this book. As in the end, there was a doctor that confesses to both murdering and raping Sadako (the main antagonist). And our main characters do not do anything about it. They don’t call the police about it, they just leave him. What?? And while our main character Asakawa does show some disgust at Ryuji for his rape, he does nothing else about it.

I also have to condemn the transphobia and intersexphobia that went on this book. Like why? Just why?

Overall, the Ring is a book that I was able to read very quickly and the suspense and the lore kept me reading. It’s hard for me to recommend it though just on how poorly this book handles rape.

Rating: