Strange Pictures
A Novel
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4.4 • 30 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A BARNES AND NOBLE BEST BOOK OF 2025
“Uketsu’s strange riddles are chilling and addictive – I couldn’t put it down.” —R. F. Kuang, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface
“Delightfully macabre and fiendishly clever. Seemingly unconnected stories tie themselves into a complicated knot, which Uketsu masterfully unravels.”—G. T. Karber, author of the national bestseller Murdle
“Wonderfully complex and carefully crafted . . . Uketsu keeps readers guessing until the very end.” —New York Times Book Review
The spine-tingling "triumphant international debut" (Publishers Weekly starred review) that has taken Japan by storm—an eerie fresh take on mystery-horror in which a series of seemingly innocent pictures draws you into a disturbing web of unsolved mysteries and shattered psyches.
An exploration of the macabre, where the seemingly mundane takes on a terrifying significance. . . .
A pregnant woman's sketches on a seemingly innocuous blog conceal a chilling warning.
A child's picture of his home contains a dark secret message.
A sketch made by a murder victim in his final moments leads an amateur sleuth down a rabbithole that will reveal a horrifying reality.
Structured around these nine childlike drawings, each holding a disturbing clue, Uketsu invites readers to piece together the mystery behind each and the over-arching backstory that connects them all. Strange Pictures is the internationally bestselling debut from mystery horror YouTube sensation Uketsu—an enigmatic masked figure who has become one of Japan's most talked about contemporary authors.
A great read for spooky-season nightsA perfect addition to any Halloween reading list
Translated from the Japanese by Jim Rion.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Japanese horror artist and writer Uketsu makes a triumphant international debut with this eerie chiller. A university student becomes curious about the haunting, childlike drawings he finds on an abandoned blog. The more he scrolls, the more he gets the sense that the illustrations point to something sinister, leading him to question what exactly happened to a young housewife named Yuki, who is frequently mentioned in the blog, and how she's connected to a larger web of unnerving events and deadly crimes. The answer emerges through a series of delightfully creepy illustrations and diagrams and the interconnected stories of their creators, allowing the reader to play detective alongside the characters. The result is part police procedural and part Pictionary. Savvy mystery readers may be able to decode the clues before the protagonist does, but it's still enjoyable to experience the shocks and scares as they unfold. The gimmick is fun, but this book also proves greater than the sum of its visual tricks, with a surprisingly strong emotional core that will keep readers glued to the page until the unsettling conclusion. This intricate puzzle box is a must for horror fans.
