By Uketsu; translated by Jim Rion
The Japanese author Uketsu, according to his biography, “only ever appears online, wearing a mask and speaking through a voice changer.” His work mirrors the mysterious nature of his persona.
STRANGE PICTURES (HarperVia, 236 pp., paperback, $17.99), the first of Uketsu’s novels to be translated into English, is a labyrinthine and multilayered horror mystery, full of cryptic images, about a series of deaths. The book opens with two college students in Tokyo reading a sad, abandoned blog that chronicles a portion of a man’s life. The blog is filled with personal details, including entries about the man finding out that he’s going to be a father and posts about the death of the man’s wife during labor. It also features mysterious drawings by the man’s wife. The students are convinced these drawings contain secrets and work to unravel them.
But that’s just the beginning. In the past, a string of unsolved murders plagued the region. In one instance, a man was brutally beaten to death with a rock while hiking and painting. Among his things was an unusual drawing, sketched on the back of a receipt and rendered in a different style than his other work. Is the picture a clue like the drawings on the blog? Who’s responsible for the murders? Nine drawings hold the answers, but cracking the case is much more complicated than it seems.
The novel is split into four parts. The third can feel repetitive, but the entire mystery is wonderfully complex and carefully crafted, so the misstep is easy to ignore. This is a story where revelations and new questions wait around every corner, and Uketsu keeps readers guessing until the very end.
By Eric LaRocca
Most people associate horror with fear, but great horror can also incite a deeply rooted sense of discomfort and revulsion. The work of the author Eric LaRocca does just that. Blacker than the blood of a fountain pen and unapologetically queer, AT DARK, I BECOME LOATHSOME (Blackstone Publishing, 230 pp., $25.99) shares the gruesomeness of LaRocca’s previous work while exploring the inner workings of a mind shattered by guilt and grief.
Ashley Lutin lost his beloved wife to cancer; then his young son went missing. The authorities are sure the boy is dead, but Ashley can’t accept that. He has nothing left to lose and the memories of the mediocre father he was haunt him. As a coping mechanism, Ashley has covered his face in piercings and is trying to help others by ushering them through a multistep ritual of death he created where, among other things, he buries people alive in a coffin for 30 minutes. His patrons hope that facing their mortality will be transformative.
One night, Ashley connects online with a man named Jinx who is interested in the ritual. After setting up an appointment, Jinx shares a disturbing story of sex, violence and kidnapping. Later, when the two finally meet, Ashley learns that Jinx has much more to tell, forcing Ashley to reckon not only with a past he’d rather not face but also with the weight of all his recent decisions.
LaRocca exploded onto the horror scene in 2021 with “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke,” a brutal novella about queer love and obsession that went viral because of the graphic content it contained and the twisted psyches it studied. “At Dark, I Become Loathsome” picks up those same themes, using them to fashion another unique, relentlessly depressive, strangely sexual and extremely violent novel about how pain changes people.
By Craig Clevenger
Craig Clevenger’s THE CONTORTIONIST’S HANDBOOK (Datura Books, 250 pp., paperback, $18.99) — originally published in 2002 and now reissued 23 years later — is one of those stories that defy categorization. It is a cult classic, a crime book and an understated horror narrative, all about a brilliant man who constantly reinvents himself to evade the law.
John Dolan Vincent is a talented forger with an extra finger on one hand. He also suffers from horrible migraines and blackouts. Doctors haven’t been able to help, so John self-medicates. One night he accidentally takes too many painkillers, and when he wakes up, he’s in a hospital in Los Angeles where doctors think he tried to kill himself. As a result, he must undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
But the hospital isn’t evaluating John; they’re evaluating Daniel Fletcher, one of the fake identities John adopted to outrun a criminal past. Now, however, both the thugs who hunt him and the authorities who want to detain him are encroaching. In order to get to safety, John must successfully trick the doctor evaluating him before time runs out.
This novel is a master class in tension. John lived through a rough and traumatic childhood, and the evaluations force him to be someone else while he also contends with the deep wounds he carries. With its re-release, this superbly written and very entertaining novel is sure to make its mark on a new generation of readers.