Strange Pictures by Uketsu - Review

'All right, everyone, now I'm going to show you a picture.'

Dr. Tomiko Hagio, a psychologist turned lecturer, affixes a picture to a classroom blackboard. She explains to the students that this picture was drawn by a child who, at the age of eleven, murdered her own mother. Hagio then points out subtle, easy to overlook details in the drawing.

These details suggested to Hagio that the child harbored an inner kindness and a desire to protect. Qualities that, if nurtured via behavioral therapies, could counter and diffuse the child's murderous aggression. Dr. Hagio shares how the child responded well to this approach and is now a grown woman and happy mother...

Shuhei Sasaki, a twenty-one-year-old college student, becomes obsessed with a discontinued blog and the strange illustrations that were posted on it...

Yuta Konno, a six-year-old, draws an enigmatic picture of where he lives with his mother. A drawing that triggers disparate reactions that, in turn, uncover long buried secrets...

Yoshiharu Miura, a forty-one-year-old art teacher, is brutally murdered while camping. Three years after the crime, an eager would-be-reporter unravels the hidden meaning in a picture Miura had drawn on the night he was killed...

Learning how and why the stories behind these strange pictures were connected was equal parts delightful and chilling. The pseudonymous-writer known as Uketsu has crafted an intricate mystery that spans decades and contains plot twists that would have made Agatha Christie seethe with jealously.

When I cracked open Strange Pictures, I suspected the mysteries and enigmas of the titular illustrations might be pieces of a much larger puzzle. What surprised me was just how blood-curdling the completed image turned out to be.

I discovered Uketsu via the manga adaptation of their story/novel Strange Houses, which is why I was quick to pick up and crack open Strange Pictures.

This book confirms and showcases Uketsu's unique talent for crafting a labyrinthian and multi-layered mystery capable of chilling the blood as strongly as it challenges the mind. I am excited and eager to read whatever comes next from the imaginative mind of Uketsu.