The Strange House, Volume 3 - Review

Now there is a third strange 'murder' house? Just how many of these houses are there?

Volume 2 revealed that Yuzuki had lied about being the wife of one of the potential victims of a murder house. Turns out she is the sister of a former, and currently missing, resident of both the Tokyo and Saitama houses.

This revelation not only further complicates an already baffling and labyrinthian mystery, it also muddies the waters of trust and perception of both the narrating writer and Kurihara, said writer's speculating investigative assistant.

The opening portion of this volume felt incredibly talky. While this talk did answer a few questions, the characters wasted no time hammering those supposed answers with a volley of all new questions. The who, what, and why of these strange 'murder' houses and the mysterious people that have lived, and killed, in them remains unexplained and unexplored.

Most, if not all, of what Kurihara has hypothesized remains unproven, for now. But this volume does place both the narrator and Yuzuki inside the third house, where they can run Kurihara's theories through a testable reality.

The pacing here is meticulous and slow, which drapes a palpable and smothering sense of dread over the narrator and Yuzuki as they make their way through the dark and seemingly deserted third house. 

Once more I was moved to the edge of my seat, precariously balanced between wanting the narrator to learn what is really going on and thinking it might be best if said narrator dropped the whole thing before something terrible happens.

Still loving that I am both hoping and dreading whatever does or does not come next...

The Strange House, Volume 2 - Review

What started out as a simple, albeit rather sinister and morbid, hypothetical regarding how and why a doorless and windowless room would exist in a detached house uncovers a baffling and unsettling mystery. Or does it?

The first volume of The Strange House hooked me good with its chilling and intriguing blend of labyrinthian mystery and menacing atmosphere. What, if anything at all, was going on with the design plans of those houses?

Yes, houses. There are two of them. At the moment. But I would not be the least bit surprised if a few more strange houses were discovered in future volumes.

While I did hope and expect for there to be some intriguing developments in this second volume, which I was surprised and delighted to find I had to wait for, I was just a tad gobsmacked by the direction the story wound up taking.

It is still unclear as to whether or not there will be any kind of rational explanation here, or if there truly is something malevolent and murderous going on. As ludicrous and logic defying as the theories posited by the mystery loving Kurihara might seem to a rational mind, every revelation about the houses appear to point towards something odd and unusual.

Just how strange and how unusual the ultimate answers may or may not be remains to be seen. Judging by this volume's cliffhanger ending and its cryptic teasers for volume three, which will be released in April of 2025, whatever answers or questions are uncovered or asked are bound to chill and unnerve this particular reader.

April 2025. That's four months from now. I am going to have to wait four months to find out what happens next...

So it goes.

The Strange House, Volume 1 - Review

When an anomaly in the design of a detached house is noticed by a prospective buyer, he brings it to the attention of a freelance occult writer he knows. The writer, from whose perspective we are seeing this story play out, is intrigued about the anomaly, but doubtful there is anything occult about it.

The writer starts questioning her doubt after an architect friend looks at the plans. He notices that there are all manner of weird anomalies in the detached house's design. This gives rise to some strange and unsettling ideas and theories from him about how and why those anomalies are there...

When I started the first volume of The Strange House, I had no idea of what I was in for. The core concept of a house having a sealed room, one that has no windows or doors allowing for either ingress or egress, was vague and confounding enough to get me curious over whether there would be a natural or a supernatural explanation behind it.

Having finished that first volume, I still have no idea of what is or is not going on with, or in, that damn detached house. I just know that I have to read the second volume, so I can find out what, if anything, will happen next. 

Even though it is made very clear that there is something very wrong and very weird going on here, whether it has anything to with the house, or if it is just overactive imaginations gone wild, remains to be seen.

All I can share, for now, is that the first volume of The Strange House grabbed my attention and gave my nerves a wee-bit of rattling. I recommend it.