Title: Zoo

Written By: Otsuichi

This book is a collection of short-stories that come in as a mix of tales crossing over into the realm of horror—predominately—while switching onto material mixing bitter-sweetness with outright darkness, though this leads to the difficulty of how I go about reviewing it; do I review it as a whole piece that’ll focus on ? Or review each one for their merits? Perfect conclusion; I review each tale for the sake of giving it a fairer review.

ZOO:

A man receives a photo in the mail of a (woman’s) decomposing corpse on a daily basis. At first we lead to think he’s being pestered by an unknown killer of the mystery woman, but everything is not as it seems.

A strange tale of madness and denial—it progressive along to add on small pieces of information that makes everything clear for how and why he keeps receiving the photos of a woman’s decomposing corpse. Nothing manages to hint towards the final conclusion right up to the last paragraph.

In a Falling Plane:

A plane (not held up by faith) has been high jacked and the only thing on the mind of two passengers is how painful their death will be.

Before reading I had a firm impression of what the story was going to be about (a plane held up by faith), but in the end I didn’t find anything that came from my assumptions and so I got myself an interest mix of humour and darker stuff when the characters have a different reason for being on the plane in the first place—an entertaining piece that keeps itself serious without losing any of the humour spotted about.

The White House in the Cold Forest:

A semi-leather face kind of character lives in a horse staple, ends up with a hunk of flesh ripped from her face, gets kicked out and then builds a small shelter by murdering people.

This is one of the most deliciously dark tales in the whole book—the character strikes up a semi-leather face like quality throughout and manages to make you exclaim “HOLY SHIT THAT’S IRONIC!” the moment you read the final page.

Find the Blood!

An old man is unable to feel pain and so, wakes up to find a knife in his side and causing him to bleed to death.

Against everything in Zoo, this is one of the few (or only) light-hearted tale that has a style inline of being a murder mystery as characters attempt to figure out who put the knife into him and where a supply of blood has been placed—it’s humoured filled and works itself to make you ask “who did it?” right up to the end.

In a Park at Twilight, a Long Time Ago:

A boy digs holes in a sandpit and one day finds himself reaching for something buried within the pit of darkness.

One of the shortest tales in the whole book (barely three pages) and probably one of the few that doesn’t make you want to read it again—it lacks a certain dementedly twisted factor that other horror tales carry before and after it, though I did reconsider slightly on getting the impression that it read like a kid’s storybook. It’s dark and vague of what it is in the sandpit, but doesn’t carry itself enough to be considered a good read in the whole book.

Wardrobe:

A writer wants his sister-in-law to tell him of experience of running down a cyclist—three minutes later he’s dead and she’s dropping a blood stained ashtray.

A first impression type story—it creates all the reasons for you to think “she did it!” but throws you off by the final four or five pages that changes everything you thought was right.

Song of the Sunny Spot:

A man creates machine to keep him company during the days leading up to an inevitable death.

This is my personal favourite of the whole book. It comes across as subdued tale in comparison to everything else to come before and after it—slightly depressing, but makes you look up to think “That’s nice”.

Kazari and Yoko:

Kazari is the mother’s favourite while Yoko only receives abuse on a daily basis.

It’s less happening against others and doesn’t really make you care about the characters, even when they’re being abused, though the ending makes you think “Holy shit!” and comes across as bittersweet.

SO-Far:

A child is put into a state of confusion when her parents are unaware of each other—which one is dead?

A great story that makes you assume one thing is happening, but throws you right out the window by the end.

Words of God:

A boy has the power to make something happen by the power of his words.

Carries itself with the humour to come out of what he can make happens, but delves into a messed up psyche of someone unable to find peace with himself—it delightfully dark by the end.

Steven Rooms:

A brother and sister wake up in a small windowless room after being kidnapped by an unknown assailant.

One of the longest tales and comes across as a version of Saw, but without the traps or annoying puppet dude who seems capable of planning ahead by three films—making it more enjoyable by the end and doesn’t make use of the gore factor (much) throughout.

I enjoyed it and that makes it a worthy buy for anyone into dark-fantasy styled material mixed with Japanese horror and ideas—it works to give you a selection of stories that vary in genre instead of simply running a batch of genre specific material, though I do find myself wishing the dialogue was a little better. My favourite part about the whole book comes in the form of how direct every story is written—no metaphors or descriptions spanning pages at a time, it simply gets to the point with what’s happening like some horror novelists *Cough* Stephen *Cough* King.

Thought of the Day: October 31st:

Took my day to read and think about that’s happened over the week—nothing interesting happened.