"Strange Pictures"
Uketsu
★ ★ ★ ★
To start, I only bought this book to pass the time as my mom was attending an appointment. That, and I've wanted to get back into reading for a long while, but have felt it difficult to start with any of my current TBR collection. As such, I thought it might be best to start completely fresh! I have a lot of books in my TBR list at home, but it's quite daunting to look at... So, being forced to read a completely new book during my moms hour and a half long appointment was quite nice actually!
So, no longer used to buying books or reading, I gravitated towards the "recommended" section, or whatever it was called. And I picked this one up purely based on vibes and the front cover alone— it's quite pretty, isn't it?
Unbeknownst to me at the time, it's made up of a lot of pictures! It's the revolving theme (un)surprisingly, given the title. But I felt as though this was the perfect kind of book to pick up to get back into reading, as if fate itself had directed me haha...
Anyway, the book review. First of all, the images really helped and supplemented the presented mystery story! As though I was part of the narrative itself, a character in the book witnessing the evidence alongside everyone else. It was a lot of fun trying to deduct reasoning from the images, finding clues and trying to solve the mystery as it played out right in front of me. And the reasonings behind the images all made sense! Though I struggled to find the reasoning myself, once it was told to me (as they all are, thankfully), it all clicked! Nothing felt forced or out of place.
And the pace of the story is really good too, I didn't find any section of it lacking at any point! It wasn't too slow or too fast, but rather, just right. Except the ending, which is why I've only given it 4 stars. The ending felt very rushed, misplaced, and if I'm honest... I didn't enjoy how positive it was LOL... Like, considering the plot, I wish I got to read more about what was left unsaid, and read less about what was stated too much. Does that make sense?
Regardless, overall, this was an excellent read! Both for someone like me who is trying to get back into reading, and for a seasoned reader like my mom. It's translated from Japanese, but doesn't feel too stiff to read. (Another reason I picked this book up— I love Japanese fiction so much!) And I liked this book so much that I started reading it, and completely finished the whole book in three hours. I physically could not put it down!
Perfect book, bad ending.