Stiches - Hirokatsu Kihara & Junji Ito

    "Hanging before her eyes were pale, bare feet."

So I will admit, I bought this book because of Junji Ito and his fantastic illustrations. Was I let down by the stories? A bit. The art? Every bit as good as the father of horror himself. 

⭐⭐⭐

Started: March 24th, 2024

Finished: March 25th, 2024

Synopsis: The book itself is a small book with short stories written by Hiroktasu Kihara. The stories vary in horror and gore, but they all include Junji Ito's illustrations. I was excited to read another horror novelist, but ultimately, I was left disappointed in the stories. 

My Review: For this review, I will be breaking down the "stitches" of the book. Each stitch is a short story. I will then rate them based on which ones I liked the least to the best. 

#9: Stitch 3: From the Sea - This short story did not grip me at all. It was more of a passing story, a filler to be put into the book. There weren't any scary aspects and I ultimately forgot about it until I went back to write this review. 

#8: Stitch 5: the Play - This is a classic "doll comes to life" scenario. However, this one also fell very flat for me. It was spooky the way the doll was drawn, but the actual horror behind the doll was very flat and ended too quickly. 

#7: Stitch 7: The Kimono - The kimono was an interesting story about a familial ghost and a girl with no face. Normally, these ideas would be frightening. When I opened the page to the girl with no face, I was intrigued to see what would happen, but the story ended happily, with the ghost of the no face girl becoming at ease with her kimono. 

#6: Stitch 1: Face - This is the first short story present in the book and I can see why they chose it. It has a large Ito image of a woman with a tumor on her neck that looks like someone's face. It's a haunting image to look at. Plus, the woman's husband, ardently trying to help her, tries to get her exorcised. This results in her entire back becoming a canvas for kanji lettering, which was a cool idea. The ending, much like the rest of these stories, ended too quickly. 

#5: Final Stitch: Lips - This story is about a young child who notices a pair of lips appear on her dresser. Sometimes they open, and sometimes they stay shut. When the child reaches out to touch them, she appears in darkness, with nothing around her. Nothing comes of it though, because the child is deposited safely back in her room with the unopened lips. 

#4: Stitch 2: The Library - This story is set in a school, where a young girl is running through the hallways laughing. But no one ever seems to see where she is running to. After a purification ritual to expel her, her face becomes burned on top of the library ceiling with an evil grin staring down. This one was creepy, and I wish it could have been expanded upon.

#3: Stitch 6: Folk Dance - This stitch involves teenagers being...teenagers. A beautiful girl is there for a folk festival and everyone wants to dance with her. She's quiet and timid, but her beauty has everyone enraptured.While everyone is dancing with her, a photographer snaps pictures of them dancing, but when they are developed, the girl isn't there. I like the concept of these men dancing with a ghost. But again, I wished the story was longer.

#2: Stitch 4: Festival of the Dead- This one was a wholesome one. It follows the story of a family who have lost their grandfather and their grandmother before him. During Obon, the Festival of the Dead, a young child sees the grandfather walking towards his old house. And on subsequent days, she sees him again even though the festival is over. Long story short, the spirits of the grandparents had come back to see their family through the festival.

#1: Stitch 8: Snow Day - I think out of all of the stories involved with this short story collection, this one was the closest to being scary. There is a woman who is under dressed for the snowy weather. A young girl sees her walking barefoot in the snow and it isn't until she gets back home that she sees the girl again at her window, but this time with a noose around her neck. This story, to me, was the most interesting because we don't know where this barefoot girl came from and what happened to her that she was hanged. It leaves the most questions, but it also left me intrigued to come up with my own answers. Again, I wish it were longer. 

Final Thoughts: I think this could have been a great collection of short stories. However, they were just so short. If the author had fleshed them out a bit more, they would have been properly scary because the time to build up the conflict and tension would have been greater for the story itself. I would suggest this book to those that are new to Japanese horror novels and need something to ease them in.