I’ve seen Strange Pictures around on Instagram from quite a while back, but I’ve always procrastinated on reading it because I couldn’t decide if I wanted to read the translation or the original Japanese version. However, when a friend texted me to ask me to read it because she got too scared to continue, I decided to pick it up (luckily, the library had a Skip the Line copy).

As the title says, Strange Pictures is about pictures, all connected to various mysteries. The first chapter was honestly the creepiest – it’s about a blog where the last entry references a deep dark secret. And it seems like that the mystery is connected to a few drawings made before the death of the wife of the author. The next chapter concerns a child who drew his apartment block with his home smudged out, the third chapter is the last picture an art teacher drew before he was murdered and the last… I won’t spoil it but it ties everything together.

The story was fairly simple but I was hooked. I found it hard to put the book down once I had started a chapter and I ended up bingeing the book in two days. In hindsight, there were elements that didn’t quite make sense, but the experience while reading was great. There are lots of twists and I really enjoyed figuring out how everything fit together.

If you’re into mysteries with a twist, and if you like being creeped out (though it was only the first chapter that scared me), I think you’ll like Strange Pictures. It’s a fun, quick read and I think it would be a good palate cleanser between books too.

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