A short story collection of wildly uneven story quality, with many ending up weirdly funny instead of truly frightening. But the art is, as always, impeccably creepy.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced reader copy!

This was my first Junji Ito read and I will absolutely be picking up more. I am a fan of quick short stories and that made this a fast read. The artwork was incredible and the gore in Where the Sandman Lives was top notch.

Deserter by Junji Ito shows some of his earlier works which I enjoyed. I feel like his newer works are more tamed compared to his older stuff. I enjoyed the body horror, and just fun newness of each story. I will recommend this to everyone!

I wish I'd read all of Junji Ito's work before this, rather than a handful of his collections, because this will greatly appeal to fans of Ito who want to see his beginnings and compare to where he went. As a casual reader of his work, however, this comes across as what it is: a collection of undeveloped stories with a few good ones scattered in. Several times I found myself thinking one of the stories could have been great as a full manga, but as a short story it had no time to develop or impact me.

This latest Junji Ito collection from Viz focuses on his early short stories. I'll admit, I think Ito is at his best when his stories are verbose and have room to spiral (sometimes literally) so this collection didn't hit too hard for me. Often times, it felt like chapters had cut off just as things were getting interesting. I did really enjoy seeing some of his earlier explorations of religion and occult such as in "Unendurable Labyrinth". This volume really does offer insight into the growth of his work over his career This volume will be highly appreciated by Ito fans and completionists.

Delightfully creepy, as always. I did knock off a star because a couple of the stories kind of annoyed me (I'm looking at you, Bullied and Scripted Love), but honestly, it's a solid collection.

Junji Ito has once again brought another fantastic collection of horror stories to life, and I must say this one may be my favourite one yet. It was creepy and eerie, gory and tense, and everything I love about Ito's works. I'll definitely be recommending this when it releases for not only fans of Junji Ito, but for anyone looking to get into horror manga.

Junji Ito is a master horror graphic novelist, and these early works are all pretty interesting. While this isn't my favorite collection of short stories, The Reanimator's Sword, Unendurable Labyrinth, and Village of the Siren were all pretty good. Can't go wrong if you love Ito's works.

This graphic novel was everything I love in a horror book. It was dark, there was gore (so much so that I had to look away at times), and there were great stories captured within it. This collection had stories that varied in nature, but were terrifying and unsettling at the heart of them. I always think I learn something about human nature when I read books like this and this is a collection I will be thinking about, even long after I've finished reading it.

The art was beautiful and dark, and the stories matched. I really enjoyed this.

An amazing collection with some terrifying stories. Junji gives a sense of dread to some memorable characters.

I was interested in previewing this title to see if it would be appropriate for my library's ya collection. There is too much horrifying imagery and I do not believe it would be appropriate for ya.

So far Ito is the only manga I have read. I really enjoyed this forthcoming work, especially the beginning stories and it ends on a strong note with the title the book is named after. I will definitely recommend this one upon its release and thank you to the publisher for providing me with this drc available through netgalley.

While this book is a collection of older Junji Ito works, it was new to me. I've been reading more of his newer works and I can see the difference in approach. His newer works tend to have generally happy endings, but this collection was not that at all. These stories left me with an unsettled feeling I greatly appreciated. If I am reading horror, then I want to feel horrified. I think these stories did just that. The art was great -- creepy and gory -- as usual.

Junji Ito continues to astound with his unique style and voice. Deserter exemplifies Ito's simplistic traditional art style combined with his mind-melting disturbing horror and a good serving of his dark humor. This is a great collection for veterans of his works or first-time readers.

Most of the stories in this collection ranged from just fine to really good, with a few falling into the range of being downright boring or unenjoyable. I wish I'd written down ratings for each piece of the collection individually as I was reading through it, but this was one of those times where I was more in the mood to just zone out with the manga rather than take notes, and it wasn't good enough to want to re-read it for more thorough reviewing purposes (sorry!). That said, this would probably be a good intro collection for someone brand new to Junji Ito's works because it covers a wide range of his storytelling styles - some more fantastical, some bizarro, and some downright sad and scary - and would give a new reader a really good idea of what to expect.

It's more of a 3.5-star read for me, but I don't feel right about rounding the rating down.

I'm new to Junji Ito's work, but it came highly recommended to me. I haven't read much horror manga, but this seems like a great intro into the genre! Would definitely recommend for horror fans & older readers.

This graphic novel is a short story collection of several Japanese horror stories. Some were really creepy, others were just kind of meh. The illustrations were black and white, which I thought added to the creep factor, and they were well done. I appreciated that all of the characters were drawn ethnically accurate and stayed true to the story's origins. Overall, I give this book 4 stars for the content and illustrations.

I received this ARC courtesy of Netgalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I always love me some Junji Ito, and this wasn't an exception. It was great to see some of his earlier work in translation for once. I think it's fascinating to witness the artistic evolution of an artist, and you can definitely see the beginning of his signature style in this collection.

Once again, Junji Ito presents a thrilling horror that leaves you itching for his next book. These stories are creepy and unnerving and is perfect for horror fans.

The author, Junji Ito is well known for his collections of horror manga, and this collection does not disappoint. The stories were scary, macabre, and very very graphic. As a parent, there were two instances that were difficult to read because I don't like reading about bad things happening to children. But that was only a minor part.

Otherwise, this collection, which is the first by Junji Ito, was straight out of Tales from the Crypt in my mind. It won't be my last, and I think I'll have to gift some horror manga to friends who like horror but haven't yet tried manga. This is the perfect introduction.

Definitely read it at Halloween or anytime you need a good scare!