I absolutely LOVED this book! The puzzle pieces are incredibly clever and the connections between stories was amazingly done! I would read anything by this author!

Thank you to HarperVia and NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

I really struggled with how to rate this one but I eventually settled on 3.5 stars. I absolutely loved the visual elements and while the mysteries held my attention and kept me guessing, it did feel a little gimmicky and borderline cheesy at times. I think the main issue for me comes down to what I'm assuming is a translation issue. There were so many lines that felt badly written, especially the dialogue, which led to everything coming across as quite juvenile to me. Overall, I was still highly entertained and would recommend to anyone looking for an attention-grabbing mystery.

Weaving several stories together into one big payoff, Strange Pictures will have you feeling like an amateur sleuth in this creative and engaging whodunnit horror mystery. Unlike anything I’ve ever read, I definitely recommend it.

Thank you to Harper Collins Publishers and HarperVia for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I'm always very happy about an ARC and being able to give it a review! <3

This book was pretty unusual but still super exciting and creepy. I love it when pictures are worked into books... it gives the whole story an even scarier vibe.

The writing style was good and well translated.

The story is told in four parts and each of them include pictures which helps you unravel the mystery. I loved it to read and figure out myself what was going on. I really liked the first story! And all the little stories come together in the end - well done! Very complex an clever.

So if you liked hidden pictures by Jason Rekulak then here you go!

A mystery within a mystery... And like a giant puzzle inside a maze, every piece fits in perfectly, you just have to be careful to find the clues.

It's labeled under the horror category, but I did not find it fitting in that genre, where there is some unsettling feelings within the book, it's not enough to call it horror.

But what it is, its a amazingly narrated mystery/thriller told in multiple POV and through drawings and images, all very cleverly integrated within the story. With given clues, pictures, guesses from characters and what feels like you're living in the game Whodunnit.

Twists and turns, stories within stories all very delicately woven together into this compact but full punch mystery tyat leans heavily into the psychological thriller side.

If you enjoy a good page turner, the game Ace Attorney and an intricate generational Scooby-Doo dark mystery then this here is for you. I want to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this e-book ARC

A short collection of incredibly creepy stories that revolve around pictures. A short read, and quite creepy.

3.5 stars!

The idea here had intrigued me from the jump, and I truly did enjoy the structure of this. The multiple chapters with different pictures, the mysteries being unraveled of each one, the way they all ended up connecting. It was definitely worth the read, especially being so quick.

I do think it may have worked well as a longer novel. A lot of the chapters were mostly dialogue of the mysteries being explained rather than actually letting the reader try to figure things out, or see how the characters did so (for the most part anyway). I didn't love that, but everything else made up for it.

Strange Pictures is an interesting book. Each story is part of a larger whole, and each has a picture puzzle that furthers the larger part. I feel like saying too much more would spoil the fun of the book. This is definitely the kind of book that you want to know as little as possible about going in.

The book reads quickly. I started it in the early morning and finished it early afternoon, with several breaks. It is, in turns, interesting, creepy, and chilling.

I'm glad I didn't know much before I went into this, and I would recommend reading very little before starting. Every little story was self-contained and it was fun to learn how the parts fit together. This book was also unique because of how much the pictures played a part, and there was something of romance, mystery and horror. I enjoyed this and had a hard time putting it down. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

For fans of Japanese horror this is a must. Creepy, otherworldly puzzles present themselves and then play out their occult games with their unwitting participants. Highly recommend.

Dear Author,

I don't believe I've read anything quite like this mysteriously, haunting book. Using drawn pictures to tell many stories, which are somehow linked is unique. I really enjoyed reading your book. Are you writing more? I hope so. Such a fun and intelligent book.

Sincerely Yours,

J.D.McCoughtry

Thank you, NetGalley and HarperVia, for the opportunity to read this ARC.

On the surface, this is your basic murder mystery with twists and turns to keep you guessing. But within these pages I found something unique and exciting that pulled me in and kept me reading. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end.

This book wasn’t at all what I expected. Uketsu created a mystery novel that at first seems like a short story collection, with each chapter covering another aspect of the story, another piece of the puzzle. The author throws in pictures and diagrams to add intrigue and to give the reader clues to attempt to decipher. Although there are several characters that you get to know, there are a few that I felt were really developed and I became invested in. The characters throughout from the beginning, are interesting, flawed, and complex although this is definitely more of a plot driven book.

I absolutely recommend this be read in a physical copy, because you’ll want to flip back and forth to re-examine pictures and to re-read passages. I wish I annotated more and I also wish I kept track of the characters better. It’s a book that could be read over to see what was missed and to connect events and characters.

Ultimately, this book wasn’t just a novel, it was an experience. I truly loved the format, the way the author incorporated drawings and diagrams, the way parts were explained, how everything made sense, yet wasn’t at all easily figured out. And all done in such a short book. I will definitely be seeking out more content by Uketsu. This was a book I will not easily forget and I look forward to buying the physical copy! I loved it and recommend a hundred percent!

***Thank you NetGalley, Harper Via, and Uketsu for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.***

Thank you NetGalley and HarperVia for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I enjoyed most of my time with Strange Pictures. I thought it was horror going in, and while their are definitely some effectively creepy scenes, the book is really more a mystery book with an interesting style. The most apt comparison is the Ace Attorney series where the book is split into individual mysteries where characters gather clues and they all lead into each other loosely. My main problem though is that is takes everything that make an Ace Attorney game fun, the actual solving of the mysteries, and removes all of it. Every mystery is so throughly explained by the characters at every single step, and all of the mysteries are pretty easy to solve once the pieces are in place that the experience of reading this novel is one of watching someone else play and Ace Attorney game perfectly.

Further unlike the Ace Attorney games where the mysteries are fun and generally quite compelling, the 4-ish mysteries in this book are all sort of boring. There just isn't really any pizzaz to any of them. The only selling points of this book is the fact that the drawing element of the mysteries is cool and bring this a step above a version of this novel without them and the few scenes throughout the book which are very compelling written.

At the end of the day if you are looking for a short mystery novel you can knock out in a day I would recommend this book, but definitely don't go into the novel expecting horror or something ground-breaking.

Chapter 1 ("The Old Woman's Prayer") - 2/5
Two school friends start obsessing over a stranger's blog; convinced there's some hidden secret there. The setup kept me reading, just to see if it was all a conspiracy/obsession, or if the two friends really had stumbled onto a murder plot. The ending is SO abrupt, it just stops and that's it. Zero resolution for ANYTHING.

Chapter 2 ("The Smudged Room") - 1/5
This story, of a woman and her young son, moves at a very slow pace. There's a lot of over explanation of things, and there barely anything 'spooky' about it (except the parts about the stranger that keeps following our duo). It relies on a twist about the family (and this chapter links back to the first), but once again the ending is way too abrupt, and felt like it came out of nowhere.

Chapter 3 ("The Art Teacher's Final Drawing") - 2/5
This chapter centers on a murder of an art teacher, and a young reporter finds himself compelled to get at the truth in the case. Like the previous chapters, this relies on over explanation of plot points and plot twists for an effect.

Chapter 4 ("The Bird, Safe in the Tree") - 1/5
The concluding chapter attempts to connect every story in the book, finally putting all the puzzle pieces together for a final reveal. The mother character from a previous chapter is at the center of the mystery, and a large chunk of the story focuses on her family background. The rest of the story is all about an older reporter, who wants to solve the mystery that the police couldn't. The ending didn't really feel like a satisfying conclusion.

Each chapter in "Strange Pictures" forces the reader to recontextualize the previous story, to see the mystery in a new light. I was hoping the book would run with the 'mixed media' aspect WAY more, and rely on having the reader analyze clues, but that sadly wasn't a bigger focus of the book. It also didn't seem to have many 'horror' or even 'spooky' elements, feeling more like a mystery book instead.

Creepy image galore, Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak is a comparable novel to Strange Pictures, where a collection of drawings becoming an integral part of the narrative. Strange Pictures goes one steps further with observation and deduction, uncovering hidden meanings through manipulation — if Rekulak's story is a horror/thriller, Uketsu's novel is more of a horror/detective fiction. This process of 'decoding' is my favorite aspect of the reading experience, especially with the accompanied illustration/info-graphic breaking down the solution.

The plot is much more interwoven than I initially anticipated (I thought it was a collection of short stories), so definitely keep the cast in check as even the seemingly irrelevant side characters become a critical point of view later on.

While I enjoy the brain teasers, as well as the intricacy of its plot line, my biggest gripe with Strange Pictures is the writing/translation, coming across very rudimentary and stilted. Especially with a story containing darker subject matters (such as domestic abuse), they lose a lot of their intended impact, because the reader is being 'told' of things, rather than having the event described in a visceral way, or acted out by emotive, compelling characters — a little bit like reading a plot breakdown rather than the actual novel.

From a creativity stand point, Strange Pictures is worthy of checking out for its well-executed gimmick, and the surprisingly complex plot. I just wish the writing is a little bit more layered and colorful to propel it as a solid favorite.

This was such a compulsive read for me because I had a great time piecing the puzzle together, trying to solve the various mysteries! I love the mixed-media style and the fact that each of the stories are interconnected. I felt good/smart when I was able to figure something out and by the time I got to the end, it all came together wonderfully! I found myself going back a few pages to look at past clues and pictures like I was an amateur sleuth multiple times. I had so much fun reading this even as the sinister drawings and events/people creeped me out. I would have liked to see a bit more development of the characters and less repetition, but I really enjoyed this spooky whodunnit mystery overall.

I’m looking forward to diving into more from Uketsu in the future!

Strange Pictures by Uketsu is a unique book split into different stories that are all connected. When I first started reading it, I got an extremely eerie vibe, but it's more mystery than true horror. The connection between the picture and the stories is very well done, even if toward the end of the book it does get kind of repetitive. I found myself skimming the last part because there was no new information just a recap of sorts. Still, Strange Pictures is a solid Japanese mystery book with a twist.

The mysterious Uketsu, who always appears wearing a mask and using a voice changer, has become famous in Japan thanks to his “sketch mysteries.” This short book is very innovative and well plotted. It compiles a few stories that revolve around drawings. They seem loosely connected to each other, but it’s not clear how. I was intrigued and pleasantly surprised when I discovered how all the pieces fit together. It really is like a jigsaw puzzle, you get the little parts that connect craftily and form a whole. I usually struggle to enjoy Japanese mysteries because I find them too cerebral. This is not the case here. I loved how the country’s culture influences the characters and situations. Some parts that I attributed to national idiosyncrasies were actually clues. As with many foreign books, sometimes it was hard to figure out who was who based on their names. This is not the author’s fault but only my own. Still, it wasn’t hard to follow the story. Anyone looking for an original, creepy and disturbing crime novel, this is worth reading.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/HarperVia.

This was a very unique kind of story. A series of pictures are at the heart of three different mysteries, with the pictures themselves containing hidden secrets. It opens with a prelude about an instructor breaking down the meaning of a child's drawing, followed by two university students finding an odd blog with a sequence of sketches, a mother being shown a somewhat disturbing drawing her son made in class, and finally a sketch found on the body of a murder victim. While the individual chapters/mysteries followed a common path found in Japanese mystery fiction, the drawings and the secrets they hold are absolutely original in their usage in the book. The deeper the story gets, the more shocking the truths to how the different chapters connect to the overall arc become, and the later pages in the book reveal amazing and euphoric surprises. An incredible mystery/thriller with touches of horror, Strange Pictures is fantastically refreshing and rewarding.

Gripping stories that weave together horror and a whodunnit-type mystery. Intriguing and easy to read - my only complaint would be that the style is a little too simplistic and makes the book read like YA, while the themes are adult. But I enjoyed this.