[REVIEW] Gyo

title: Gyo

author: Junji Ito, Yuji Oniki (Translator)  
genre: manga, horror
published: April 21st 2015 by VIZ Media LLC (first published 2002)
my copy: hardcover, 397 pages
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 4 / 5 stars
goodreads

Something is rotten in Okinawa...

The floating smell of death hangs over the island. What is it? A strange, legged fish appears on the scene... So begins Tadashi and Kaori's spiral into the horror and stench of the sea. Here is the creepiest masterpiece of horror manga ever from the creator of Uzumaki, Junji Ito. Hold your breath until all is revealed.

Junji Ito never disappoints!

I read Uzumaki by Junji Ito years and years ago. It was such an old (and maybe even classic already) horror manga and it was haunting. Gyo is honestly on the same boat. It's got that creepy story and haunting atmosphere.

[REVIEW] The Lost Village

title: The Lost Village

author: Camilla Sten, Alex Fleming (translator)
genre: adult fiction, mystery
published: March 23rd 2021 by Minotaur Books
my copy: eGalley, 352 pages
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 3.5 / 5 stars
goodreads

The Blair Witch Project meets Midsommar in this brilliantly disturbing thriller from Camilla Sten, an electrifying new voice in suspense.

Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,” since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy, and ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left—a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn—have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened.

But there will be no turning back.

Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice:

They are not alone.

They’re looking for the truth…

But what if it finds them first?

an absolutely atmospheric and intriguing read

That ominous cover! That intriguing synopsis! What else do I really need from this book? Does it live up to how it looks and sounds?

[REVIEW] Tender Is the Flesh

title: Tender Is the Flesh

author: Agustina Bazterrica, Sarah Moses (Translator)

genre: adult, horror
published: February 6th 2020 by Pushkin Press
my copy: kindle, 166 pages
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 4.5 / 5 stars
goodreads

Everyone's eating human meat. Would you? A vivid, shocking dystopian novel from an Argentinian rising star 

'This book will pull you in, take hold, and not let go until you reach the final page – perhaps far longer than that. Without a doubt, my favourite read of this year' Christina Dalcher, author of VOX 

It all happened so quickly. First, animals became infected with the virus and their meat became poisonous. Then governments initiated the Transition. Now, 'special meat' – human meat – is legal. 

Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans – only no one calls them that. He works with numbers, consignments, processing. One day, he's given a gift to seal a deal: a specimen of the finest quality. He leaves her in his barn, tied up, a problem to be disposed of later. 

But the specimen haunts Marcos. Her trembling body, her eyes that watch him, that seem to understand. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost – and what might still be saved…

it's not for everyone but if you're intrigued and you think you can take it, I'd say go for it.

When this book came to my radar, it's easily a must read for me! 

[REVIEW] The Mist

title: The Mist
author: Stephen King
genre: adult, horror
published: June 5, 2018  by Scribner ( first published 1980)
my copy: Trade Paperback, 176 pages
purchase: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository
rating: 4.5 / 5 stars
goodreads

In the wake of a summer storm, terror descends...David Drayton, his son Billy, and their neighbor Brent Norton join dozens of others and head to the local grocery store to replenish supplies following a freak storm. Once there, they become trapped by a strange mist that has enveloped the town. As the confinement takes its toll on their nerves, a religious zealot, Mrs. Carmody, begins to play on their fears to convince them that this is God’s vengeance for their sins. She insists a sacrifice must be made and two groups—those for and those against—are aligned. Clearly, staying in the store may prove fatal, and the Draytons, along with store employee Ollie Weeks, Amanda Dumfries, Irene Reppler, and Dan Miller, attempt to make their escape. But what’s out there may be worse than what they left behind. 

This exhilarating novella explores the horror in both the enemy you know—and the one you can only imagine.

great combination of scifi and horror

II saw the movie a few months back and I became extremely curious of the novel as I've also found out that they concluded differently. BUT either way, I will still be reading it because of my interest on how the characters fear are presented in the book. And I have to say that my expectations were well met.