I really enjoyed this one! Uketsu is honestly such a genius. It was a little similar to Strange Pcitures which made the ending somewhat predictable but Uketsu still managed to take me by surprise, especially with that cliffhanger!

4.25

I was really interested in reading this cause I really enjoyed his other book, Strange Pictures. Like Strange Pictures this was a quick, addicting read.

It starts with a friend who contacts the narrator because he wants to buy a house in Tokyo, but the house's blueprints seem strange. Along with an architect, they start to make assumptions of why those blueprints were so odd.

As the plot advances we start to uncover the mystery of the houses and the reasons behind their strange and creepy layouts - Because yes, they are really creepy (and they reason behind them is even more so). The end is a bit open - I was not the biggest fan of that - but the story was really good overall.

Those who loved strange pictures are going enjoy this one too. Looking forward to more books of him.

Thank you Netgalley and Pushkin Press for a copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Upon discovering a set of floorplans for a house hiding a bizarre secret, the narrator attempts to unravel the mysteries contained within its walls and the dark secrets linked to the house's former occupants.

Similar to last year's Strange Pictures by Uketsu, Strange Houses uses a series of diagrams to convey a tricky puzzle-based mystery. However, instead of drawings and pictures, this newly translated novel features floorplans of the titular strange houses to convey the mystery. While the prominent use of floorplans does present a fresh spin on the mystery genre, the significance and use of the diagrams is unfortunately somewhat less compelling and mind-bending than the sketches from the preceding novel. Additionally, the floorplan aspect becomes less prevalent as the novel goes on, disappearing completely within the concluding quarter of the novel. Floorplans and maps are already a staple of Japanese mystery fiction and perhaps this made this particular novel feel less fresh than Strange Pictures as a result, though the floorplans do take centre stage for a good portion of the narrative. The tricky houses presented in the narrative were redolent of Yukito Ayatsuji's The Bizarre House Mysteries series.

While Strange Pictures contained a series of interlinked narratives which gradually intertwined with one another, Strange Houses takes a more singular approach and a slightly more linear structure. The different segments of the original novel provided shifts and changes to the feel of the narrative which felt absent from this effort. While the 'creepypasta' feel is still present here, it is less prevalent than in Strange Pictures. That said, the narrative is compulsive, and I easily got through the book in a day.

As with Strange Pictures, the prose, dialogue and characters are all very functional and the focus is on the technical aspects of the mystery and building an unsettling narrative. A lot of the story is told through transcribed dialogue, which was appreciated in this context as an efficient way to convey the puzzle-based narrative.

In terms of the mystery, readers should go in expecting individual puzzles linked to the floorplans that can be unravelled, but should not expect an overall fair play mystery in the traditional sense. The narrative takes the form of a twisted creepy mystery which unfolds for the reader. This is similar to Strange Pictures, though I do feel that the mystery narrative contained within that novel could be pieced together by a dedicated and observant reader, whereas the narrative of Strange Houses relies more heavily on withholding information from the reader in order to reveal it later for dramatic effect which works within the context of the story. That said, I still think that Uketsu's fresh approach to a Japanese mystery narrative remains interesting in how it defies typical schools of Japanese mystery such as shin honkoku, shakai etc and a worthwhile addition to the Japanese mystery canon.

As with Strange Pictures, there is no dramatis personae included for spoiler reasons. Readers wishing to fully understand the narrative would benefit from keeping track of character names and their relations and family ties on a notepad. This is especially relevant during the final quarter of the narrative, as the reader is hit with many names in rapid succession and it is very easy to lose track and therefore lack the ability to fully comprehend the conclusion of the narrative. This bombardment of characters and names during the concluding segment in conjunction with the linear narrative and a slightly ambiguous ending unfortunately do result in a less satisfying conclusion than the one found in Strange Pictures, though perhaps one that does justify a re-read more than its predecessor.

In many ways, Strange Houses is an interesting and compelling Japanese crime novel which lives in the shadow of its predecessor. Many of the elements on display are compelling, but were executed better by the author previously. That said, Strange Houses is an easy recommendation for readers who are looking for an interesting and off-beat narrative, provided they are willing to arm themselves with a pencil and a notepad for that concluding segment. At the end of the novel, Pushkin announce the upcoming translation of Uketsu's next novel, Strange Buildings, and I will be there, notepad in hand, when it releases.

i’ve read the manga up to volume 3, so i knew most of the plot but there is no solution in the manga! so i was hoping for that in this book and it was there! we finally learned about “the child” and it was darkkkkk! the final twist was what surprised me though! whodunit was revealed but howdunit was left to the imagination of the readers!

between the manga and the book, the manga was more better and enjoyable because of all the illustrations! those make the story more creepy and tense! the book is well written too but the lack of illustrations made it less interesting!

thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the copy!