Anyone who has been following this blog knows that I adore Koji Suzuki. So, naturally, I picked up his short story collection from the library! Dark Water consists of seven stories, along with a prologue and epilogue. This review is going to be a bit different, I'm going to go through each short story and give my opinion on it.
Floating Water: This was a good short story. The Americanized movie of it sucks, I hated it. But it's much better written down. It's still not my favorite in the collection, but I do think it was suspenseful and I liked the gloomy atmoshpere.
Solitary Isle: This book was creepy. Downright weird. Which I love. However, I didn't really see what it had to do with the water aspect, aside from them being on an island. I also really couldn't get into the characters. In the end, it's a forgettable story.
The Hold: This was a really good story. I loved the premise of it, and I thought it was well written. The ending of this story is amazing. I thought it was a great twist, and that the character really deserved what came to him. One of my favorites of the collection.
Dream Cruise: This was a great, you get what's coming to you, story. Kind of creepy, kind of left the reader with some questions. I loved the image at the end, it was very dramatic and just in your face. This story would definitely make me rethink swimming in the ocean at night, where you can't see anything.
Adrift: I loved Adrift. I love the idea of a haunted ship, it's just always been one of my favorite ghost stories. A phantom ship looming through the fog. Another one of my favorites. The ending had a great twist, that I was definitely hoping would happen. Great story.
Watercolors: Watercolors was the weakest story of the bunch. I didn't really understand why it was in the story. It was written well, but I just don't think the plot was up to par with the others. Very much the odd story out.
Forest Under The Sea: All I could think of while reading this was the movie The Descent. In the end, I wasn't in love with this story, but I liked it. It wasn't so much the water aspect that scared me, it was being trapped in a cave. Very scary situation! I liked the ending and how it went twenty years ahead in time. Very cool aspect. The switch in perspectives was nice. Overall, it was a decent story.
Prologue and Epilogue: At first, I had no clue what the Prologue and Epilogue would have to do with the stories. And then, ended up being tied together with the ending story, which I thought was really cool, and very much a Koji Suzuki thing to do.
Overall: I liked the stories, and it's a must read for any Koji Suzuki fan. The Ring trilogy is far better, but I enjoyed Dark Water.
My rating: 6/10
The nice thing about short stories is you don't have to enmeshed in them for quite the duration of a long book. I mean, you can read one, read something else, come back to another story...sometimes they seem like just the kind of thing I crave, and I'm glad to hear of how much you enjoy this author who is new to me.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I love about them, too!
ReplyDeleteI think you'll like him, he's an awesome author (:
I just finished the Ring trilogy - good times!
ReplyDeleteHave you read Birthday?
Aren't they good!!
ReplyDeleteNo, I haven't yet, but hope to soon. How are the stories?
I haven't read Birthday yet...was just asking in the hopes that you'd tell me they were great. In my experience, sometimes the add-ons to trilogies and the like don't always live up to their potential. :( But I'll still check it out one of these days.
ReplyDeleteAhhh, yeah, I've definitely gotta read it. I think getting the point of view from the women will be interesting.
ReplyDelete