Junji Ito’s ‘Uzumaki’ is a Must-Read for Any Horror Fan
Never read this book at night
I suspected I would be into horror books very early on in my reading journey. But I chose to ease myself into the genre, rather than dive head-first and not know what I was getting into. I started with the one and only, cult classic, The Haunting of Hill House, which made me almost certain I wanted more out of horror. Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects followed, and although it fits the mystery/thriller genre more, some of the body horror imagery still makes me shiver when I think about it.
Karin Slaughter’s Pretty Girls was a worthy addition to my horror reads, at the moment ranking third in my all-time favourites of the genre. Second place goes to the only King novel I’ve ever read (I’m working on it), The Outsider. And first place? Well, this is where it gets interesting.
The best horror book I’ve ever read is Junji Ito’s acclaimed manga, Uzumaki. I got this for Christmas and couldn’t put it down. Much like its key symbol — the spiral — Uzumaki made me feel like I fell in a trance every time I picked it up. This is the reason why the warning I gave at the beginning is very serious: avoid reading this manga at night. Whenever I opened it, I fell in a hypnosis-like state, and it took me very long to get out of that frame of mind, even after I’d put the…
