Title: Shiver: Selected Stories
Author: Junji Ito
First published October 7, 2015
400 pages, Hardcover
ISBN: 9781421596938 (ISBN10: 1421596938)
Rating: 4.35
Overview
If you’re a fan of horror manga, you won’t want to miss Junji Ito’s Shiver: Selected Stories. This chilling collection features nine of Ito’s most spine-tingling tales, carefully chosen by the author himself, with detailed notes and commentary to provide insight into the creative process.
From cursed jade stones that bore tiny holes in a person’s body to balloon-headed doppelgangers with sinister intentions, each story will leave you on the edge of your seat. Whether you’re a longtime fan of Junji Ito or a newcomer to the world of horror manga, Shiver is a must-read for anyone who loves a good scare.
About the Author
Junji Itō is a Japanese horror comic artist born in Gifu Prefecture in 1963. His interest in drawing horror comics began at a young age, inspired by his older sister’s drawings and Kazuo Umezu’s comics.
Despite graduating and training as a dental technician, he continued to pursue his hobby of drawing horror comics, which led to him winning the prestigious Umezu prize for horror manga.
Itō’s works often revolve around common obsessions such as beauty, long hair, and beautiful girls. For instance, in his Tomie and Flesh-Colored Horror comic collections, a girl’s hair rebels against being cut off and runs away with her head, girls intentionally catch a disease that makes them beautiful but end up murdering each other, and a woman uses lotion on her skin to take it off and look at her muscles, but her skin dissolves, and she tries to steal her sister’s skin.
The universe in Itō’s comics is cruel and capricious, with characters often becoming victims of malevolent unnatural circumstances for no clear reason or being punished excessively for minor infractions against an unknown and incomprehensible natural order.
His most extended work, the three-volume Uzumaki, is about a town’s obsession with spirals, with people becoming fascinated with, terrified of, and consumed by the countless occurrences of the spiral in nature. The book creates an atmosphere of creeping fear as the town’s inhabitants become less human, and more bizarre things start to happen.
Before Uzumaki, Itō was best known for his Tomie comic series, which features a beautiful, teasing, and eternally youthful high school girl. Her admirers are so stricken by her that they end up murdering each other in fits of jealous rage.
Despite using various methods to dispose of her body, her body always regenerates.
Many of Itō’s works have been adapted for TV and cinema since Tomie was adapted into a movie during the horror boom that followed the success of Ringu in 1998.
Editoral Review
Shiver: Selected Stories by Junji Ito is a collection of chilling tales that will leave readers with a sense of unease long after they have finished reading. Junji Ito is a master of horror, known for his unique style and ability to create haunting images that linger in the mind.
The stories in Shiver cover a wide range of themes and subjects, from supernatural creatures to human madness. Some of the stories are outright terrifying, while others are more subtle and psychological.
All of them, however, are expertly crafted and will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
The collection opens with the story “Souichi’s Diary of Curses,” which follows a mischievous young boy who delights in causing trouble for those around him. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Souichi’s powers are not entirely of this world, and the consequences of his actions are far more severe than anyone could have anticipated.
Another standout story in the collection is “The Hanging Balloons,” which tells the story of a town where balloons with faces appear one day, each one representing a person in the town. As the townspeople struggle to understand the meaning of the balloons, they begin to realize that they are not just harmless decorations, but something far more sinister.
One of the strengths of Shiver is Ito’s ability to create complex and nuanced characters, even in the midst of supernatural horror. The stories are not just about fear and terror, but also about the human condition and the ways in which we cope with the unknown and the inexplicable.
However, there are some weaknesses in the collection. Some of the stories feel repetitive and predictable, and there are times when Ito relies too heavily on shock value rather than building tension and suspense.
Despite these flaws, Shiver is a must-read for fans of horror and Japanese manga. Ito’s unique style and ability to create haunting images make this collection a standout in the genre.
The stories are not just scary, but also thought-provoking and emotionally resonant.
Overall, I would give Shiver a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. While it is not a perfect collection, it is a powerful and memorable work that will leave readers with a lingering sense of unease.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys horror and is looking for something new and exciting to read.
