What’s the book? Strange Houses by Uketsu
How dark is it? Dark blue like the blueprints for a house
How good is it? 7/10 hidden rooms
Strange Houses is the second book by Uketsu, a mystery-maker who is himself a mystery. I reviewed his first book, Strange Pictures, a while ago. Uketsu is a Japanese YouTuber who always appears in a freaky looking mask, which he also uses in his author photo for his books. (Also, I actually have no idea what Uketsu’s gender is, I’m just making a wild guess based on body shape. Sorry if I guessed wrong.)
But I digress. On to the book. The first one, Strange Pictures, was a series of separate but interconnected stories; Strange Houses is one long story told through a series of three houses. The writing style is extremely minimalist and straightforward, making it a lightning quick read. The writing style also gives the story a clinical feel, like we’re removed from the emotional impact of the mystery as it unfolds. I don’t think this simplicity is a fault in translation. As far as I can tell, this English translation is a good approximation of the extremely accessible style Uketsu aims for.
It’s not just the prose that’s straightforward and clinical, it’s the whole telling of the story. The narrator, a freelance writer, and his architect buddy Kurihara start looking at a very unusual floorplan and Kurihara decides it must be a murder house. Things snowball from there, Kurihara’s imagination running wild and the author going along for the ride. The thing is, it quickly becomes clear that Kurihara is pretty much spot on about his theories. The narrator, needing a quick piece for a magazine, writes a story about their murder house theory and ends up meeting someone who knows that house, which leads him to another strange floor plan, and so on. The floor plans are printed in the book so we can puzzle over them, which is fun.
The whole book is a bit like the end of a Sherlock Holmes novel, where he explains in intricate detail how the crime was done. It’s all very logical and bloodless, which is not for everyone. I appreciated the style, though, because the actual mystery they’re unraveling is beyond redonkulous. I won’t spoil all the details but it involves secret children being trained to murder houseguests, and that’s just the beginning of the madness. Normally, I’m all for diving into the emotional depth and moral complexity of a story but this one is so farfetched that it doesn’t bear thinking about. The very dryness of the narrative keeps all that just slightly in the shadows, like a horror movie that never quite shows you the monster. For me, it works better that way.
I’m starting to find Uketsu’s books easy reads, light little palate cleansers between more shocking or draining books. They’re still full of murder so I probably shouldn’t say this but I ended this book with a smile on my face, satisfied after a fun little romp through the murder houses. Which, now that I think about it, might be a major flaw in the books. I didn’t find either of them scary at all because none of the characters are fleshed out enough to relate to. For me, they’re fun quick puzzles but if you’re looking to immerse yourself emotionally this is not the author to take you there.
