Reviews with content warning for Blood - Shiver

This book hit me and it didn't felt like a kiss, didn't make me shiver either.

Coming into this I just wondered if his short stories were as uneventful as his longer ones.

Unfortunately Ito is a good gore painter, but not much of a horror teller to my taste.
I was really underwhelmed, the characters are drawn the same, and you can see his process as you read- he found something interesting and was more into the drawing aspect then the story one
(he admints that himself- after each story there's an information page about how it came to be, and it's the same story every time)
At this point I've become a hater and I need to stop..

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xwritingstoriesx's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

5 stars. Junji Ito is what I would consider a creative genius. These stories were so original, so compelling and so extremely hullucinatory. My favourite of the collection, Hanging Balloons, was such an innovative concept, built to a perfect crescendo with a plot twist that took my breath away. Ito's beautifully disturbing art thoroughly captured the horrors of humanity's greatest fears.

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perth_is's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This was a beautiful jump into Junji Ito's work and I was amazed! There is something about his books that just feel so fresh. He has wonderful ideas and I am definitely picking up another Junji Ito book whenever I can.

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dany_casimiro's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Junji Ito's stories are so easy to follow and such quick reads that it sure did not seem like a 400-page book.
Each of them is self-contained, while some are bits of other series he has worked on, but they all have a distinct feeling of dread. The only one that truly grossed me out was "Greased." As the title suggests, it is a very sticky, oily business that I would not recommend unless you have a strong stomach.
Granted, I do not read a lot of horror, or manga, but I shall keep an eye out for this author. In Shiver, he manages to captivate my morbid side in a way that very few other horror books have. His commentaries and afterword are also mandatory reading, as they provide a background for the stories, as well as further layers to these sinister tales.

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