Deserter

Starred review from December 1, 2021

Cosmic terror, body horror, dread, and madness abound in this collection of 12 short stories created earlier in Ito's (Sensor) career. "Bio House" opens with a young woman and a biotechnology researcher who share a "penchant for dining on the unusual" sitting down to a meal before taking a series of completely bizarre, impossible to predict twists. "The Reanimator's Sword" progresses with similarly surreal, intuitive plotting, as a boy determined to capture a ghost ends up uncovering a dark family secret involving a supernatural entity with the power to revive the dead. In "Where the Sandman Lives," an aspiring novelist tells a young woman, Mari, "the other me that lives in my dreamworld is trying to get out into the real world." If that isn't creepy enough, wait until the evil double makes his viscerally disturbing emergence. The final story, "Deserter," in which a family enacts an elaborate ruse to convince a military deserter hiding in their house that World War II is still raging nine years after its conclusion, stands amongst the very best work of Ito's career. VERDICT Another exemplary volume from the internationally renowned master storyteller.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2022
Grades 9-12 This collection of short stories from horror master Ito focuses more on supernatural and magical elements than some of his other short stories. There are face-stealing girls, razor-sharp hairs ready to decapitate, soul-sucking swords, a father who can take over his children's minds, brain-washing demons, and more. Despite this being a collection of his earliest works, Ito has already established his signature endings, often right at the climax or the big reveal, with no falling action to wrap up the jump scare or horrific turn of events. This collection should be particularly well received for school libraries, as these stories have a lack of psychological and body horror that might make other collections too mature for school audiences. Ito's signature art style is also already well established here. From story to story, many people will have extremely similar features and designs, but he rarely reuses characters. Ito excels at adding a few creepy details to make an otherwise mundane character into one that may haunt readers' minds, but that's exactly what teen readers clamor for.

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