An author whose identity remains unknown is the perfect vessel for a mystery. Uketsu, a masked figure who shares macabre stories on YouTube, published their debut novel in Japan back in 2021. Now, here it is for Westerners to puzzle over. Strange Pictures is told in four chapters, each centering different characters and drawings that add new dimension to the mystery as it unfolds. A pair of students discover a blog with years of entries missing, a mother tries to protect her son, and a young wannabe-journalist hits upon the scoop of a lifetime. All are connected in this tragic tale whose mystery spans decades.
It would be easy to mistake this book for an anthology with each section seeming, at first, to exist in a vacuum. The prologue introduces a psychology professor sharing her analysis of a former patient, a child, through their artwork. These first few pages set the tone for those that follow as we learn to look more closely than we otherwise might at the drawings to come. Each chapter’s pictures hold a secret that is both specific to the chapter and relevant to the overall story. Each chapter also approaches its drawings’ secrets differently, obscuring and revealing their respective truths in unique ways.
The first chapter follows a university student in the Paranormal Club who investigates a strange blog sent to him by another member. Its entries date from 2008 to 2012 with a large swath of deleted entries between October 2009 and November 2012. The blog details the life of a young professional and his wife, an illustrator, who are expecting a baby. Ahead of the birth, the wife draws pictures of the child at different stages of their life. Or at least that’s how it appears. New realities emerge as the two club members extrapolate as many kernels of truth from what the blog leaves out as they do from what it includes. Every chapter takes place at a different point in time, but all are connected more or less seamlessly.
A few leaps in logic occur, with equally likely explanations being left out in favor of what turn out to be correct assumptions. There is also a lot of reiteration throughout the novel in the form of paraphrasing, words in bold font, entire paragraphs copied verbatim—the literary equivalent of a flashback—and pictographs that, if you’ve been following the events of the story—which are not overly complicated—are unnecessary. It’s a well-formed mystery that unfolds compellingly; readers would already be intent on piecing things together without the aforementioned aids guiding them through, especially when the information being recalled or emphasized was just given a couple of pages earlier.
I won’t summarize this tale further since coming to it with as little info as possible will make the reading experience that much more engaging. I definitely recommend giving this one a read, especially if you’re a mystery fan. Though I did put certain things together ahead of their reveal, I was sure I knew who was ultimately to blame and ended up surprised. The story picks up speed until it reaches a very satisfying climax. Once the fragments of this story begin snapping into place, you won’t want to put it down.
FICTION
Strange Pictures
By Uketsu
Translated from the Japanese by Jim Rion
Harpervia
Published January 14, 2025
