SOICHI: JUNJI ITO STORY COLLECTION - graphic novel


 I was truly enamored with the graphic novel, Tombs, by creator Junji Ito not too long ago so I was very eager to dig into this graphic novel. The title, with "Story Collection," had me thinking we'd be getting something very like Tombs with a variety of dark, creepy stories.  But it's not quite along the same lines.

Yes, there's creepiness here, but it's centrally focused on one young boy, Soichi - a disturbed individual.

Soichi is the second son of an otherwise normal family. He likes to tease in the very worst of ways - if someone gets hurt by something he does, it's just that much better.  He chews nails.  Not "chews ON his nails" ... he literally always has some nails in his mouth, which he might spit out, intending to spear someone or something.  He's the annoying little brother, taken to an extreme, and even being in a strict school environment doesn't sort him out.

The book has ten Soichi stories that reads more like a novel than individual stories, and by the end of the book I felt as though they were pretty much the same.  Soichi didn't grow - he didn't grow into a better person and he didn't grow into a worse or more deviant character.  

Overall, this was one good story, told ten times with some variations without enough changes to make it interesting each time.

Looking for a good book? Soichi: Junji Ito Story Collection is a dark and disturbing (in a good way, for those of us who like dark and disturbing) graphic novel without enough variation to justify 400+ pages.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

Soichi: Junji Ito Story Collection

author: Junji Ito

artist: Junji Ito

publisher: Viz Media LLC

ISBN: 9781974739028

hardcover, 416 pages

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