Revenge by Yoko Ogawa is a collection of eleven dark tales. This book was a possible selection to read in December 2015 by the Goodreads Horror Aficionados group. Revenge wasn’t chosen in the final poll, but it sounded so intriguing. I decided to read it instead of the top choice (Krampus: The Yule Lord by Brom), which I will probably read later.
On Goodreads, I gave Revenge 5 out of 5 stars. See what I wrote about it below:
Short story collections can be frustrating because they often feel like you are dropped into the middle of a story and whisked away just as quickly, leaving you with no perception of a beginning or an end. If you read the eleven dark tales in Revenge out of order or with long stretches between stories, you might get that disjointed, incomplete feeling. However, if you read each story in order, you will happily discover each one bleeds into the next. Sometimes that link is subtle, and sometimes it’s not. The stories are definitely weird and odd, and the thin thread linking them together gives a sense of a much fuller story. The last story sends you back to the first, taking you full circle.
The main plot of the whole collection is strange and has a dark and melancholy undertone. Fun!
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“The desires of the human heart know no reason or rules.” ~ from “Welcome to the Museum of Torture”
“Nothing you study will ever turn out to be useless.” ~ from The Man Who Sold Braces”
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What do you think?
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