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4 Psychological Thriller Novels Where Sanity Is Tested — 15 Comments

  1. Daaaaamn, Amazon.jp reviews of リアル鬼ごっこ are brutal! One-and-a-half stars out of 800+ reviews. I didn’t actually bother to read any, but I assume there are some pretty disgruntled Satous out there.

    • Haha, well you would be annoyed too if your name was killed off.

      A lot of 山田悠介 (Yamada Yuusuke)’s works get highly criticized online because his ideas can seem a bit outrageous and his writing is way too simple. The fact that his works sell so much despite this negative criticism just fuels even stronger criticism.

      For the most part, I find his stories interesting though, and really easy and straightforward to read, despite being kind of trashy.

  2. One of the first novels I read (this was a couple of years ago) was Yamada Yusuke’s 自殺プロデュース, which is sort of embarrassing in a way, but I found it to be fast paced, eerily interesting, and quite easy to read. It wouldn’t be something you would want to call “literature” per se, but I think you will be entertained, making it easier to delve into reading novels in Japanese.

    • Nope, literature isn’t a word that would ever come anywhere near his work. But as you said, it is an entertaining and easy dive into novels.

  3. Awesome, thanks for the reviews! It’d be great if there was an example paragraph or something too, so we could hear the writer’s style too. I don’t know if that’s possible, but a special request to think about maybe?
    スピン sounds pretty cool. I’ve read some manga with that kind of plotline too…I think the Japanese just lean towards stories about suicide and the brokenhearted outcasts rebelling against society with a big crime.

    • The current batch of novels I’ve been reviewing I read a fairly long time ago, so I don’t have the books anymore. But once I start to get into some new novels, I’ll definitely try to include a tiny sample text.

      • That would be really nice to include with the RECs. Even if it is just a picture or scan of the page.

  4. I really like these articles. Thankyou for the included sample text.Made me decide to pick up the satou book, even though it’s level was a bit above what I like to read normally. Cheers!

    • リアル鬼ごっこ actually gets easier as it starts. The few page intro is probably the hardest part of the book. But I think it’ll be a fun challenge for you.

  5. I finished reading スイッチを押すとき a few days ago, and it was probably the saddest thing I’ve ever read. Definetely recommend it though, it’s a page turner for sure.

    • It definitely was sad. Most of Yamada Yuusuke’s novels seem to be. He has created a universe of 絶望!

      His books are fairly easy to read though right? Going to check out his other books?

      • Yes definitely good books to start with, it was the first novel I’ve ever read. Door D looks pretty interesting so I’ll probably check that out when I have some book money.

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