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Ring (1991)

by Koji Suzuki

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: Ring (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,6715310,422 (3.65)75
Stunning Japanese thriller with a chilling supernatural twist. The novel that inspired the cult Japanese movie and the Hollywood blockbuster of the same name. Asakawa is a hardworking journalist who has climbed his way up from local-news beat reporter to writer for his newspaper's weekly magazine. A chronic workaholic, he doesn't take much notice when his seventeen-year-old niece dies suddenly - until a chance conversation reveals that another healthy teenager died at exactly the same time, in chillingly similar circumstances. Sensing a story, Asakawa begins to investigate, and soon discovers that this strange simultaneous sudden-death syndrome also affected another two teenagers. Exactly one week before their mysterious deaths the four teenagers all spent the night at a leisure resort in the same log cabin. When Asakawa visits the resort, the mystery only deepens. A comment made in the guest book by one of the teenagers leads him to a particular vidoetape with a portentous message at the end: Those who have viewed these images are fated to die at this exact hour one week from now. Asakawa finds himself in a race against time - he has only seven days to find the cause of the teenagers' deaths before it finds him. The hunt puts him on the trail of an apocalytpic power that will force Asakawa to choose between saving his family and saving civilization.… (more)
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» See also 75 mentions

English (49)  Danish (2)  French (1)  German (1)  All languages (53)
Showing 1-5 of 49 (next | show all)
First off thank you for existing and creating such an amazing franchise with this book. The Ring movie series is seriously good in my opinion. It's influenced some great(and not so great) works as well.

That done, let's get into the details.

People are randomly collapsing from heart attacks and it's confusing the police. They're getting professionals to look into it and hopefully find a pattern. No this isn't Death Note. Sure sounds like it, right? It's totally the inspiration for the manga and I can't be convinced that it isn't. Too many details overlap in Koji's work to sway me otherwise. Within five chapters it reads similar and has the veins of Death Note within it.

I'm not a big Death Note fan but I can tell when something obviously influenced the other thing it's kind of like how Bastard! Heavy Metal is what created Inuyasha. Darsh even had white hair in the 80s way before Inuyasha, and the characters look like stolen copies of each other with only the years of release separating them. But the original usually(not always) is better. And, much like with Bastard!, in a situation like this I can say that Death Note can't compare to Ring. There's a real suspense and dread that brews and a chess game that is between detectives and the mystery killer.

I really like this fast introduction to the Ringverse and its lore. ( )
  Yolken | Jan 11, 2024 |
Enjoyably Good ( )
  saltyessentials | Dec 23, 2023 |
This was barely a three star from me. The biggest problem is it wasn’t scary, even a little bit. The second biggest problem was I didn’t like either the main characters. I was warned in advance about it. A friend told me the books got progressively better. I will give one more chance. Here’s hoping he’s right. ( )
  cdaley | Nov 2, 2023 |
Boring (I didn't find it interesting until the last 30 pages) and it wasn't scary. Although I didn't find the American version of The Ring scary either, so I'll have to watch the Japanese version. ( )
  Summer345456 | Jan 25, 2023 |
This review was originally written for my Wordpress blog.

I am a huge fan of all things horror. I have been captivated by the creepy and the macabre ever since I watched Stephen King's 'Pet Semetary' as a young child. As I grew older, my interests in anything that could be described as occult and eerie grew alongside me.

I remember watching the American movie The Ring in the cinema with my friends as a teenager. I didn't find it particularly scary but I was curious about how it had attempted to make an unavoidable everyday item, a television, so creepy. I later learned that this movie was originally a Japanese idea. I began searching for the original Japanese Ring (or 'Ringu' as it's known), I had to see it. I eventually stumbled across it one even as it was being aired on a low budget horror channel. I can clearly remember my glee when watching that movie, my eyes glued to the screen, soaking up every moment. It was far more disturbing than its American sibling, although it was almost identical. Maybe it was due to there being no special effects, or maybe it was due to it not being quite as polished and having a sort of vintage feel too it, I'm not quite sure, but whatever it was gave it a more sinister quality, and I loved every minute of it.

Years later I discover the novel on which the movies were based in my local library. Upon seeing the book I immediately felt curious, the same curiosity I experienced when discovering the existence of the movie that would be the beginning to my dark love affair with Japanese horror. I snatched the tome from the shelves, brought it home and immediately dived in.

For those who have seen the movies (or even just one movie), you'll know the basic story. The book follows the story of a journalist named Asakawa as he investigates the deaths of four students who died from a heart attack on the same day, in the same district of Tokyo. This case is of special interest to Asakawa as one of the students was his wife's niece. Asakawa begins his investigation and finds a mysterious video tape that claims to curse any who watch it, and promises their demise in exactly one week unless.... Unfortunately for Asakawa someone has recorded over the part of the tape that tells the viewer how to remove the curse. Asakawa enlists the help of his friend Ryuji to help him investigate this curse further and, hopefully, reverse it before seven days have passed.

This book has many differences when compared to the movies, so it is not boring to read even when you think you know what is going to happen. I absolutely loved this book, its darkness, the writing style, and its cliffhanger ending.

What I liked:

Different to the movies - still an enjoyable read and the ending was not spoiled by the movies

Well written but still easy to read - descriptive and clear without using complicated and unusual words or phrases

A good sense of horror and suspense created by encapsulating the sense of hopelessness the protagonists feel

A true Japanese horror - no heroes, just people battling to survive a hopeless situation for as long as they can

What I didn't like:

Rambling at times - protagonists would oftentimes go from point A to point B with no transition, which made certain sections confusing and resulted in re-reading

Some strange transphobia which seemed to be only mentioned for the sake of it

Some mentions of topics which some may have difficulty reading about such as rape, which is accepted too easily by the protagonists. For example, it is mentioned early in the story that someone raped a girl, this is just something that is accepted almost as a "character quirk" and does not seem to disgust or upset anyone

Overall I would highly recommend this book to fans of horror, Japanese or otherwise. Despite my glaring list of what I didn't like I still thoroughly enjoyed the book and I cannot wait to read the next one in the series.

I would rate this 4/5 stars. ( )
  egge | Jul 16, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 49 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (19 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Koji Suzukiprimary authorall editionscalculated
Rohmer, Robert B.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Walley, GlynneTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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A row of condominium buildings, each fourteen stories high, ran along the northern edge of the housing development next to the Sankeien garden.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Stunning Japanese thriller with a chilling supernatural twist. The novel that inspired the cult Japanese movie and the Hollywood blockbuster of the same name. Asakawa is a hardworking journalist who has climbed his way up from local-news beat reporter to writer for his newspaper's weekly magazine. A chronic workaholic, he doesn't take much notice when his seventeen-year-old niece dies suddenly - until a chance conversation reveals that another healthy teenager died at exactly the same time, in chillingly similar circumstances. Sensing a story, Asakawa begins to investigate, and soon discovers that this strange simultaneous sudden-death syndrome also affected another two teenagers. Exactly one week before their mysterious deaths the four teenagers all spent the night at a leisure resort in the same log cabin. When Asakawa visits the resort, the mystery only deepens. A comment made in the guest book by one of the teenagers leads him to a particular vidoetape with a portentous message at the end: Those who have viewed these images are fated to die at this exact hour one week from now. Asakawa finds himself in a race against time - he has only seven days to find the cause of the teenagers' deaths before it finds him. The hunt puts him on the trail of an apocalytpic power that will force Asakawa to choose between saving his family and saving civilization.

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