tamaranth | 2025/182: Strange Pictures

2025/182: Strange Pictures — Uketsu

Adults can draw what they see, the real thing, in their pictures. Children, though, draw the “idea” of what appears in their heads. [p. 82]

Translated from the Japanese by Jim Rion, this short illustrated novel seems at first to be three tenuously-connected novellas. The first begins with a blog on which a man posts some pictures drawn by his wife, who died in childbirth. Each picture has a number... The second story is about a small boy who draws a picture of the apartment block where he lives, and scribbles out the windows of his home. And the third pertains to a grisly unsolved murder mystery, and the implications of the sketch found with the corpse. Gradually, it becomes clear that these are all the same story, or at least all revolve around the same individual.

The pictures (which were clear and readable on my Kindle) definitely added to the story, and drew me into the mysteries: the prose, while simple, flowed nicely. I enjoyed this, though I found some passages disturbing -- even upsetting. And Utetsu makes it easy to sympathise with the villain, who is driven by the need to protect those they care for.

Irritatingly, the Kindle edition starts at 'Chapter One' -- but there is actually an introductory passage before that, which I only noticed when I started to write this review and opened the book in the web browser. Grrrrr. It does cast a different light on the story and provides a lot of insight into the backstory.