Welcome to Litsy!

This is told as a fairytale, a retelling (apparently) of Bluebeard which I was unfamiliar with prior. I loved the way this played with the fairytale genre and ways we tell stories to circumvent reality, often even to ourselves. But ultimately, the narrator tells us: “The people are us, the time is always.” Side: didn‘t I just read this somewhere on Litsy? Such a perfect line. I‘m not sure I grasped all this was doing but I had fun trying. #ToB26

Wowzers. Tomie is an eternally-beautiful young woman who, in every new relationship, is brutally murdered. As she is hacked into pieces, each new piece regenerates, unleashing more Tomies on mankind. But who are we really mad at? Sure, Tomie is mean, often cruel, and manipulative. Does that justify her murders? Why aren‘t we side-eying her murderers too regardless of their motives? Excellent horror manga, as usual, from Junji Ito.

Lord. I was trying to find an image to share with this review and there was so much I just couldn‘t share. It‘s disturbing. It‘s upsetting. It‘s amazing. Junji Ito is absolutely worth devouring in one sitting. The fish are walking out of the ocean, but the organisms using the fish need new hosts…

In the opening scenes, Cora‘s sister, Delilah, is violently killed right in front of her. Much like the bat in Aesop‘s fable, neither beast nor bird, Cora is half-Asian, half-Caucasian. Who *is* she, truly? She feels untethered without Delilah. When a hungry ghost she believes to be Delilah begins dogging her, she needs to find answers for the Asian people being murdered during the pandemic. Buckle up, kids, the road is rough from here on out.

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn‘t stop to think if they should.” - The great philosopher Ian Malcolm. That‘s this story. A scientist is obsessed with the “other side” and unleashes a supernatural entity on the world. Can our scientific curiosity cause more problems than it solves? I think we‘ve seen that the answer is often yes.

You know, these are kinda fun. It was a bit like, “What if Sherlock Holmes were into investigating the Supernatural?” My favorite was the guy who visited his old school which was a monastery, now in ruins. His old teachers are there, and they haven‘t aged. He realizes they‘re demonic monks a little too late because the dark magic ceremony is *happening* but John Silence comes to his rescue.

I honestly forgot how slow this book is, not to mention a lot of Paul's internal monologue which at times confusing and other times unnecessary but considering he's delirious for at least half of the book creating a back n forth between delusions and reality, I'm like meh.

Annie is an iconic character- sometimes the monster is closer than we think but as iconic as she is, the book just didn't work for me even in the reread.

I never know the date except when it‘s time for a monthly reading roundup: https://multitudes-contained.beehiiv.com/p/on-reading-in-november-2025

October and November #wrapup

October:
Total read = 6
Audio - 3
Print - 3
1 picture book, 1 graphic novel, 1 novel

My pick for October is tagged.

November:
Total Read: 3
Audio: 3

My pick for November is Stalking Around The Christmas Tree.

So far I think this was my favorite of Harrison's books. This one is about Clio and her two sisters whose mother abandoned them years ago. When their mother dies and leaves them the house, secrets and a demon finally come out 😈
#WickedWords #missing @AsYouWish