This is the sixth one for me (already?), and while I’m not yet as far ahead in this one as you are, the other 5 weren’t really what I would regard as horror, no.
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Similarly, I have read a bunch from that label (don’t know the exact number) and have started one more, but they are more stories with a supernatural/disturbing element rather than proper horror.
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good to know, thanks for the replies. 
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My thoughts until 3.11:
I still think that this book is very thrilling in a way that I like a lot, and I don’t feel any horror vibes at all (except for the scene at the start where Asakawa‘s niece dies, and to some extent where his daughter gets afraid of the mask). 
This might change though once she wakes up in the well… 
but then again, having the story happen in the past seems to take a lot of the scariness out of the narration for me. 
For the hermaphrodite plot twist, I had to read this like three times to finally grasp what the author was telling us. First I thought that he was still inside her and looking at his own testicles, and I was like, ok what did you expect, bro? 
Then it slowly sank in… I do hope this is still required for the rest of the story though. I’ll be very annoyed if this is a really unnecessary mention.
So far I must really give kudos to the author for his engaging and entertaining writing style! Even the backstory parts were very easy to follow and not dry at all. (Ok I would have gotten along with a shorter narration regarding the nightly boat tour to rescue the statue, but hey.) I think I’d like to read another one of his books at some point!
Also I feel like I really need to figure out what makes a story scary to me. Maybe it might be about time to read a Western horror story for comparison
(Would somebody be interested in reading one in English or maybe even in the Japanese translation, to see whether the language is a factor?)
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I read up to half of week 2 this morning… I thought I would play some more catch up but I started reading something else during my lunch break 
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I have to say, this made me laugh!! 
I have too much on my Japanese TBR to commit to anything in English but reading another Japanese horror story sometime would be fun.
I’ve read a few books from Kadokawa horror now and I still feel like I haven’t found a Japanese horror novel that really terrifies me so I am having similar thoughts to you. 
The only horror story I’ve read in English is IT from Stephen King and parts of it did make me feel very scared, while reading and also afterwards when I walked around my place at night time, so I know it is possibly to get scared by a book. Not sure if I’d recommend IT though, because some things in it were really… questionable lol, but maybe another horror story from Stephen King could be an option if you want to get scared?
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In retrospect it made me laugh as well 
By now I start to believe that those just don’t exist. I recently mentioned to a language partner that I was reading リング and he said that this is probably the most scary Japanese horror book so I’m not sure I want to continue the “Japanese horror” track…
Yes, that’s the feeling I’m looking for. Like, something is out there and it’s threatening and it’s threatening me. 
A long time ago I read Stephen King day and night (If memory doesn’t fail me, I think I ended up with a collection of about 50 books or so? Including some Richard Bachman ones) so I think I’m good on that front But I found a recommendations list for good horror books, and some of the abstracts sounded quite nice, so maybe I will explore that list a bit more.
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I mean… there are 3 more volumes in this series.
I wonder if it’s also a cultural thing… I don’t believe in ghosts or supernatural stuff or oni or youkai or whatever else… maybe it’s scarier if those believes are part of your cultural heritage?
(I remember reading The Only Good Indians and I had the same issue with that book. It’s only horror if you have that belief system…)
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I’m reading too many things in Japanese right now, and combined with an extra busy week, I’m starting to get really stressed out that I won’t be able to keep up with anything. I’m very interested in an English horror book though, the kind that I can easily read in a day or two even when I’m dead tired. Over Halloween, preferably. I’m open to any recommendations.
It’s funny, but like everyone else here I have never felt a chill down my spine reading Japanese horror, although I sometimes came close with non-horror fiction. I’m very curious to see how differently Western writers treat horror (I think I’ve never actually read Western horror?).
The Ring is supposed to be a very scary movie, but so far (I’m only up to 3.7) the book hasn’t delivered on that front (it is interesting though). Movies can rely on visuals and jump scares though.
I don’t think that’s it. A lot of Western horror involves ghosts or the supernatural, and much of it manages to be actually scary. I don’t believe in any of these things either, but much like a character in this very book, if given the option to possibly be exposed to a curse, I’d refuse even if I don’t believe in curses. Just in case. It’s not hard to be scared of what you don’t know.
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Hmm the first volume of this horror LN series actually did make me feel a little scared if anyone is interested…
Edit: thinking back now vol 2 was also pretty scary!
I don’t want to give up my search for a really scary Japanese book yet though so I’ll update this thread one day if I ever read one 
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Personally, I am freaked out more by psychological stuff than any supernatural thing… maybe because it’s something I can imagine happening to myself?
I remember friends “chastising” me for sitting motionless through a horror movie. But it just wasn’t scary. I don’t even remember the movie, but everyone was squirming around me and hiding behind their hands and I had to stifle a yawn.
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I think that’s it. Psychological stuff, as you say. Both the supernatural or a realistic danger can be treated in such a way that you’ll be looking over your shoulder for a week, I’m sure. Equally, both can be treated as if they were a mystery to be solved, which just disarms the horror.
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Also since multiple people shared their thoughts up to 3.11 already, I will go ahead and add mine:
I enjoyed the backstory parts of Sadako and her family, even if the revelations and ideas that Ryuuji had about what things to investigate came off a bit like deus ex machina. The only have a week to investigate this crazy paranormal happening and he makes all the right guesses?! It doesn’t bother me that much though, since the story is still engaging and I enjoyed finding out where we things would lead next.
In the scene where Asakawa’s reporter friend visited the theater troupe to investigate, I picked up on some strange and unnecessary homophobia towards the troupe leader. I mean, all the interactions between men in this book kind of have a weird homophobic undertone too, I guess… or maybe it’s just me? Curious what others thought.
I also agree the stone statue part felt a bit too long, but the story quickly moved on. I wonder if that entire back story of the statue and the guy behind it will become relevant later?
The rape scene and reveal of Sadako being a hemaphrodite came out of nowhere! I read it, thought え？え？？？and had to go back and reread a few times to make sure that’s what it was because my brain was not prepared!!! I hope all of that will be relevant for the ending, because if not it will devalue the story for me.
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I know this is way way early but I’ll go ahead and post my thoughts about 3.12 through the ending while they’re still fresh. Hope nobody minds. 
Warning : Long
3.12 through the end
It felt like we were finally back to this being a horror story in this segment! But it was less about scary things happening and more about Asakawa just being scared himself. The time pressure and the entire well scene did make me feel stressed and tense while reading it, so I appreciated that thrill after all the slower investigations chapters. When Asakawa found the skull and it turned into Sadako’s head it was actually very creepy and unsettling, and I questioned if he was still sane or if she somehow managed to come alive again.
Chapter 4 was full of unexplained or open questions, that are probably foreshadowing for the next books in the series. Does Asakawa have powers now because he pulled Sadako out of the water? He did experience the citrus smell and see a “vision” about Ryuuji so I’m going to go with yes, but it felt very unsettling considering how Sadako and her mom ended up.
In Ryuuji’s death scene we finally found out what happened to the four at the beginning of the novel! I also felt like this part echoed back to the creepy mask scene at the beginning, because Ryuuji sees himself 100 years in the future and it is like a mask of sorts. I thought that connection was cool.
I’m not sure if it’s just me but Ryuuji thinking about all the clues for the real way to break the curse felt like a huge red herring! Like, she was to have children, she made a deal with the devil, he was trying to call his supposed girlfriend…my initial thought was is it some kind of virus that infects the cursed and if they have sex they will go on to have a demon baby? And then we had the dramatic (lol) reveal that he’s gay, so this seemed even more likely and I started worrying about Asakawa creating demon spawn with his wife…but then I remembered that two of the four in the beginning of the novel died in the rental car when they were about to have intercourse so that couldn’t be it.
At the end, the tape being the “baby” was a of a surprise to me, even if it was obvious in hindsight.
I was relieved that the small pox and hermaphroditism were relevant to the curse/virus and not just put there for shock value.
Ryuuji being gay felt unnecessary to me, and like an attempt to make the reader sympathetic towards his death after we just spent hundreds of pages believing he is an asshole and serial rapist. That also seems like a really weird thing to tell the person you are in love with to keep them from suspecting you may be * gasp * gay! Just one more thing to add to the weird toxic masculinity vibes penetrating this entire book.
Asakawa at the end choosing to save his family while simultaneously spreading the virus out into the world despite having the choice to let it die out…bruh. I have no idea what I’d do in his situation, though. I’m assuming the rest of the books in the series are set in the same world and show what happens with the “virus”, so there is more story to come…
All in all, I had a lot of fun reading this and think it was a really solid paranormal mystery. It wasn’t perfect, but it had a lot of entertainment value and I can see why it became such a well-known hit. It unfortunately showed its age a lot, not just with the technology or investigation methods, but with all the male characters being horrid. Side eye towards the author for that. However, I would try another one of his books or even the next in this series still. My final score is 3 out of 5 stars! 
I had a really great time participating in this book club so thanks for organizing, @omk3!! 
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I don’t know. Like, looking at when this was written, it could also be a commentary on “Look to what lengths ppl go to, just so no one figures out they are gay. They’d rather be though a serial rapist before they admit to being gay.” Which, I think, is really not so far from the truth.
Edit: Actually, after thinking a bit more on it, I don’t think he was gay, just physically incapable of sleeping with women. But either works, I guess. All in all, it’s just there as a plot device to show you how mentally not well the character is, imo.
Spoiler for the next book if you are not planning to read it, but I was curious: Wife and child still die.
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So that all general horror discussion doesn’t get lost in this thread, I made a very rudimentary horror book club thread. Please drop all possible future nominations or horror-related discussion there so that it’s easy to refer back to it later. 
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Nice!! Thank you!!! 
I think that’s a very positive way to look at it, but I am not sure the author was so interested in making such commentary considering everything else…I will need to try another book from him to see if it has very different vibes and changes how I view this one.
Oh shiiiiiit 
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Not really a spoiler but
I chuckled at the question if the video recorder was VHS or beta.
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Watching the (1998) movie right now and it’s quite a bit different to the book. For one: 浅川 is a single mother. 
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Haha I watched it yesterday actually very different!
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