10-1-2026 Latham's Last Words: Ring by Koji Suzuki
Welcome to Latham's Last Words, where I give you my last words on vintage horror books I've read. Let's look at Ring from 1991!
Originally published in Japan as Ringu. I am so glad I decided to read this!
Even more creepy and terrifying than the movie. Of course the movie is very different because it's the Americanized version. If I had read the book before I had seen the movie, I wouldn't have watched The Ring, I would have searched for Ringu and watched that instead.
I'm conflicted over the main character, Asakawa. He was kind of a jerk. He was an awful father and husband. He was not that nice to his best friend Ryuji. I hoped he wouldn't survive. Honestly, I really couldn't stand most of the characters. They were just not good people. The only two I can say that wasn't true of was Yoko, Asakawa's baby daughter, and the cab driver. Everyone else was just, I don't know, just terrible characters. Not in the way they were written, they were written very well and that's why I didn't like them.
One thing that fascinated me was how the author compared the tape to a virus. A virus' purpose is to reproduce, and that's exactly what the curse of the video tape is.
The investigation into Sadako Yamamura's life was a thrilling mystery steeped in the beautiful landscape of rural Japan and Tokyo. I enjoyed the stories that were told about Sadako and her mother. With the exception of Dr. Nagao of course.
If you've seen the movie you're doing yourself a disservice by not reading Ring! I am off to grab the second book...
Get the series here:
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