Asian Literature
Yami-hara – an abbreviation of yami harassment. Yami harassment is a compound of yami (darkness) and harassment; unwelcome conduct toward a person stemming from darkness in one’s own mind or heart. Applies to any action that threatens or violates the dignity of another person, regardless of intent or awareness. Yami-Hara is a 2023 horror mystery
Fox Tales (Kitsune no Hanashi) is a Japanese compendium of short horror stories: “Fox Tales”, “The Dragon in the Fruit”, “Phantom”, and “The Water God” penned from the mind of Tomihiko Morimi and published in English by Yen Press. Morimi is most notable as the author of The Eccentric Family, Penguin Highway, The Night is
Paraphrasing the words of a certain author, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a book will be almost always better than its movie adaptation. Yes, almost always because, despite the clear propensity of the written source being much more interesting and developed, sometimes flukes happen and the movie is indeed superior. That is why
Have you heard about body modification? This practice involves the deliberate altering of the human anatomy or physical appearance. The extent of it varies on who you ask. However, in the mainstream world, these modifications usually consider implants, tattoos, piercings, and tongue splitting. The latter is precisely the catalyst for Hitomi Kanehara’s novel Snakes and
People tend to underestimate just how unsettling reading horror can be. Granted, there are no images or music, but sometimes the brain fills in the blanks all too well and some stories just won’t leave you after finishing them. If said stories come from Japan, you bet they will haunt you because they have a
Following WWII, there would be a shortage of decent alcohol and before long bootleg, shochu liquor, referred to as kasutori (effectively Japanese moonshine) began to circulate. Being made from whatever ingredients people could scrape together, sometimes even toxic chemicals, kasutori alcohol soon developed an extremely poor reputation in society. It was this term that would
Co-Author Lisa Lebel The term dissociation, coined by French psychologist Pierre Janet, is defined as an “involuntary escape from reality characterized by a disconnection between thoughts, identity, consciousness and memory.” It is now believed that any person, regardless of race, age, and gender can experience dissociation, but this was not always so. Janet argued that dissociation
“Capitalism is nothing before the forces of love and passion!” So declares an impossibly pregnant woman’s stalker in The Embodiment, the second story in this intricate puzzle box of a collection from Korean author Bora Chung. Cursed Bunny offers 10 stories of capitalist corruption, misogyny, and patriarchy: ghost stories, speculative fiction, and darkly comic fairy
When it comes to dark fantasy works made in Japan, one is not limited to only isekai light novels. Nothing against those, but it is sad to see how we are missing out so much since so many fully-fledged novels do not get the attention to be officially translated and released worldwide. From the New
As fall approaches, it’s the perfect time to slow down, grab a cup of tea or spiced coffee, a cozy blanket, and settle in with a good read. There aren’t as many expectations to be active, and as Spooky Season approaches, what better way is there to set the atmosphere than with an unsettling read?