Why read Ring?

Book cover of Ring

Book description

Stunning Japanese thriller with a chilling supernatural twist. The novel that inspired the cult Japanese movie and the Hollywood blockbuster of the same name.

Asakawa is a hardworking journalist who has climbed his way up from local-news beat reporter to writer for his newspaper's weekly magazine. A chronic workaholic, he…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Ring as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Arthur Shattuck O’Keefe

Author

I found this novel conceptually fascinating, as it depicts the use of a common (at the time) entertainment technology—a videotape—as a means of attack by a terrifying supernatural menace.

I also enjoy cross-genre fiction, and while this is primarily a horror novel, it is also a mystery in which the protagonist must race against time for a solution to a deadly predicament.

From Arthur's list on fusion of technology and the supernatural.

Andi Brooks

Author

I first saw the film adaptation of Ring at a film festival in 1998 and was blown away by it. The English translation of the novel wasn’t published in the UK until 2004, but it was worth the wait. It’s difficult now that Sadako has become such a cliched and parodied character to appreciate the impact the character had. The book is much bigger in scope than the film, also providing the inspiration for the film Rasen. I slightly regretted not having read it before seeing the film so that I could have felt the impact Japanese readers must…

From Andi's list on Japanese yurei and yokai.