A review by noellesmagicallibrary
Ring by Kōji Suzuki

dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No

4.0

OK, I've been struggling to rate/review this book. I'm still not confident on my 4.0 star rating but that's where I'm at right now.

So on the one hand, The Ring (the American movie) is one of my favorite horror films. Although the source material is quite different, that's factoring in to my enjoyment of the book a bit. 

This book was written in 1991. I need to remember that when thinking about some of the more uncomfortable aspects. For those who haven't read the book this will be a bit of a spoiler --
Sadako is an intersex individual who associates with a female identity. My initial thought was "this is totally unnecessary and it feels gross making the "bad guy" intersex. But then the more I thought about, I accepted that choice. Tis aspect of Sadako was another way in which she felt different from society and her biologic identity was never used as the reason why she created the curse. Finally, Asakawa and Ryuji continue to use she/her pronouns when discussing Sadako. I'm a cis-het female, so what I say here doesn't hold much weight, but in the end I didn't find this book to be transphobic. 
 

I really hated Ryuji's character. He's a major player in this story so I can't imagine it was the author's intention to make him so unlikeable.
Ryuji is a self-proclaimed rapist. He bragged about this to Asakawa. And then knowing this, Asakawa continued to be his close friend. Both of these men suck. The doctor who pushed Sadako into the well sucks too. I don't care if he was fever-crazy with smallpox. He still raped Sadako and then pushed her into the well when he discovered her secret.


So yeah, I have some negative critics about this book but I still liked the story as a whole and I will probably continue to the read the series. 

The ending is what really sold it for me. I read the last few pages and was low-key amazed at the complexity of the different meanings "the ring" holds. 

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