Ring by Kōji Suzuki and Robert B. Rohmer and Glynne Walley

Somewhere in a future time and place, people have no names. Lovers find this inconvenient, so they begin naming each other. The two main characters settle on the following names: the woman is the Nakajima Miyuki Song Book, and the man, who teaches at a poetry school, is Sayonara, Gangsters. Their cat, who prefers milk-and-vodka and is a great fan of Aristotle, is named Henry IV. The first of the book's three parts tells the story of Sayonara, Gangsters's former lover, "the woman," and their daughter, named both Caraway and Green Pinky. In the second section, Sayonara, Gangster explains his work at the poetry school. The last section is an action-filled account of three gangsters who come to be taught poetry and who are killed after a gunfight with a detachment of armored police.

I've been waiting get my hands on an English translation this novel, since it's the one that launched Japan's Ringu and pretty much the entire 2005 onslaught of Asian horror movies. As expected, the book and movie is quite different, but this book is different enough for me not to know what to make if it yet.

In the movie, a female reporter investigates the mysterious death of her niece, which leads her to a killer video tape and seven days to unravel the mystery, which cumulated in this long-haired spook climbing out of the TV.

In the book, the protagonist is a man names Asakawa, also a reporter, who noticed that three other teens died around the same time as his niece. He tracks down the tape and watches it. There was nothing coherent in it, just some abstract images, and a message:

“Those who have viewed these images are fated to die at this exact hour one week from now. If you do not wish to die, you must follow this instructions exactly...“

The tape then cuts to static.

The race throughout the book is to find out what it said, which sends him on a long chase over Japan trying to discover its origins.

Joining in the hunt is his professor friend Ryuji Takayama, who provokes even less sympathy by being both male and a sexual predator. Ryuji thinks it's a virus, and he's not too far from wrong.

What they both find is references to the beautiful Sadako Yamamura, daughter of a famous Japanese psychic who became a laughing stock. Sadako had something to do with creation the tape and could possibly holds the answer to their salvation.

The structure of the story is similar to the movie but the plot is different. It's like two people writing their own take using the same characters and back story. One might say that the movie version was vastly over-dramatised for cinema audiences. That classic moment when Sadako climbs out of the TV is not even part of the original novel.

Ring the novel reads more like paranormal detective fiction rather than a horror story. It's creepy, but neither horrific nor nightmare-inducing. If you're looking to relive the movie, you'll be disappointed, but if you want to see where it came from, this is for you.

Ring is the first of the hugely successful thriller trilogy. The other two books are Spiral and Loop, both also filmed as cult movies.

(2006)

*3.5

I was disappointed in this book. While I think all the puzzle pieces are present for a really entertaining and spooky read, they didn't quite come together for me. I found the pacing was quite slow for a majority of the novel, and while the head hopping was tolerable, the actual main POV character was unlikeable to the extreme.
A lot of elements of this novel are age-soured, so while I didn't like the main character or certain portrayals of people in the book, I understand that there they were acceptable for the time this book was created.
I came to this book after watching the movie adaptation(s), so that may also skew my opinions. I greatly preferred the movie, both in plot, pacing, and choice of protagonist and backstory.
Overall, I won't be continuing with the trilogy, but I'm glad it exists because it inspired my favourite movie(s) of all time!