(This review may contain spoilers).
I do really like manga books… and I love horror, especially horror that deals with ghosts. So when I saw this book for sale in one of the second-hand bookshops I frequent… I talked myself into buying it.
I felt it was interesting to see the newspaper articles and the telegram at the beginning of each chapter. Each of those did a good job of setting the scene, even though they didn’t always seem to be related to the chapter they preceded.
I would have liked to see more details about Dinah. I was confused about exactly why she was seeing ghosts outside of the crypt… and also exactly why she was the one who had to help the restless spirits move on and what the whole thing with her signature meant.
I thought it was good to see the variety of ghosts and what each of their realities was like. It was interesting that Dinah and Vincent had different roles they almost ‘stepped into’ in the ghosts’ realities. I couldn’t help smiling at Vincent’s response to one of the things said in the reality of the feral child.
I did quite like the artwork in this book and I found Dinah a rather sympathetic character, even though her aunt really wasn’t very sympathetic at all. There were a few instances towards the end of the book that did make me smile a bit.
The spider with the human face made me cringe and I would have liked to know if that was what it really looked like, or if I was seeing that through Dinah’s eyes.
There were a lot of creepy moments in the ghosts’ realities, too, and I felt that some of the moving on wasn’t as complicated as it could have been. The ending of volume one probably hinted at exactly why that was, but it was interesting to see the different realities… and very sad (not to mention creepy) when it involved children.
I liked seeing the different artwork of the two main characters at the end of the book. It would have been nice to see more of their history and how they originally became friends, but I liked seeing their friendship and I am curious to see what the rest of this series holds.