Shiver

Shiver is one of those books I'd recommend to people who don't like manga, graphic novels, or comic books. I wouldn't tell them because I would want them to pick the book up, skim through the pages, and see the brilliance for themselves.

Junji Ito's stories are so unique and disturbing. They crawl under your skin and latch onto your muscles. A few burrow through the sinew and bury themselves in your bones.

"Hanging Balloons" is my favorite of the collection. There's nothing like it. And there is no one who has such a deft, while still overt hand at… show more.

Junji Ito is an undisputed master of Japanese horror manga.

This collection is the perfect introduction to Ito’s creepy, gruesome, and yet somehow always grin-inducing artistic and narrative style.

I had previously read several of Ito’s longer graphic novels, including Black Paradox, Uzumaki, Gyo, and Remina. All of these come highly recommended. But Shiver has convinced me that Ito is at his very best in the graphic short story format.

Like Poe, like Lovecraft, Ito shows us how horror lurks just the other side of the ordinary, spreads fast once it trickles in, and destroys us before… show more.