So I love Koji Suzuki's work and have almost read all of his works and just finished BIRTHDAY which is alot like DARK WATER in the sense it is a collection of smaller stories in one book only all the small stories in this one relate to the RING story.
(1999)
We have three stories in BIRTHDAY which go into more detail of things that happened in the other books.
COFFIN IN THE SKY
Is about what happens to Mai Takano the student of Ruji in the first book, what happens when she vanishes and can't be found. It's a grim and sad little story about the pretty young woman's fate but a gripping story, the shortest of all three I believe but very much my favourite.
LEMON HEART
Is about Sadako's adult life when she was part of the theatre group soaring which is touched lightly upon in RING and is the story line of the movie RING 0. It goes into alot of detail about the woman who know as Sadako, how she lived in her later life and more about her. Another good story and it gives us more feelings towards her then the movies give us.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Goes into detail about the wife of the main man in LOOP and about her and the child in her belly. I think this was the longest story but also not the best one. It's not creepy in anyway it's just a nice soft story that yet again fills in the blanks not mentioned. It is also the final conclusion of the RING universe story.
I think you need to have read the other three to enjoy this book, it's very much not a stand alone book like you could say for SPRIAL or RING. It's good at tying up loose ends not mentioned in the other three novels it's also not clustered or dragging like some parts of the other novels it's more to the point and gets to heart of it better as sometimes I find with Koji's work it can be a little waffling on.
So out of the three COFFIN IN THE SKY was my most liked one and the least interesting was HAPPY BIRTHDAY but not one of them was bad. It's a good book and again well written and gripping enough to keep you reading but casual enough you don't feel it's a task.
Plot: 4/5
Scares: 0/5
Gore: 1.5/5
Over all enjoyment: 4/5
XJigsawX
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