I was excited to read Uketsu’s Strange Houses as soon as possible without distracting too much from my own work. I enjoy looking at floorplans and using them to imagine life there… that’s the only part of looking for houses that I like. Anyway, Strange Houses really went off the rails compared to Strange Pictures, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though it was shocking. With these books, the mysteries begin to unravel basically as soon as they’re introduced, so if you want to play your part in figuring out the mystery you have to put the book down and ponder the images. A character’s Farfetch’d guess will always be nearly spot on because there aren’t enough pages in the book to waste time being wrong!
There are a couple more books he’s got that are either in progress or not translated yet and I would read more of them. My guess is that he will improve with practice just like the rest of us. “Delightful” is the word that comes to mind for my reading experiences; I really enjoy scenes of characters actively solving mysteries even more than I do Holmes or Poirot charging up their laser for a big reveal. Yes, these books are very breezy and pulpy but I think my whole journey with them from spotting them on the bookstore table till now is exactly what the author was hoping for. My time with Uketsu has driven me toward other Asian literature to steer me away from my own writing; I’m spending my bedtimes reading an extremely long wuxia novel!