ONLINE EVENT - The Japan Society Book Club: Strange Pictures by Uketsu
Date
Monday 12 January 2026
Time
7.00pm (GMT)
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Booking Details
Online meeting on Zoom
Please register for the meeting in advance from the link below. After registering, you will receive a automated confirmation email with meeting access details (please check your spam folder if you don't receive any emails).
Free for members of The Japan Society
Book available from Bookshop.org, Amazon, and Waterstones (translated by Jim Rion)
Japanese version available here
Please help us to keep this event free and open to all!The Japan Society is a charity and its activities are made possible thanks to the support of its members. If you are planning to attend this event and are not a member (as an individual or through your employer), please consider becoming a member or making a donation if you can - the recommended donation is £5. Thank you!   |
Strange Pictures is a suspense-horror novel built around nine eerie drawings that serve as cryptic clues. It opens with a psychologist analysing a haunting child’s sketch, setting a framework for the book’s visual‑psychological puzzles. Successive chapters follow different protagonists as their stories weave together across decades. The drawn images gradually reveal interconnected truths of trauma, violence, and hidden guilt. The result is an immersive mystery where readers and characters decode unsettling secrets through art.
Uketsu is a Japanese author and YouTube personality known for wearing a white papier‑mâché mask and posting eerie short‑story videos since 2018. Initially gaining attention with a visual floor‑plan mystery, they debuted in print with Strange Houses, followed by Strange Pictures in 2022, a suspense‑horror novel built around chilling illustrations that readers must unravel themselves. The book became a bestseller in Japan and, in its English translation by Jim Rion, reached a global audience, selling over 1.5 million copies and being translated into more than 30 languages.
If you have any questions, please call The Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.