Kwaidan

Kwaidan is a collection of japanese ghost stories that are slow moving, interesting, and very creepy. These stories are a lot different from american ghost stories mainly because they are not about the shock factor for example some crazy killer jumping out at you trying to cut your head off. Kwaidan is all about the environment it puts you in and these stories like to build up the suspense and truly scare you. These stories tend to go into detail about the back story of the characters and the environment that you are placed in. The intension of the slow moving aspect of these stories are to bring you into the story like you are experiencing what these characters are feeling and going through in order to really feel and be scared at the big moment at the end. Some of the stories are better than others but all together they are truly scary in the fact that they don't scare you for the shock factor they make you think and literally creep you out. I enjoyed Kwaidan mainly because it was completely different for american ghost stories and it was not based on the surprise aspect of american horror. For me the cultural aspects of these stories interest me alot more than american stories and are far more original and interesting in my opinion. The stories get into your head and describe things you would not think to be necessary but emirs you in the environment and story line and it makes kwaidan much more scary than i expected. I really enjoyed this book and am now a fan of J-horror.