Grotesque

From the author of "Out" comes "Grotesque", a tale of twisted thoughts, depicting the faces of society most of us are not aware of. This is yet another title sporting a face on its cover. If the face doesn't interest you, I don't know what will (pun intended, did you get the reference?).

Without going into spoilers, Grotesque is about the lives of several girls from an unnamed elite girl's school (known as Q High School in the story). It is told initially from several viewpoints, changing from time to time through "journals" that the protagonist picks up. Bah, who am I to write a review. The following extract is taken from Wikipedia.

The book is written in the first person for all parts and follows a woman whose sister and old school friend have been murdered. The narrator of Grotesque is unnamed and forever lives under the shadow of her younger-by-a-year sister Yuriko, who is unimaginably beautiful and the center of all attention.

This is made worse by the social gaps and divisions between people of different classes, such as the "normal" individuals who work hard to have a secure job and the "not-so-normal" individuals who find power and satisfaction in prostitution - a rather interesting point of view - as prostitution is normally frowned upon as a profession that should be evaded by all means possible.

Anyway, the story begins with the revelation that the two prostitutes were murdered, and the protagonist begins her story, forming subtle, but profound connections between the two murders using diaries left in her possession by the two victims respectively. This includes an explanation of the common element that drove two very different women to walk the same road. If this was to be given a blunt analogy, it would be like how a good kid and a bad kid ended up choosing to suffer the same way (I did say it was a blunt analogy).

Again, Natsuo highlights the thoughts and notions of each character. These emotions are once again, the theme of her story, how thoughts and feelings lead to action, and how those actions again give rise to other emotions. One such emotion is that of feeling lost, but at the same time, driven and motivated. As with Out, Grotesque makes one wonder what people can actually resort to when desperately caught in different situations. Of course, the criminal incidents in her stories are also fascinating food for thought, so much so that one may have the notion to actually attempt them (I may be speaking for myself here *shrugs*).

I actually preferred "Out" over "Grotesque", owing to my inclination towards dismemberment cases and characters with extreme grit. It doesn't change the fact that what the characters in her books have emotional capacities that make mine look like a teaspoon when compared. On a side note, I found out that "Out" was adapted into a movie, which I have been searching for, to no avail. Thus ends my futile attempt to lengthen what I cannot write, to revive what I cannot save.

Comments are welcome.

P.S. I am in need of language classes. If this is a review, then Enid Blyton is the Holy Bible