#ghost hunt novel

[ahsokamaigranger]

They arrived!! They re-released the light novels and they look gorgeous! 😍

[witchhuntress]

Still can’t get over the Pet Coin scene because while I was translating that scene, I had to take breaks because NARU WAS MAKING ME GIGGLE & BLUSH SO MUCH AT HOW MUCH HE WAS FLIRTING LIKE THAT SCENE WAS CHRISTMAS TO ME HE WAS SMILING SMILING CRACKING JOKES TO MAI SAYING SOMETHING LIKE:

“This child can teleport too” ABOUT A 500 yen coin

AND ITS JUST AAAAAH MY OTP

The best thing about it is just how it reinforces that Mai brings out the inner child in Naru so often & I JUST LOVE THAT. How he can be so comfortable with her to show that side of him. How he can be so goofy & have fun too. I just love their relationship so much😭

[capriciouslyterminal]

Unfortunately for the cool romance options of Scarlet Hollow I, too, am burdened by familial guilt + love for my odd cousin and will pay any price to free her from her burdens.

[nillabean]

I just think its hilarious how in the author's note of Akumu no Sumu Ie, Ono Fuyumi was like "can y'all calm down? yes, Twelve Kingdoms is ongoing. there will be more."

[trout-scout]

Helena has a cup of tea :)

[k1ngrav]

ghost hunter gang strikes again

[the-lnly-bones]

HI AGAIN PEOPLE OF TUMBLR I BRING TO YOU A STORY OF MINE!!! I started working on it around 2 maybe 3 years ago and I decided to release the first chapter to the public on Ao3.

The premise is as follows:

(1982) Follow along with Ethan Mulberry as he moves into a small mysterious town named Willow Creek. He becomes close friends with 2 misfits within his school who seem to be the only ones willing to take him under their wing. They learn they all have the want to become ghost hunters, they soon decide to band together and create the Willow Creek ghost hunting club. On their ghost hunting adventure they accidentally uncover a dark secret, what might it be?

LINK:

[aim4thebest]

→ AIM FOR THE BEST — NEW PAGE

start from beginning || current page

AIM for the Best is paranormal fiction that follows young Michael Josephine in his adventures to prove the existence of the paranormal, a slow-going business he has named "Anomaly Investigation and More". A fateful series of events will lead him to find out more about the oddities of his hometown than he had ever seen before.

You can also find AIM for the Best on Tapas

[kikifan21]

It took a year (and more cash than I would like to admit) but I finally have the entire Ghost Hunt series! From the light novels (only in japanese since they were never officially translated), to the dvds, to both the original and English translation of the manga! They get a whole shelf.

[creatrackers]

Creatrackers: novella series

Genre + Tropes: teen/ya fiction, mystery and supernatural aspects (paranormal creatures/magic/monsters), lighthearted adventure, found family, friendly neighbourhood vampire, lgbtq+ characters

Stage: first draft of book one is complete at 23077 words, second novella planned and started

Synopsis: Holly, Adrian, Jo, and Kelvin are the original Creatrackers; a self-proclaimed research team who try to find evidence of supernatural beings and any other creature they hear about. As the number of crew members and their fans grow, and as the original four start to get older, their fun little hunts start to become far too real. Watch these characters evolve as they become adults who start to unravel what truly is out there in the world. In the first book two new members join, including Willa. A seemingly normal 21 year old who has actually been travelling the earth for the past few hundred years, trying to keep her vampire identity a secret. She has no thirst for human blood, only human cultures and the way of life for other creatures like herself. She becomes interested in the group while living in a small English town, and soon joins them on a hunt. Then another, and another... What could possibly go wrong for a vampire who befriends a bunch of monster hunters? 

Willa, Holly, Adrian, Jo, Kelvin, Kenny, Mickey, Cleo character introductions

Want to read the first draft? Click here! Reading and commenting is 100% anonymous and I would love any and all feedback <3

[lifesarchive]

HIDDEN PICTURES by JASON REKULAK (REVIEW)

quickly: a recovering addict gets a new job babysitting a haunted five-year-old. (a young woman trying to live a sober life / a child with a questionable existence / homes that come with guest houses and hidden gardens / disturbed suburbian parents / physical and spiritual battles with sobriety / weird and quirky superstitious neighbors / wickedly beautiful artwork from the spiritual realm / gardeners who make you want to break rules)

not too shabby. not too complex either, honestly. the tone sits firmly in the mystery genre, for me. the ghosts in this story don’t scare or thrill me, but they don’t bore me either. stephen king is quoted on the back cover as saying “the language is straightforward”, and that is absolutely correct. not much poetry or soul to the writing, but it was a full story! it was compelling enough to pull me to the end, but not my favorite ending. it has the kind of ending that you find in most “B” level thrillers (which is no shade, i love b-movies). the ending is a resolution, but it doesn’t take my breath away.

★ ★ ★

more thoughts: SPOILERS!

Some personal context… after a reading sprint that began sometime in March, I spent the past few weeks with THE BOOKS OF JACOB. It is a tome of a book, 900+ pages, and the most time I’ve spent with a book in years. It was an interesting and detailed world to be in, but I couldn’t wait to get back to the thriller/mystery/horror genre, and HIDDEN PICTURES is my return. I read it in less than 24 hours. 

The artwork really pulled me in, and wasn’t as gimmicky as it could have been.

The story opens up with Mallory reflecting on a paid health study she participated in which involved her being blindfolded in front of a group of men. She was instructed to raise her hand if she felt eyes on her, testing her ability to sense the male gaze. She was insanely accurate, telling the instructor that she felt a buzz in her mind whenever she sensed looks. The instructor offers to do more research with her, but Mallory trades her phone for Oxy and the lady is unable to reach her.

After this, we are immediately thrown into the present where Mallory is now sober and has been for 18 months. She is preparing to interview for a babysitting job with The Maxwells, youngish parents living in an affluent suburban enclave. After an awkward and stressful interview that involves her pulling out a piss test to prove her commitment to sobriety, she is hired. Caroline, the Mom, says they believe in giving people second chances, but you learn fast that you can’t believe anything they say.

Soon enough, five-year-old Teddy has formed a close bond with Mallory. The creepy pictures he draws always seem to show an entity hanging around him that no one else can see (but Mallory can sense). Teddy’s mom brushes the pictures off and tells Mallory not to encourage him. After the quirky next-door neighbor tells Mallory about the ghost stories surrounding the guest house where she lives, she eventually convinces herself that her guest house is haunted and the ghost is speaking through Teddy. Half right.

Of course, her pursuit of this tightens the underwear of The Maxwells, and so she begins to investigate under the radar. She enlists the help of The Maxwells’ gardener whom she’s told that she was a local student (and not a recovering person being given a second chance to get her life on track). Fast forwarding past the awkwardness of living with a married couple whose marriage is a thin facade of happiness, the “hauntings”, the creepy photos with the Samura-like girl in them, Mallory trying to confront the super rationalist parents about the supernatural realm, and Mallory trying to make contact to the ghost by ouija board… eventually the ghost jumps into Mallory’s body while she is napping and causes her to draw all over the walls of The Maxwell’s pristine white walls.

The rest is a loud and gory climax with a small scoop of falling action on the side. The parents fire Mallory because of the “artwork”, attributing it to some sort of mental break caused by recovery, and they give her 48 hours to get out. Alex, the gardener, is told about her true background as a recovering addict (but still wants to help her). She miraculously solves the mystery at the last minute and proceeds to do the dumbest thing that characters can do in a mystery/thriller… confront the bad guys with no backup, collateral, witness, or weaponry. The Maxwells reveal their devilry… they are kidnappers who stole a little girl and made her disguise herself as a boy. The child’s real mother, whom Caroline Maxwell killed, is who has been haunting little Teddy.

Caroline Maxwell plans to kill Mallory by drug overdose, but she’s saved by Ted Maxwell who secretly hates his kidnapping murderess wife (but has done nothing but enable her). A delusional Ted is killed by Caroline, in the midst of some pipe dream of him running away to some foreign land with Mallory. A chase ensues, with Mallory running into the woods with Teddy and hiding in a tree. Just as Caroline has hunted them down, the spirit of Teddy’s dead mother possesses her, getting Teddy to kill Caroline with an arrowhead conveniently found earlier in the story. 

That’s how most elements of this story felt. Convenient. The end, while loud and gory, seemed staged. Like I could see the beginning from the end. All the little easter eggs stood out like they had billboards above them pointing out “CLUE HERE”, or “FORESHADOWING”. Yet, I still enjoyed it. Like I would an R.L. Fear Street book. Three stars, but a high three. 

ADDENDUM: seeing from other reviewers how this author's work includes, deceptively, various ideologies used to other and vilify trans children and their parents (which makes me think back to that errant Harry Potter reference). Unfortunate and gross. Knowing makes the work even cheaper than it already was. Keeping my same rating, which was written and determined before I found out. I will definitely be more critical in the future.

[foxmulderautism]

having elaborate vivid dreams a nightmare sometimes i had a dream where I went back in time throughout all the mercury prize winners but my brain obviously does not know all the winners of the mercury prize so it just invented an entire album concept + design that looked SO COOL but it literally doesn’t exist!! i made it up!!! I can still see it in my brain but i know that’s the only place i can see it

[witchhuntress]

You know, what’s really unique about Akumu no sumu ie isn’t just the fact that it’s written in 3rd POV and that it delves more into technical things in paranormal investigations. It’s not just the fact that we get to see Naru’s thoughts at some point finally.

For me, it’s the fact that we see Mai in others’ eyes, sometimes quiet, sometimes staring blankly. The earlier novels, we get into her head & she’s both talkative in her mind & outside, but we don’t often see how she is when she’s just “existing.”

Like that scene where Naru was telling Bou-san to do a placebo. She was at some point just standing by the hall and then while everyone was being chaotic, she just butts into the conversation as though she was following it from the start but at the same time you’ll never know because she was looking blankly lmao

I also like how Hirota softened up to Mai & you can just surmise how that’s a parallel to probably what happened to everyone in the SPR gang. There’s something really nice about how he thought that because Mai is usually cheerful, it’s sort of heartbreaking to see her cry. Like THAT right there I believe mirrors how everyone feels about Mai at many points throughout the series.

[nillabean]

the way I want things to play out

1.) JJk readers find out about ono fuyumi thru the jjk manga and decide to take a look at the author akutami likes

2.) ppl find out about ghost hunt

3.) ghost hunt gets more attention in japan and overseas

4.) REBOOT?????PLEASE?????

[lancabbage]

I agree, it is a rather harrowing scene. I wasn't actually prepared for it, I understand JC was traumatised and that can certainly mess you up, but it still gave me pause when I actually read it. After all, WWX was only trying to help and I was surprised how violent he became towards someone who was already injured.

But, I'm not entirely sure it's technically the first red flag we see? There are many scenes at the start of the novel that show some of JCs red flags. Like openly admitting (to himself) that he didn't care if "MXY" wasn't WWX back from the dead, he was still going to drag him back to LP and torture him regardless - possibly even kill, which is something he even encourages JL to do as well. We can instantly see he has a rather toxic obsession with finding and personally killing WWX, some thirteen years later than his demise. We also see JC wanting to hit JL and actually do so in another scene(s) - highlighting his abusive streak long before we see him strangling WWX.

Of course, if you are referring more chronologically in terms of the scenes showing WWXs past, I would say we see a red flag during the CR arc and the archery competition the following year, prior to the above example of him strangling WWX. JC actively tries to stomp out any budding friendships WWX ever attempts to make if they aren't within his own social circle or what he wants. I would say he even goes as far as attempting to gaslight WWX into thinking LWJ does not like him. Partly out of feeling inferior to LWJ and because JC is beginning to experience the niggling prickles of his later homophobia - which MXTX has confirmed was the case when he saw the way teenxian acted around LWJ. Yes, people argue that the way LWJ acted during the CR made it look as though he hated WWX, so JCs actions were somehow justified? But he obviously doesn't think LWJ hates WWX entirely, as he even gets a "foreboding feeling" all because LWJ came to check on WWX, concerned he was crying whilst kneeling in punishment for hitting JZX - so he doesn't fully believe that himself. Then he turns that act of friendliness and obvious kindness into "he must really hate you, you should leave" in the hopes of squashing any further development in whatever the pair had budding between them. He tries to reaffirm that "he hates you" throughout WWX's first life as well - even though WWX refuses to believe it. Personally, I'd say those are some pretty toxic traits and major red flags as well.

You know, now that I look back on it, that scene where JC and WWX are running away after the massacre of the Jiang Clan, and then JC strangles WWX in his grief and rage, was one of the first scenes in which we were shown that this guy is...a pretty major red flag.

That's definitely a scene that, reading after knowing everything that happened, made me go yikes, this guy needs help.

Now before anyone comes at me, yes I know perfectly well that he was grief stricken and not in his right mind, and that he and the readers (which is one of the reasons I suppose why the fandom just skips over this) were still reeling from the shock and horror of what had just happened, but still. It's interesting, and a revealing scene (because people are more likely to show their true nature when experiencing intense emotions), and he chose to use WWX as an outlet and strangle him, irrationally blaming him for the tragedy, even though he knew it wasn't really his fault. And I had looked over this because it could be excused as a one time thing, before reading the rest of the novel and realising that he never really grows out of this behaviour. In fact, he grows into it, wields it as a weapon and makes his anger and resentment such an integral part of himself that others define him by it, and stay away from him for exactly this reason.

Just a small scene, but a very good way of showing that when JC experiences any negative emotions, his first instinct is to lash out at others about it, not caring how it hurts them. And this is just one of many other scenes showing the same.

[k1ngrav]

watcher designs bc i needed to do their lineup and they're silly!

(close ups bc quality is BAD)