Kōji Suzuki

Glynne Walley

Learning about a series of mysterious deaths caused by an unknown virus, Ando, a physician, faces the choice of finding a cure for the virus or using the information he has gathered to help bring his drowned son back from the dead.

Spiral

Geoffrey Froggatt

I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book, but I wanted to experience the sequel book in the book series/continuity as I wasn’t a huge Ringu 2 and The Ring Two fan, and I heard that the second book was very different from the sequel films’ storylines. Dr. Ando, who has yet to recover from his son's death at sea, conducts an autopsy on an old friend who has died under unusual circumstances. The corpse, that of cynical philosophy professor Ryuji Takayama, has something to tell him. With the first book, I couldn’t help but compare the story with the Japanese film adaptation and the American film remake, but the second book is completely different from the sequel films so I didn’t have that comparison problem here. I liked Ando as a character. His backstory concerning his son, his occupation as a coroner, and his connection to Ryuji were all very interesting characterization choices. The start of this book showed promise, but unfortunately I didn’t like the further plot developments and explanations regarding the cursed videotape, Sadako and the lore behind the curse itself. I liked the first book when it leaned into the ambiguously supernatural elements. I disliked how Spiral leaned into both a scientific and a supernatural explanation. The scientific explanation took away a lot of the magic and mystery of the supernatural angle of the curse and in my opinion, this entire book series works best when it leans into the supernatural aspects. The passages exploring DNA slowed down the story for me, and even with my limited knowledge of DNA, I could tell that the scientific passages were not realistic or correct. I still believe that Ringu and The Ring are the best incarnations of this story and storyline. These books and this story have so much potential to take the plot in cool and interesting directions while exploring unique ideas and concepts. I would have loved seeing the cursed video tape be returned to a video rental store, or shown on the news, or uploaded onto the internet, and seeing the ramifications of that and the evolution of the curse itself in those situations. I find myself dreaming of possible storylines more than I am being invested in the actual story. I liked some ideas explored in the ending, but it went completely off the rails in my opinion and strayed too far from the initial concept that made the story great. Despite being disappointed with the first two books in this series, I do still plan on reading the rest of the books eventually.

Spiral

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