Helpful Score: 4
Grey, an Englishwoman fighting her own devils, comes to Japan looking for a piece of rare film footage shot during the 1937 Nanking Massacre and ends up working in a hostess bar. Shi Chongmimg a reclusive scholar who is one of the massacre's few survivors haunted by atrocities he witnessed. The story alternates between the interaction of these characters in present day Japan and Chongming's wrenching account of 1930's Nanking. The Devil of Nanking is a pitch-perfect spine-chilling tour de force, dazzling and creepy and very difficult to put down.
Helpful Score: 3
Intriguing, disturbing and different. I was swept up in the story of this lonely girl and her mission in Japan, which kept me going until the last page.
Helpful Score: 3
Oh boy ... this is a heck of a read. Amazing sense of menace throughout ... eerie, terrifying, beautifully written.
Helpful Score: 2
A little hard to get into to start with, but well worth sticking with.
This is a book that will STAY WITH YOU FOREVER. Why? I can't say without spoiling the plot. A woman investigates the existence of a war tape. Not for the squeamish.
Well, this was not as disturbing as I expected. I mean, it had moments, but it was, overall, a little slow moving. It did have some surprising twists, but it felt sort of unfinished and there wasn't a very satisfying explanation as to why the narrator was the way she was, or what happened to Justin. Still, I do like Mo Hayder's writing. This was more along the lines of _Pig Island_, but not quite as good. Overall, though, I really do like Mo Hayder.
Very engrossing novel from Hayder that weaves two storylines together: the first is the story of Grey, a disturbed young woman from England who travels to Tokyo to try to find out some truths about the Nanking massacre of 1937; and second the story of Shi Chongming, who recounts in painful detail through his diary his memories of the Japanese invasion of Nanking and the attempts that he and his wife Shujing make to to stay alive.
Grey had read in a book with an orange cover some harrowing accounts of Nanking when she was very young but no one believes her when she tells what she had read and they think that she has mental issues and winds up in an institution. She had taken some drastic steps because of what she had read and then when released seeks out Shi Chongming in Tokyo to try to validate what she had earlier read. Chongming supposedly has a film of some of the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Nanking and Grey must see the film to confirm that she is not delusional. Upon arriving in Japan, Grey has no money and ends up working in a hostess club frequented by the Japanese mafia or yakuza, the head of which, Fuyuki is apparently using some substance to maintain his health and keep alive. Grey makes a deal with Chongming to find out what this substance is in return for him letting her see the film of Nanking. Grey is determined to answer her question to herself: "is ignorance the same as insanity or evil?" Overall a very moving and thrilling novel that I would highly recommend.
Hayder used as one of her sources The Rape of Nanking by the late Iris Chang, the first serious attempt to alert a wider public to the massacre. I have a copy of this book and will be reading it sometime in the near future.
Grey had read in a book with an orange cover some harrowing accounts of Nanking when she was very young but no one believes her when she tells what she had read and they think that she has mental issues and winds up in an institution. She had taken some drastic steps because of what she had read and then when released seeks out Shi Chongming in Tokyo to try to validate what she had earlier read. Chongming supposedly has a film of some of the atrocities committed by the Japanese in Nanking and Grey must see the film to confirm that she is not delusional. Upon arriving in Japan, Grey has no money and ends up working in a hostess club frequented by the Japanese mafia or yakuza, the head of which, Fuyuki is apparently using some substance to maintain his health and keep alive. Grey makes a deal with Chongming to find out what this substance is in return for him letting her see the film of Nanking. Grey is determined to answer her question to herself: "is ignorance the same as insanity or evil?" Overall a very moving and thrilling novel that I would highly recommend.
Hayder used as one of her sources The Rape of Nanking by the late Iris Chang, the first serious attempt to alert a wider public to the massacre. I have a copy of this book and will be reading it sometime in the near future.
Read a couple pages and it seemed like a typical oriantal type plot.I got it and some others from a sale the library was haveing!
