I’m a bit conflicted on this book. I ended up giving it a 4 because is I still found it enjoyable.. but there were parts of the story that I found extremely unnecessary. 

Why did the author find it necessary to have the best friend Ryuji admit to raping a girl? And why did Asakawa not do anything about that admission? Not only that but then there’s a second rape at the end with Sadako who turns out to be intersex and is then murdered.

This is one of the rare occurrences where I did enjoy the film more than the book. I missed the possession aspect that the film gave to this story.