Yuuma Kurose can see things he shouldn’t.

Since childhood, Yuuma has been haunted by the same recurring nightmare. After moving to his granny’s hometown, he finds himself returning to the very place from his dreams—a place that holds memories he can no longer recall.

There, he encounters Kaito, a young man surrounded by terrifying spirits. For reasons Yuuma can’t understand, Kaito looks at him with unwavering devotion and vows, “I swear I’ll protect you… No matter what.”

But when the spirits suddenly abandon Kaito and descend upon Yuuma instead, fragments of a forgotten past begin to surface. As the two are drawn together once more, the long-still currents of fate begin to flow again…

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Content Warnings: Mature themes, disturbing imagery, language, sexual content

I’ve never read a BL quite like this, and I mean this in a good way. It combines my love of horror and disturbing imagery with stories of reincarnated beings and fated love.

Yuuma has seen disturbing things since childhood, and his grandmother always warned him never to look these hideous things in the eyes, so Yuuma goes through life pretending not to see them. (And these things are creepy! Incredibly well-designed and drawn).

One day it’s announced that Yuuma will be moving back to his old town, and he’s had dreams about it for ages–a Shinto shrine, and then the feeling of drowning. He finds the Shinto shrine and then sees someone with a horrific curse attached to him–it’s so strong that he can’t make out the boy’s face. But the boy, Kaito, recognizes Yuuma right away, as they briefly shared their childhoods together. Kaito calls to Yuuma, who flees him because of the enormous curse surrounding him.

Yuuma also doesn’t have any memories of Kaito, but that doesn’t deter Kaito from promising to protect Yuuma with everything he’s got.

I don’t want to go diving too much further into the story but I will say that Kaito and Yuuma’s story have a past…and then a past that goes waaaay back on top of that. We get glimpses of it in the manga, on top of flashbacks to the time Yuuma and Kaito were children together over the summer, and we see Yuuma get his unique scar on his eye.

There are scenes with possession–the ghosts want to physically interact with Kaito in a more romantic way–and that complicates things between Yuuma and Kaito. Plus, their friendship seems to be returning as the two are thrust into closeness partially against their will. This certainly complicates things, as feelings grow, along with confusion.

This story has horror, mystery, and budding love, and a clear reincarnation plotline blooming. It held my attention the whole time, and not only did I enjoy the story, but I really, really liked the art in this one. The horrible things are truly horrible, and the character designs are unique and memorable. Plus, the expressions on the character’s faces are extremely vivid, especially when Yuuma is freaking out, and the eyeball ghosts are overly emotive.

This was a lot of fun and I’m desperately awaiting Volume 2 as this ends on a cliffhanger.

4.5/5 stars.

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I received a digital ARC copy directly from TOKYOPOP with the intention of leaving a review of my own accord. You can preorder Ghoul Work, Kurose Vol. 1. from booksellers online and also preorder the physical copy directly from the publisher.