Based on the hit novel, this series follows a chilling mystery about a house designed for murder—which is now a live-action movie!

I’ve always had a fascination with the occult; you might even call it my specialty. I’ve been brought in as a consultant on many supernatural and strange mysteries. But nothing could have prepared me for this house. It seemed so ordinary at first, except for that one room. It had no doors, no windows, and was tucked away, leaving anyone to think it was just a wall. I knew that there was something more to it. It shouldn’t be there, it shouldn’t exist, and yet…

Just what is this house, and what dark secrets does it hold?

A nameless writer and fan of the occult (I’m pretty sure he’s nameless. I just re-scrolled through my digital ARC and couldn’t find anyone addressing him by name) was given an architectural blueprint of a new house by his friend who is looking to buy it for his family.

As the writer looks it over, he notices something strange about the house–a windowless bedroom for a child, and a room that has no doors leading to it–just an empty space.

The writer takes the blueprint to his architecture friend who immediately starts some pretty heavy speculation–that the room was for a child who was abused, and then the room was used for the child to murder people.

Then there’s news of a dismemberment near the house that catches the writer’s attention, and his friend is no longer interested in purchasing the house because he figures it’s bad vibes all around.

Then a woman reaches out to the writer and tells him her husband was murdered. There is a similarity between the death in Tokyo and then her husband’s death in Saitama–the left hand of the victim was removed. Only the Tokyo body was dismembered, though. But the woman has blueprints of the Saitama house and there are similarities between it and the “Strange House” in Tokyo. The writer’s imagination fires up and starts making connections between the two, diving into the idea that these were genuine murder houses due to their odd constructions and mysterious closed-off spaces in the houses.

I’m going to end the storytelling here. I think as long as you are ready to dive into an extreme conclusion right away, you’ll have fun with this manga. I couldn’t really see the connections from a weird room straight to a murder house, and I appreciate the writer character’s reluctance to accept the idea at first. But then all these weird things start happening, and that chips away at the writer’s doubt, and he wonders if there are true connections. He even has nightmares about it.

I had to suspend disbelief a little bit, and when I did that, I had fun trying to see how far this story was going to go with its premise. It leaves off with new data about the house that furthers the mystery.

Before I got this digital ARC, I actually had this series and its multiple volumes on my manga wishlist. I’m glad I got a chance to read the first volume. I plan on buying the other volumes at another time.

I’m giving this 4/5 stars.

---

The Strange House Vol. 1 is presently available wherever books are sold in both digital and physical copies. It’s up to Volume 6 with Volume 7 on its way. You can find out more information from the publisher, Seven Seas Entertainment.

I received this as a digital ARC with strict instructions not to reshare any part of the manga without copyright permission, so I have withheld posting images from the manga. I have left a review of my own free will.