Hanging Town: Shinomiya Shrine Series

Set in a forgotten corner of Japan where the past presses uneasily against the present, this series weaves together tales of haunting and retribution, all bound to the Shinomiya Shrine. In the first three volumes, Hanging Town, the story begins in the 1970s in a certain prefecture on the island of Kyushu. A peaceful rural town like any other is suddenly beset by inexplicable phenomena: packs of wild dogs, disasters, fatal accidents, strange noises in the night, and hangings. Whether anyone believes in it is beside the point; the thing itself exists all the same. Told in the first person by someone who lived through these events from elementary school all the way to high school, the account traces the strange occurrences and the tragedies that shadowed them, inviting the reader to witness everything without ever looking away. Volumes four and five, The Story of How I Couldn't Enter the Mountains, move to a land of lush greenery and shifting seasons, where there are places a young man must never set foot. When a string of uncanny events comes to light alongside a cursed video, a new terror begins to take shape.