Book 17 for my 2026 goal of 36 books for the year! What do you know, I’m back on track for the year! My link to the book is through my bookshop.org affiliate account, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy from there.

A couple of weeks ago, I raved about the delightfully strange and compelling novel Strange Houses by the pseudonymous author Uketsu, and I knew I would have to check out any other works of his that are available. This meant picking up the more recent release, Strange Pictures (2025).

The basic concept is the same: a mystery-horror tale told in large part through the use of images, though where Strange Houses used floorplans, Strange Pictures uses drawings!

Though the basic concept is the same, the telling of the story — and the mystery at the heart of it — is very different from the previous novel. Strange Pictures weaves what at first glance appear to be three independent stories in separate chapters. The first story involves two students who delight in the strange and paranormal happening across a pseudonymous blog which ended several years ago with an ominous message. The blog includes several images drawn by the blogger’s late wife, and when the students investigate more carefully they find a sinister message behind them.

The second story is that of a mother being called to her son’s school, because her son has drawn an image with some subtly upsetting details. As if that wasn’t enough, she begins to suspect she’s being followed, and then her son disappears…

The third story is that of a would-be journalist investigating the murder of his mentor some time earlier on a remote mountaintop. The mentor left behind a crude sketch that seems to mean nothing at all, but there is a deadly secret behind it.

Uketsu’s books are so compelling because of the details. All the images are included in the text and you get to visually follow along with the reasoning of the protagonists and they try to uncover their secrets. I’ve personally never encountered another mystery style quite like it and it is just so much fun to be able to see how the mystery is resolved. Uketsu has an incredible eye for detail.

The mystery/mysteries at the heart of the story are really well-crafted and a delight to unravel. I will admit that I personally found Strange Houses more satisfying than Strange Pictures, but that is a relative scoring of two books that are on an absolute scale incredibly good.

Like it predecessor, Strange Pictures is a very fast read. The writing is very concise and to the point and the fact that images take up a significant portion of the book speeds things along.

To conclude, I should note that Strange Pictures is not “more of the same.” Though the author’s method of storytelling is consistent in the two books, Strange Pictures carries much more of an emotional punch than its predecessor, which indicates to me that this is an author to keep an eye on. Recommended.