Strange Houses

I am tempted to not review this book as it is so unusual and different from anything else I've read that I think its hard to make comparisons. Although I've given it 3 stars its more nuanced than that. This book has been translated from Japanese and I think perhaps some things were lost in translation.

The book is written from the perspective of an author who is investigating strange and mysterious incidents. He hears about a house that is on the market that has a small anomaly in its layout. He decides to investigate with an engineer friend of his and to say things escalate quickly is an understatement! The story takes them to other strange houses (title gives that away) and an even stranger story that ties them all together.

Its odd, a little unsettling and written almost as a script, interspersed with diagrams and floor plans to support the dialog.

Everything does come together in the end but the leaps of faith, confessions and strange dialog are a little jarring to read. On the plus side its super short! I read it in two days and it did keep me turning the pages to work out the riddle.