Uzumaki (3-In-1 Deluxe Edition)

4.5* stars. It started simply with one man's obsession that spiraled, (pun intended,) into a town-wide catastrophic event... The sleepy coastal town of Kurouzu-cho is cursed. Two teenagers, Shuichi and Kirie, are the first to be infected with the spiral. It afflicted their families, their bodies, and eventually the spiral spread its horrible hypnotic shape throughout the town causing horror after horror. Can the two teen lovers save themselves and their loved ones and the entire town from certain ruin? I liked the few colored pages in between some of the stories, which I assume were at the beginning of the original three volumes collected in this tome. While the story itself was continuous, namely continuously getting worse for the characters and town, each story could also be standalone, which made the story not become monotonous but exciting. The farther into it I read, the more I wanted. The art, as usual for the king of horror manga, was gruesomely gorgeous and disturbingly detailed. The spiral was a constant through everything, but each chapter had its own main focus, whether it was the spiral on the shell of a snail, hair that grows and curls uncontrollably, or twisted love, there was always a new horror to explore in Kurouzu-cho. Something that was a bit funny on a personal level, I don't get nightmares from things I read, so I have read Junji Ito books in the minutes before I fell asleep and was fine, but Uzumaki broke that cycle. Thankfully, my dreams were not contaminated with the cursed spiral, but I had nightmares nonetheless, and that made me want to read it even more! Just during the day. I have loved every Junji Ito book I have read, whether it be an anthology or a full series like Uzumaki and Gyo, and I dream of having a shelf full of Ito manga one day~