Review of Uketsu's 'Strange Pictures' Novel in ArtReview

A review in ArtReview's March 2025 issue critiques 'Strange Pictures,' a novel by masked Japanese YouTuber Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion and published by Pushkin Vertigo. The book, priced at £14.99 in softcover, is a whodunnit featuring amateur sleuths like a university paranormal club member, a nursery teacher, and a newspaper administrator who uncover abuse and murder in seemingly innocent drawings. These characters, described as Wikipedia-educated crime experts and computer-chair psychologists, solve the case through internet research, while a trained psychologist fails. The narrative structure mimics online how-to blogs, with chapters initially unrelated but converging on a young boy and his 'Mama.' Uketsu, known for surreal parody videos, previously adapted a 2020 post about murderous floorplans into a manga series and bestselling novels, with 'Strange Pictures' and its sequel 'Strange Houses' released in English this year. The review suggests the novel may satirize mystery genres and online conspiracy theorists, yet it validates amateur detectives. Pages are dominated by pictures, closeups, graphs, and diagrams, reflecting internet-driven voyeurism and dubious expertise.