From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up–This psychological, scientific thriller can be read as a stand-alone book. Doctor Mitsuo Andoh discovers an encoded message during the autopsy of his old college friend, a philosophy professor who recently died under mysterious circumstances. The doctor must decipher the code if he hopes to understand a strange virus that kills people after watching a videotape. He finds that there were other, similar deaths the same night, at approximately the same time. Each autopsy reveals that the cause of death was sudden heart failure. The victims were all young and healthy. What's more, everyone who died had watched a tape containing a message that those who watch the video will die in a week. During the course of his research, Andoh traces the video to a smallpox patient and her daughter, Sadako, both of whom died horribly after the mother was raped. The story is intense and scary. Mizuki's masterfully smooth, black-and-white art translates the emotional expressions and tense moments without falling into the trap of in-your-face horror.
–Erin Dennington, Fairfax County Public Library, Chantilly, VA Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
Based on the first novel by Suzuki, "Rasen" (The Ring) is the real thing, telling the story as Suzuki originally intended. This psychological, scientific thriller features the masterfully smooth art of Sakura Mizuki, who translates the emotional expressions and tense moments with nearly perfect timing and touch. Find out why the world went crazy over The Ring in this true to form adaptation, the first of three based on Suzuki's novel series in our five volume set.
