People Who Eat Darkness

Who isn’t fascinated with Japan? The place is fucking insane. I’d love to go one day and soak in the soba noodles, bask in the glory of neon lights, sex toy vending machines, and bosozoku. I want to feel girls’ boobs on the subway on my way to the tearoom filled with cats. One day…

Anyway, I can’t remember how I came across People Who Eat Darkness. GQ maybe? Or a recommendation on Amazon? Regardless, I just read through 450 pages pretty freakin fast. I  inhaled the book in a matter of days. It was gripping stuff. It’s a true story about a young, hot, English woman who goes missing in Japan. 

The author was an expat reporter who covered the case from day one. He cobbles together years of personal interviews and experience to bring this story to life. It’s a pretty well-rounded book covered many aspects of the girl, her family, and her assailant. I don’t want to go into much detail cuz that’d spoil things. It’s a mystery, a hunt, a court case, an ethical nightmare, and a variety of twists and turns. 

The Japanese are so bizarre. So über nationalistic, so introverted, so polite, yet so unique, extroverted, and fucking bananas at the same time. They’re uptight and they’re over the top. It makes perfect sense. It’s the same logic in Detroit. The city sucks so bad that it compels people to try that much harder to be awesome and kick ass. The shittiness fuels the awesomeness. Great adversity builds character and innovation. Japan is the same. It’s so repressed, so stoic, so culturally codified that the only logical reaction is to take every form of rebellion to the extreme. It’s the land of tentacle porn. 

I’m getting off topic. I don’t read a lot of true crime cuz I genuinely don’t like dwelling on something heinous that actually happened to someone. I’d prefer if it was fictional. But I took a chance on this. And I don’t regret it. It ruled. 

Learn about salarymen and hostesses. Learn about the Japanese judicial system. And see how the actions of one man can have a radical, irreversible impact on the lives of many. For the worse. 

If you read one true crime murder mystery this year…this is the one.