"Shoujo Jigoku" (Girl Hell) by Yumeno Kyuusaku. A collection of stories involving murders, suicides, and lots of disturbing psychology.
The title can be interpreted in at least two ways: the hellish world that the main female characters had to endure, and the subsequent hell that they have created for others. Three stories make up the girl hell collection: "Nandemo Nai" (Nothing), "Satsujin Riree" (Murder Relay), and "Kasei no Onna" (Martian Woman).
"Nandemo Nai" starts with a young woman's suicide note accusing two doctors for having slandered her. As the story progresses, we found that this young woman is someone with the perfect aptitude to become a great nurse and medical assistant, and also someone who is a natural liar with the uncanny tendency to bring unrest to everyone around her. The story later explains that this desire to lie might be biological, and it was quite disturbing to follow this character who seem to genuinely hold conflicting reality in her head all the time.
"Satsujin Riree" is a series of letters from one woman to another, detailing the methods of a particular male serial killer. The letters start with the events of the previous woman who was lured into his trap and then killed, then continue on to describe how the narrator falls for the same methods despite being fully aware that she is the next target. This story is even more disturbing than the first in that the progression of these letters felt like Stockholm syndrome at its worst.
"Kasei on Onna" is a series of bizarre news articles, starting with the news of a completely charred female corpse, followed by a series of articles of bad things happening to previously reputable people, and ends with the final letter written by the self-immolated girl who explained how her life had led to this dramatic revenge. The opening with the news articles builds up tension while still maintaining reasonable composure, which then transitions into intense madness as the truth unfolds. It was a vivid story to complete the girl hell collection.
This particular edition came with the subtitle "The Best of Kyusaku Yumeno", and contains three extra stories: "Shigo no Koi" (Love after Death), "Binzume no Jigoku" (Bottled Hell), "Koori no Hate" (End of Ice). The first is a short story where a drunk narrator describes how he came to acquire these set of gems that he calls "love after death". The second is a short story told in reverse order through a series of messages in bottles. The third is a long mystery involving murder and other crimes, the "ice" in the title is due to Harbin being used as the stage for all events. These share the common style as "Shoujo Jigoku" in that the preamble creates a sense of tension and disturbed mentality, and the text that followed filled in all the details to live up to that hype. The third long story requires a bit of patience to read and I won't really recommend buying this book just for that, but first two short stories are great bonus content that made this edition worthwhile. Plus the cover is really nice.
This author was recommended to me only because he is a contemporary to Edogawa Ranpo, otherwise the writing style is completely different. These stories cuts very deep psychologically and it's not the kind of thing that would make you feel good about having read them. Nonetheless, the unique and intense experience definitely makes them worth reading.
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