55 pages • 1 hour read
Strange Houses
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Prologue-Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child abuse, graphic violence, death, and substance use.
Prologue Summary
The novel presents the floor plan of a two-story house. The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The narrator, Uketsu, invites the reader to notice any strange details in the house represented by the floor plan. He stresses that while the house looks normal at first glance, these details will emerge once the reader looks closer at the floor plan. These details accumulate, Uketsu claims, into a startling truth.
Chapter 1 Summary: “A Strange House”
Uketsu is a freelance writer in Tokyo with an interest in macabre subjects. In September 2019, Uketsu is messaged by his friend, Yanaoka, who is looking for a house to move into with his pregnant wife. Yanaoka needs Uketsu’s advice on a house they are considering in a forested hillside area. Yanaoka and his wife were charmed when they visited the house, but they couldn’t help feeling bothered by the existence of a narrow dead space between the kitchen and living room, which the floor plan revealed. Because the realtors couldn’t explain the reason for the dead space, Yanaoka decided to consult Uketsu, whom he considers an expert on “weird things.”
Uketsu reaches out to his friend, Kurihara, who works as a draftsman for an architectural firm.
