Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis

What a ride! I admit it, I'm a fan of the movie and that is the main reason I picked this one up, I was curious to read the story and see how well it was adapted and I was more than surprised.

This is a completely different beast than the movie, so if you enter wanting more of that psychological horror that the movie portrayed you will be sorely disappointed, this starts as a thriller and evolves into a horror story but it never goes into quite the same route the movie goes. It has gruesome moments and some descriptions were so intense I gagged while reading. And that ending!! It was poetical and gruesome at the same time.

As for the similarities: You will still have an idol battling an obsessive fan, a fan that absolutely hates this new show more image she is crafting and that's about it.

I enjoyed the read even when I was deeply repulsed by it. show less

Wow, some parts of this book were truly, unpleasantly gruesome. For me, like other reviews suggested, this is the rare occasion where a movie adaptation ends up being superior to the book it’s based on. Still interesting to see how much the story changed from page to screen, though.

Oops. Requested because I'm curious about the Japanese 'light novels' and, checking a list, this is the one my library has. Well. Starts with a scene of an assault on a very young girl. No illustrations. Not what I was led to believe those books would be like. I've ordered a few more from the consortium; we'll see if they work better. Nov. 2021