The Ring - Darren Hodge

THE RING BOOK REVIEW

I finished reading The Ring about a week ago. I highly recommend it because it is an exciting and enjoyable book to read. You get so into the plot that you can’t help yourself from reading, it is highly addictive. It was written by Koji Suzuki, he is Japan’s answer to Stephen King.
Koji Suzuki was born on May 13th 1957 in Hamamatsu in Japan. The one I read was published by Harper Collins on March 7th 2005. He lives in Japan where the book sold 2.8million copies which continue to Spiral and Loop, the Ring was then made into a Japanese film called Ringu and a Hollywood film called the Ring.
Now onto the book itself, I will give you a brief version of the actual plot. Asakawa is a newspaper reporter and his niece has recently died of sudden heart failure, he also gets a cab on the way back home and his taxi driver says that another person died of sudden heart failure at exactly the same time. He thinks this is a bit weird and looks into it a bit more, he then visits his friend and he mentions a young couple dying of sudden heart failure in a car at the same time.
He realises that the two girls went to the same school and the boys went to the same school so that must be important, he learns that they all spent some time in a villa log cabin, so he investigated to see what they might have done. All he finds is a book with comments and one of them from the people said “don’t watch it,” and he finds a tape. Asakawa watches it and all it contains are abstract and real images for example a real one is a volcano erupting and an abstract one is an old woman predicting someone would have a baby. At the end it says these words “those who have watched these images are fated to die exactly a week from now, if you don’t want to die follow these instructions,” then the tape cuts to static and has been taped over by something else.
After he shows it to his friend they set out to find out how to live. It really is a good book, it is advisable from year 7 up, all ages will enjoy. The tension rises rapidly which has been done excellently. It sends shivers down your spine; the plot is laid out excellently. There is also a major twist at the end, just when you think you know it all and changes it completely. It ends with a cliff hanger ready for the second book Spiral.
I hope you are interested in this book as much as I am, it is truly a stunning read!!