‘Exit 8’ – Genki Kawamura (Ithaka Press)

 

Page Count: 101 Pages

‘Exit 8’ has been making itself known all over my Prime Video, and so the plan was to give it a watch at some point i.e. in about a weeks time when my job ends and I have a little more time on my hands.
And then I was in Forbidden Planet yesterday and discovered that ‘Exit 8’ isn’t just a film based on a video game… It’s also a book and that book was staring at me from a shelf. It was just over a hundred pages long and there was a ‘money off’ sticker on the front… That was all the excuse I needed ;o)

Quick thoughts (very quick thoughts…) are the order of the day as, well… That page count speaks for itself. ‘Exit 8’ is worth the read though, let me tell you about it.

A young man is riding the Tokyo subway when he receives a life-changing text message from his ex-girlfriend. He exits the train, but extraordinary things begin to happen, and he finds that he cannot escape.

The subway will loop endlessly unless he follows very precise rules:

Do not overlook any anomalies.
If you find an anomaly, turn back immediately.
If you do not find any anomalies, do not turn back.
Go out through Exit 8.

Exit 8 is over before you know it but in the tradition of all the best horror and supernatural tales, it will stick in your head for a long time after it finishes. That’s exactly what it has done for me; ‘Exit 8’ is a very unsettling read, even moreso as you get further into the plot and things slowly become clear. Perhaps its a little threadbare, in terms of the ‘background scenery’, but it’s still a lot of fun to come back and drive a lorry through whatever is left standing (not a great deal).

You may well see the ending coming, a little way off, but that just lends ‘Exit 8’ an air of inevitability that makes it even more unsettling to read in the meantime. Kawamura is very much in control here and the plot runs like clockwork, everything falling into place at just the right moment.

I don’t want to say too much more and run the risk of giving the game away… ‘Exit 8’ is a journey that you need to take yourself and it is worth it. What I can say is that ‘Exit 8’ is a read that I suspect I’ll be pondering on a lot over the next few days, probably when I should be doing something else ;o)

Deeply un-nerving, painfully tense and very much a book that I had to finish in as few sittings as possible. I may not need to watch the film now but I’m still glad that I took a chance on the book, definitely worth a read.