Nicky “Knuckles” Mamatas picked up the September issue of Neo last week and spotted a review of ZOO. How fortuitous. For those of you who don’t know, Neo is a magazine that services the otaku crowd in the UK. Each issue features a mix of information about manga, anime, eiga, and all sorts of groovy stuff from Japan.

Anyhoo… the anonymous reviewer says a lot of good things about our book. This comment, in particular, I liked very much: “Each of Otsuichi’s tales is powerfully morbid and occasionally gruesome. Many also feel strangely like fairytales as they explore weird situations in timeless settings.”

I agree. ZOO is fairytale-like. And the stories are indeed morbid and gruesome. But I wish more reviewers would start picking up on the book’s humor. You may hate yourself at the end of day, but there are moments in “Find the Blood!” and “In a Falling Airplane” that will put a wicked grin on your face.