Customer Reviews

Birthday (Ring Series, Book 4)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's almost pointless to even mention the Ring films at this point, as they bare almost no resemblance to the story anymore by just book 2 (unless you count Rasen, but by the end of that it doesn't count anymore at all in the film universe). Ring 0: Birthday was loosely based on the second story in this book, Lemon Heart. The rest of the book is new.

This is an anthology based around three central characters in the trilogy (all female) and themes of birth relating to the storyline.

1. Floating Coffin
Plot: This, the first story, takes place in the middle of book 2, Spiral. We get a glimpse of Mai Takano, and what exactly happens when she gives birth to Sadako and dies.

Review: Of the three stories, this was by far my least favorite. It has no real relevance to progressing the story or showing anything. This one was a little bit of a bore. However, the next stories made me completely forget about this one's lack of interest.

2. Lemon Heart
Plot: Toyama, a middle-aged man, is approached by a detective that is looking for information on Yamamura Sadako. Toyama is one of the only survivors from a theater troupe that Sadako was in shortly before she disappeared. Toyama recounts being in love with her, and in the end of the story gets a surprise visit from a familiar face.

Review: My favorite of the three. Great story that sheds some more light on how Sadako was in life, and introduces some foreshadowing and dramatic irony that we know will lead to events that take place in "Ring" and "Spiral".

3. Happy Birthday
Plot: Reiko, still pregnant, is brought to New Mexico and informed of what exactly happened to Kaoru. She takes a look into the Loop world to see how he manages to get rid of Sadako and save the world, leading up to the birth of his child.

Review: Another great story. I sort of hoped it would be longer, as it was the conclusion to the entire series and I felt at first that it was much too short to be the ending. However, looking back, I see how the entire anthology was the ending. Although only one has a story that ends it, the others sort of bring the legend and story of Sadako to a full circle.

All in all, great anthology that is a must-read for fans of the first three books.

5 stars / 5

Recently, I worked my way through Koji Suzuki's "Ring" series and by the time I made it to "Birthday", the fourth and final book in the series, I had pretty much run out of steam. "Birthday" is made up of three short (50-100 page) stories that take place before, during and after the events of the "Ring" trilogy. The first story, "Floating Coffin", tells of what happened to Mai Takano after she went missing in the middle of "Spiral", the second book in the trilogy. The second story, "Lemon Heart" tells of Sadako's time with the theatre troupe she joined at age 18. These events are alluded to in "Ring", although this story is told as a flashback occuring in the middle of "Spiral". The final story, "Happy Birthday", is set after the events of "Loop" and provides the conclusion to the series.

After reading the entire "Ring" trilogy, I found these stories to be unnecessary. They didn't add anything to my understanding of the "Ring" universe, and they felt like scenes that had been deleted from the first three novels. In my opinion, this book is essentially just a grab for cash on the part of the author and has only minimal merit. I would only recommend it to people who feel the need to read everything that has ever been written about the "Ring", and even then, it will probably disappoint.

Excellent finish to an terrific series. Must for all ring fans... This book has collection of 3 stories spaced at different time period in the ring universe. These stories fill the gaps and answers which previous books left out. Once again koji suzuki re-defines horror by taking you into depths of unkown...

enjoy..........

This is not an ordinary sequel, but then neither is Spiral or Loop for that matter. They might tie into the Ring story and explain it further, but they can also stand on their on as well. Once picked up none of the books in this series is easy to put down. I pretty much plowed through them and am now reading the mangas. Only two of which I got here on amazon. The novel called Loop wasn't a movie or a manga but is a great read and explains a whole lot about the nature of the Ring virus and this book here(Birthday) is actually three stories that tell about the women of the ring. One the stories called Lemon Heart, was the basis for the Ring 0 movie. If you thought that you know the Ring just from the movies and TV show, think again, these turn the story on it's ear and then some. Best to get all of them for the full story. Watch, read, and enjoy! Sadako lives!