Book Review | The Graveyard Apartment by Mariko Koike

Originally published in Japan in 1986, The Graveyard Apartment is a suspenseful horror about a young family that believes they’ve found their dream home. At first, everything seemed perfect. But before long, they noticed that the apartment had a creepier side lurking beneath its charming exterior. The longer they stay, the more they feel trapped.

Fear begets fear, and regret breeds more regret. Once you invite those emotions in, they will flourish in your damaged heart, like a kind of sickness, and you’ll start to feel perpetually dissatisfied with your situation, while your life force ebbs away and your mind becomes permanently warped. 

Written by Mariko Koike and translated by Deborah Boliver Boehm, The Graveyard Apartment is a psychological horror that takes place in the spring-summer of 1987. A family moves into a fancy new apartment that perfectly fits their needs. But the stunning facilities and affordable price are due to its location next to a cemetery and a cremation facility. While the interior is beautiful and spacious, the entire building has a mysteriously forbidding atmosphere.

The book explores the messiness of human behaviour, taking time to explore the characters’ backstories. Despite their outward displays of happiness, Misao and Teppei got together under terrible circumstances. Their shame and guilt linger amidst their excitement of finding a new home. Misao feels increasingly lonely as she works from home while taking care of their daughter, Tamao, while Teppei feels anxious every time he returns home from work. The basement has strange sounds and the lift isn’t working most of the time. They realise that other tenants are moving away, leaving the other apartments empty. The fact that they have a daughter and a dog means the stakes are high.

Since this book is set in the 1980s, I love how the lack of technology added to the feelings of isolation and helplessness.  I appreciate the details of Japanese cultural elements concerning death ceremonies, giving the story a nuanced look at the afterlife. While I wish we got more overt scares, this is a more subtle, slow-burning scare that makes me rely on my imagination. Instead of going down the usual supernatural route in a haunted house trope, the book dips into some cosmic horror instead. The casual narration and domestic day-to-day events mask the danger they’re in, leading to an incredibly dark ending.

The Graveyard Apartment is an essential entry in Japanese horror literature, for good reason! Give this a read for a different kind of haunted house horror.

About the author: Mariko Koike

Photo by Afnizar Nur Ghifari