Every story in Horror Collector 1: The Faceless Kid has an underlying adult terror because these kids face dangerous circumstances—innocence at risk.
Horror Collector 1: The Faceless Kid is surprisingly chilling. The unknown, urban legend frights, and kids in danger all elevate the scares. On top of that, there are real stakes. The lack of gore doesn’t detract from the dread as each story unfurls like a creeping mist of terror. Horror Collector 1: The Faceless Kid is one of the most spine-tingling light novels that’s impossible to stop reading.
With a story by Midori Sato and Norio Tsuruta, art by Yon, and translation by Jan Cash, the first volume covers six towns, each with its own urban legend. The Yen Press light novel starts with the first town; each chapter moves through the next five. While it sounds tame, this book wastes no time letting readers know at the outset that the stakes are dire and children can and do fall victim to horrors.
Horror Collector 1: The Faceless Kid Visits Towns
Urban tales of terror are akin to telephone—sometimes the story takes on new aspects, or two similar stories merge. Such is the case with the boy in the red hood and the faceless kid in the red hood. As the story circulates, it comes with tales of the otherworldly misfortune occurring when encountering the kid in the red hood. The only connection between each story is this mysterious boy fixating on these scary stories comes alive.
Kid-Focused Stories But Frightening for Adults Too
Despite the characters primarily being children at risk from kids’ perspectives, Horror Collector 1: The Faceless Kid is just as terrifying for adults. In particular, parents might feel uneasy. Some of the stories have the parents stepping up to try and help their kids. But in others, a parent’s close-mindedness leads to harm. Plus, everyone can recall friends trying to out-scare each other as kids. So, for adults, the stories can hit on one or two levels. After all, there is little as chilling as an entity one cannot physically defend oneself against.
The stories each have a terrifying feel, and some bear similarities to films and scary stories. From the uncertainty of “The Wriggler” to the scream-at-the-screen emotional pull of “Sugisawa Village,” there is an inescapable fright for anyone who enjoys the cold unknown. Standout stories are “Sugisawa Village,” which is like a darker version of Spirited Away, “The Truth of the Red Crayon” for its tragic aspect amid the frights, and “Little Nanako” for its similarity to the bathtub game floating around online. Every story in Horror Collector 1: The Faceless Kid has an underlying adult terror because these kids face dangerous circumstances—innocence at risk.
Horror Collector 1: The Faceless Kid employs different storytelling openings that keep each story fresh. After all, people pass scary stories down in various ways via text, social media, word of mouth, etc. So, each tale feels isolated and part of the whole that makes up this book. With the boy in the red hood tying in all the stories like a less creepy Sam in Trick R’ Treat but more cold, Horror Collector 1: The Faceless Kid is a must-have for fans of cover-clutching chills.
