"People Who Eat Darkness: Uncovering the True Story of a Young Woman Who Mysteriously Disappeared from the Streets of Tokyo and the Dark Forces That Consumed Her"

Caroline: Such a good read. Sad story. I was living in Tokyo when this happened 3 months after I arrived and glad I could read about the details of the case. I like the way this author writes and recommend his other book Ghosts of Tsunami too.

Canada on Nov 27, 2023

LL: The author fleshes out the entire landscape so your understand how she wound up in Japan. The adventure she wanted and the tragedy that unfolded. Well done book! You also learn about Japanese culture - including the underbelly.

Canada on May 22, 2022

Jamie C.: I always feel like a jerk criticizing books since I have zero experience writing books. Please know this is not a negative view on the author but the book (if that makes sense).

It starts off great but it eventually leads to an overly detailed story with no real “chilling and frightful” story behind it. Yes there was a murder but people are describing this as powerful and scary and it’s just not lol. The man in question doesn’t go into any detail of how he killed he because he denied it. Unless autopsy like descriptions scare you, you’ll find this pretty uneventful and even boring. Even the way they describe the body isn’t bad…”found some body parts in bags,” was the extent.

However, if this specific case interested you and you want every detail from every angle, you’ll love it! It’s full of amazing detail but not where I thought or wanted it to be. Like a lot of true crime lovers you want an inside look at the killers mind and process. This does not do that.

United States on Dec 10, 2021

jasper: i could hardly leave it unread, a page turner, the author will skilfully lead the reader through the life of Lucie Blackman, and the investigation of her murderer, she being a beautiful young girl somehow a bit naive, easily accepting the image of a very safe society while it might not be so. with many details of the Japanese way of life, its most drab and shady aspects and how Justice/Investigation works (or not) in Japan, we closely participate in the drama of her family and friends. sometimes we feel like we belong to her family. the book beats many thrillers on the same topic. a must read.

France on Apr 01, 2021

Springlering: Fascinating and well written book about the death of a young British woman in Japan, and detailed exploration of the ripples it sent through her family, friends, community at home and in Japan, and even the world at large. Mr. Parry was involved in the story from early on, and stayed with it, so I don't think you'd find anyone with more insight and information to provide. The murderer was cold, calculating, narcissistic and cruel, and used his wealth to drag the thing out as long as possible, using every angle of the Japanese justice system to his own advantage. The author also discussed aspects of discrimination in Japanese society towards other Asian cultures that I think my generation is totally unfamiliar with, as well as their dismissive attitudes towards Westerners. It goes on in every country, every society, like it or not, I suppose. Yet it was no excuse for the actions committed here.

I feel a bit weird about delving into someone else's death and the utter unhappiness it caused others, but the book itself was gripping, and even though we were in the midst of a major move and I should have been "on point", my husband kept finding me hiding out and reading because I...

United States on Sep 15, 2015

TheCoach: excellent, a la fois infiniment intéressant sur la culture japonaise a mille lieues de la notre et en meme temps un thriller,histoire d une enquête qui a dure des années. passées les 20 premières pages qui décrivent le background de lucy, pas passionnantes, on plonge au coeur de l'histoire. canon. et pourtant j en ai lu des crime stories. pas traduit en français en revancue. mais c est le genre de livre qu on est triste de finir et triste d avoir deja lu.

France on Sep 28, 2014

Brian K. Miller: I am not a stranger to this case. I was in Japan during the Lucie Blackman episode and I count among my friends the sister of another of Joji Obara's victims. This book was very painful for me to read and I often had to set it aside after only reading a page or two until I could get my memories and emotions in check well enough to continue.

Richard Lloyd Parry has done far more here than simply review a scandalous murder case. He takes the reader into the dark underworld of a society with a global reputation for peace and safety, revealing in gruesome detail the darkside of Japan's socialist utopia. From the inherent prejudices of the Japanese people regarding non-Japanese to the pleasures and dangers of the life of a bar hostess, he covers Japanese culture with a fairness and realism that no other writer I have encountered could manage.

There are countless books praising Japanese society. After you read a few of them, you'll begin to wonder if maybe Japan is the ideal human society and maybe it represents what every human society should become. To be honest, there is much in Japan to be praised, but it is far from utopian. This book stands alone in its presentation...

United States on Apr 02, 2014

Amazon Customer petamd: While dealing with an area most of us are not familiar with Lloyd parry has done. A brilliant job of making not only the horror of the story but also the strangeness of Japan the book brings it alive .makes the people very human and sympathetic.Looking out for his next book

United Kingdom on Feb 04, 2014

JDD: My husband says he sometimes gets concerned by the fact that one of my not-so-hidden guilty pleasures is watching true crime TV and reading various true crime nonfiction. "Are you planning something?" is something he's asked me more than once. Anyway, because I've read a lot of the more well-known true crime books, I feel confident saying that this is one of the best--and also one of the scariest--that I've read in a long time.

I had just finished Gone Girl and was looking for something nonfiction (I like to alternate--fiction, nonfiction and so on) and this one looked promising.

One of the potential pitfalls of true crime nonfiction is in making the "other" content in the book--a description of the victim's life before they died, an account of the sometimes mundane police work, a short bio of the killer's life growing up--as interesting as the crime itself. Some writers go too far, providing over-dramatized background in an unorganized way in order to boost the number of pages in the book. Others don't go far enough and you don't establish any sort of context of who the people are (or were), which doesn't feel at all fair to the victims. (They were, after all, much...

United States on Aug 27, 2012