The ring book

Ring by Kōji Suzuki. A race against time to unravel a lethal supernatural mystery. The story is set in modern-day Japan and follows Kazuyuki Asakawa, a hardworking journalist who is intrigued by the simultaneous, mysterious deaths of four teenagers—one of whom is his niece. All four died of acute heart failure with an expression of profound terror frozen on their faces. Asakawa's investigation leads him to a secluded mountain resort where the teenagers had stayed exactly one week before their deaths. There, in the cabin they shared, he finds a mysterious, unmarked videotape. Upon watching the tape, Asakawa sees a series of strange, unsettling, and abstract images that culminate in a chilling warning: "You, who watched this tape, are going to die in one week from now." When the seven-day countdown begins for Asakawa, the journalist is thrust into a desperate race against time. He enlists the help of his skeptical, scientifically-minded friend, Ryūji Takayama, a university philosophy professor. Together, they must solve the puzzle of the cursed tape—which they discover is linked to the vengeful spirit of a psychic named Sadako Yamamura—before Asakawa, and eventually his family, succumb to the lethal curse. The novel is a tense blend of mystery, paranormal horror, and psychological thriller, exploring themes of technology, contagious media, and the power of psychic will. It inspired the globally famous Japanese film of the same name and its subsequent Western remakes.