Chain Mail: Addicted to You Book Review

Author: Hiroshi Ishizaki

Four girls who have never met are drawn together when someone sends them a mysterious chain mail message on their cell phones. Check out Kidzworld's review of Chain Mail: Addicted to You by Japanese author, Hiroshi Ishizaki.

Beep! You Have Mail

Sawako is the weird girl at Kioi Academy in Tokyo, Japan. While other girls wear the latest fashions and gossip about cute guys, Sawako wears a weird uniform, throws out random quotes by Nietzsche (a German philosopher), and hides out in the bathroom until class starts. When she gets an email on her cell phone from a girl named Yukari, she jumps at her invitation to write an interactive story together - even though she doesn't know Yukari. The story is to have four characters - a girl, her BF, a stalker who's obsessed with the girl, and a cop who pursues the stalker. Yukari's already taken the role of the stalker, so Sawako thinks the next best thing is to be the girl... but little does she know that their fictional world is about to get very real.

From Cyberspace to the Real World

Sawako needs two more people to complete the story, so she forwards the chain mail to every email address she can find. It catches the interest of Mai and Mayumi, who are just as lonely as Sawako and desperately want to belong to something... anything! With Mai signing on to be the boyfriend and Mayumi assuming the identity of the cop, the four girls write their parts and post them on Yukari's website. But life begins to imitate art when Sawako senses someone watching her! When she goes missing, Mai and Mayumi set out to find their cyber-friend, but things turn deadly as they get closer to the truth. Could Yukari be a real-life stalker?

The Bottom Line

Chain Mail: Addicted to You is a Japanese novel that's been translated into English, but it might as well be gibberish cuz the language is awkward (you would never greet your friend by saying "Good day to you!" would ya?). It's also hard to relate to the characters cuz they're so different from the average American teen. But if you're worried you won't be able to follow along with this story, fear not! There are footnotes to give you the inside scoop on Japanese culture, so it's a cool way to learn about their customs.

Chain Mail: Addicted to You Rating:

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