The art in this was so consistently beautiful, while the story was increasingly more unsettling and eerie! ( )

Blood on the Tracks is a Japanese horror manga that reflects on the relationship between a mother and her son. She is overprotective of him, and this leads to psychologically tense situations where nothing happens, yet her face contains a glimmer of forced, hostile love. This leads to the psychopathic murder of the boy's cousin. Despite the comic being in the perspective of the young boy, the work seems reflective due to its maturity and subtlety.

This only gets 2 stars as it seems more promising as an opener rather than an incredible volume. ( )

Note: My review covers the series as a whole- not the first book individually. If you want to know if this SERIES is for you, read on.

Blood on the Tracks is a tremendously powerful series- from the story it tells, the journey you walk with the characters, and the imagery.
Gaslighting, emotional/psychological trauma, narcissitic abuse - it's all there in black and white (and sometimes color). It is perhaps one of the best representations of how emotional/psychological abuse can change and shape someone. It can absolutely be used as a learning aid or a coping/healing tool. It's an addictive read that's mildly like a bad accident- you can't just look away and move on until you know what happened. Not out of nosiness, but just wanting to know how everyone ended up.
It shows how someone can still have a hold on you even after you feel you've moved on. That even after you think you've gained closure, the thing you felt you killed still lives on and comes back to haunt you. It truly sets an example of how loneliness can really fuck up a person. It also reminds the reader how important accountability is and how you should be more aware and responsible of your own actions.
It becomes especially profound when you see the dark twist of fate that a child that desperately needed a parent's love was discarded and erased, but then somehow holds onto the love he never got to spill into the parent that needed him later. Something that makes this story especially terrifying is the strong sense of powerlessness you have while reading it.

This is the kind of work that changes lives on a personal level and draws attention to possible problematic behavior- if this story doesn't alert you to any potential problems or change any error ways then I hope it haunts you.

This is a story that can happen all around the world and is not endemic to one country or person. Sometimes looking through the eyes of another person can put things into perspective.
I read this manga while the English translation was still somewhat new and fresh, so if it grows in popularity and becomes a bandwagon- I also suspect it will be because this story touches up on the insane amount of oppressive family trauma that is now being processed and realized in this time.

Some important notes: This isn't exactly a supernatural horror, but more of a realistic psychological 'slice of life' horror story. There's some elements of the supernatural, although it isn't what you think. These elements are only in the artwork, not the story or genre. It has more dark surreal imagery intended to represent emotional trauma, evoke feelings plus suspense, and give a nightmare/dream like feel. There's no magic or supernatural beings like aliens, dragons, vampires etc. Another element of horror is that it doesn't have any jump scares or gore, but the atmosphere/tension gets progressively more disturbing as you watch the characters face an increasingly unsettling reality- the reality that the person you love the most might be something scarier than a monster.

Also yes, this was named after the Bob Dylan album but it has absolutely nothing to do with the music or musician. The author was just listening to it when he made this and thought, "You know, I'm going to name my manga the same thing." That's where the similarity ends lol ( )

I binged-read this one (95 chapters) in a single night. It's one of the creepiest, most unsettling manga I've read. It's about the trauma inflicted on a boy by his obsessive mother. ( )

This manga is beautifully illustrated and focuses on complex facial expressions that drive the emotional familial horror. ( )