Birthday

Birthday is the 4th and final installment to the Ring series of books I have been reading. This book was quite a surprise and maybe my favorite next to the first book, but without all the other books it could not exist. Here's why, the book is actually 3 short stories all that take place during different parts of the 3 books previously read. The first story reveals what happens to Mai Takano from her perspective after Ryuji had died. It is an integral part of the story from the second book we were never able to see into until now. The second story is the longest half of it takes place at the same time as what happens to Mai Takano and half is from the past when Sadako first lived and was part of the theatre group in the 60s. So, it fills in some wholes from both the first and second book. It also lets you see inside the Sadako character a little more. In the third story it is the epilogue of the final book Loop, we get to find out what happens to Reiko and what the final outcomes of Kaoru sacrificing himself lead to, he ends up being a martyr in both the Loop and the real world, but it does make the entire dark long sometimes scary story end with an unexpected happy ending and it has the closure to the story I figured would just never come.