On the island of Onogoro, where humans and gods coexist, Hyo and her brother, Mansaku, infer very quickly that an unseen web of power, alliances, and schemes exist to uphold it all. Unfortunately for them, it’s their duty to navigate their way through it.
Hyo the Hellmaker, an illustrated novel by Mina Ikemoto Ghosh, is a riveting tale of ambitious fantasy storytelling. As the title goes, Hyo is a hellmaker: someone who can craft personal hells for someone to suffer through, twisting the flows of misfortune and turning the nature of the world against them.
The story begins, however, with Hyo and Mansaku trapped in a hell of their own. A demon has imprisoned their village in a neverending winter, and only by coercing the siblings into a mission will she agree to lift the curse. Her directive: Travel to the island of Onogoro, the last living bastion of cohabitation between gods and humans, and uncover the mystery of whether someone is growing hitodenashi pear, a devilish fruit that turns humans into demons.
What’s immediately gripping about this journey is the immense sense of intrigue and suspense surrounding it. The reading experience is visceral; it certainly feels like we are stepping into an island where the norms and culture that we expect are suspended once gods factor into play. People and gods alike grapple with “en,” the name given to a fateful connection, a meaningful relationship. These connections exist in a tangle that envelops the world as long as beings interact with each other, and the way it permeates this world is fascinating: There are gods specializing in severing en ties; Hyo feels a pull on the en that brings her to the people that commission her hellmaking work; and so on.
And in this network of relationships, Hyo and Mansaku quickly find themselves entangled in a bevy of twists: a murder, various gods whose true allegiance is unclear, a history of war and a tense post-war aftermath that underlies the stress needed to maintain the peace between the island and the surrounding world at large. All of this is told in a slow but dutifully crafted pace that drips in detail. Eventually, revelations are unearthed, and the way they unfold is a delight to experience.
The author’s evocative illustrations are another quickly apparent aspect of this novel. They’re peppered throughout the novel every few pages or so to give the reader a clear visual for this story, inspired by various aspects of Japanese folklore. Often, they’re haunting: stark black-and-white images that depict a god, or the dreamlike setting of the island, or Hyo herself, resolute in her mission to uncover the answers to the many questions that approach her on her journey.
As the story unfurls its complicated mysteries, what struck long after finishing the novel was its earnest reflection on various subject matters. Fate, which Hyo manipulates, is both a persistent force apparent within the pages and a question to ponder. Who is fated to exist on the margins of society? Who endures suffering, why, and to what end? Relationships, written as the concept of en, are another cornerstone of the novel. Sibling bonds, familial duties, and the nature of worship and what that means for the connection between humans and gods are explored extensively in incisive detail.
Hyo the Hellmaker is a grand and sprawling read. It’s easy to get lost in the all-consuming nature of Onogoro’s rituals, quirks, and clashes between esoteric forces. But Hyo’s tribulations do teach one thing: Perservere, and you may find your way out of any entanglement, no matter how hellish.
