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Boy am I disappointed. After loving Ring and Spiral, I don't really understand what Suzuki was doing here, or why this book even exists really. Sure it gives more explanation on the conclusions reached in Spiral, but at the same time, without getting into spoilers, it takes the most illogical, bizarre scientific turn than even the scientists in the book spend ages shrugging their shoulder at, unable to explain.

The first 60% of the book move so far away from the supernatural creepiness of Ring and Spiral, going fully-fledged science fiction, focusing on a virus that resembles cancer (that was originally a smallpox virus in the previous books) with no clear explanation as to why. The tape and Sadako aren't properly mentioned until about 62% in where we get a randomly placed 4 pages summary of the events of Ring and Spiral, then go straight back to the science fiction.

I think Suzuki is an excellent writer, and I thoroughly loved the first two books, I think he just lost his way a bit, and had a potentially great idea that just didn't manifest very well, and resulted in an overly stretched out, poorly executed "horror" that read more like a disjointed science fiction. I personally would recommend reading Ring and Spiral, and giving Loop a miss. Whilst this is the "finale", the ending to Spiral is condensed enough that I think it stands well as an ending if you, like me, enjoy ominous horror endings where not everything is fully "resolved" for the characters.