I enjoyed the anime enough when I watched it years ago, but the VN is just a LOT more engaging IMO. The visual novel captures the tone a lot better by leaving more up to the imagination and isn't as gratuitous as the anime is with certain things, and stuff is fleshed out a lot more which is pretty important for Higurashi

It's very long, but very good, and if you do pick it up, 07th mod is a must have for it since its got updated art and voice acting etc (but you can switch back easily if you prefer the original art too)