Book Review: “The Girl From The Well” (The Girl From The Well #1) by Rin Chupeco

“The Girl From The Well” (The Girl From The Well #1) by Rin Chupeco (2015)

Genre: YA, Fiction, Horror

Page Length: 258 pages (paperback edition)

Synopsis:

A dead girl walks the streets.

She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.

And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.

Because the boy has a terrifying secret – one that would just kill to get out.

Review:

I’ve heard a lot of buzz about Chupeco’s novels since this series was released and wanted to give it a read for the upcoming Halloween season. It follows the story of Tarquin, a teenage boy who is haunted by a malicious spirit known as the “woman in black”. People avoid him because of the strange tattoos that align his body. He also doesn’t want to get close to others for fear he might put them danger and being ostracized again.

Tarquin’s paths collide with Okiku a vengeful spirit who has taken curiosity in him. Okiku can best be described as a girl from the well as the title states. she definitely reminds of the embodiment of J-Horror and is unsettling throughout the entire novel. from the descriptive of her features that reveal how when she died and her true dark nature. She is terrifying yet acts as an a avenger for the spirits of children who died in a horrible way. I was so creeped out by how she could show up out of thin air at any time. This added to over creepy feeling I had while reading the novel.

What set this book apart from other “ghost stories” is that the book is told from the perspective of Okiku and it works very well for this type of story. It was unique for me to read the book from this view as it is usually told from the ones being haunted. I loved the attention to detail for the horror, description of the undead, subtle jump-scares, and how Chupeco makes the reader feel uneasy but eager to find out the mystery of Tarquin’s curse and it’s background. The tie into the origins of Yurei (ghosts) in Japan was interesting to read about.

There were some twists and turns that constantly propelled the story forward and I was entertained/spooked for the entire story. I’m looking forward to reading the second installment in the series and more of Chupeco’s novels.

Final Verdict: