The Girl from the Well

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco is an atmospheric horror novel that will leave readers with a sense of unease. The story follows Okiku, a vengeful spirit who haunts those who harm children. The author’s writing style is hauntingly beautiful, with vivid descriptions that bring the story to life. The novel is told from Okiku’s perspective, giving readers a unique and fascinating look at the world of Japanese folklore.The author's use of sensory language is particularly impressive. The characters are complex and well-depicted, each with their own quirks and motivations. Okiku is a particularly intriguing character, as she is both frightening and sympathetic. The author balances horror with emotional depth, exploring themes of revenge, grief, and redemption.Overall, The Girl from the Well is a well-crafted and engaging horror novel that will appeal to fans of the genre. Highly recommended!***Purchased and read for my own enjoyment

We are the fates that people fear to become. We are what happens to good persons and to bad persons and to everyone in between. Murdered deads live in storms without season, in time without flux. We do not go because people do not let us go.I frankly haven’t heard of this book before, or I genuinely just don’t remember it, until, I read an article about it the other month. Read it here.I usually shy away from anything horror related, mainly because I’m a complete wuss. Even though, I’ve seen handful of popular Japanese and Filipino thriller films before. Rest assured, I watched them through my fingers or with a pillow barricading half my face. You don’t make a girl with a wild imagination watch gory movies. You just don’t. It usually do not end well for the spirits and I.Inspired by the well-known Japanese ghost story “Bancho Sarayashiki”, The Girl from the Well follows the story of Okiku. A dead girl who died in the well, three hundred years ago. A vengeful ghost who haunts predatory men.Then she saw the boy with a peculiar tattoos, Tarquin. Okiku could not help but to find herself, unexpectedly drawn to him and his world and to the darkness that follows him around. She formed an attachment and protectiveness to him. Soon after, Tark have to confront the shadow that follows him. They have to go in Japan. There, Okiku would be force to revisit her own demons.The Girl from the Well is not what I expected it to be and that is obviously not a bad thing. I was highly anticipating, I will pee my pants, but instead I scored a flowery and lyrical narration. While horror might not be my cup of tea, these things is totally are. It is lovely and delicious. Describing this book as such, totally say so much about my character.Okiku, the narrator of the book have a penchant for counting things. I am ferociously captivated by that. I love seeing characters with little quirks and habits seamlessly woven to the plot. Aside from that, she is an engaging story teller.“Men, right? Bastards, no matter the time or place.”She is vindictive, have a thirst to make offenders pay for their inhuman transgression.I release her soul outside the Stained Shirt Man’s apartment. By then she is nothing more than a glowing ball of fire cradled against my withered form. I close my eyes, trying to absorb every bit of warmth I can take from her—to bring out and remember during other colder nights—before lifting my hands to the sky. Unbidden, she rises up, floating briefly above me as if granting benediction, before she continues to soar higher and higher like an autumn balloon, until she becomes another speck of cloud, another trick of the light.Fire,fly.But she also have a heart. She loves freeing all those children, who are bound to their killers so they can move on from their next life.Meet Tarquin, the half Japanese main character of the story. All his life, he’s been haunted of things, he can’t control, his strange tattoos he always try to cover up. The scandals that surrounded him from his previous schools. The history of her mother, the fact that she attempted to strangled him countless of times. The old lady who follows him around.I’ve always struggled connecting with male characters. I supposed, most cases it’s the way how they are written. But unlike his YA counterparts, I couldn’t connect with, Tarquin resonates with me. He deals with his problem. He is open-minded, to things that are unknown. He could also be funny and adorable.Just the other day, I found a salon that specializes in giving girls crooked teeth. And this is considered adorable, if, uh, Japanese girls who look like vampires needing braces are supposed to turn men on. Also, there's a holistic care spa specializing in dogs. I think in my next life I'd like to come back as some rich Japanese lady's labradoodle and enjoy all these spoils. Kinda ironic that most hot spring resorts allow for dogs, but not for people with tattoos. So I guess in this current Japanese social hierarchy, we've got Japanese > pets > me.Plot wise, its apparent Chupeco did a fine research. The Japanese culture is much embedded to the story. There is explanation, for those who are unfamiliar with certain phrases. It is well written. I love how she writes her words. While I couldn’t vouch for the Japanese representation. I could guarantee, The Girl from the Well is a remarkable debut.I’m so excited to read more of Rin Chupeco’s books. It’s always nice to see, a fellow Filipino doing an admirable work.Review also posted at Hollywood News Source.

4/5 starsWhen I read the blurb on this book, I was intrigued. Was this the same ghost that the movie <em>The Ring </em>was based on? Yes, and no. Okiku was thrown into a well where she died and comes back in the form of a vengeful ghost. The difference is, Okiku only kills murderers of children. The ghost in <em>The Ring</em> killed indiscriminately.I thought the first chapter was one of the best horror book intros I've ever read. The way the author builds the tension and leaves bread crumbs for the reader to find was awesome. While the tension didn't continue for the rest of the book, nor did I find it particularly scary, I still enjoyed the story and learned a lot about Japanese exorcisms.Tarquin is a fifteen year old boy whose crazy mother tattooed him up to protect him, but every time he visits her in the mental hospital she tries to kill him. Strange, supernatural events have surrounded him for most of his life. His cousin Callie and father try to protect him. He was involved in a death of one of the kids at his prior school (One thing I wish was for more development on the boy who was killed and also the character of Sandra, who seemed more of a plot device than a character.) When his crazy mother dies, he and his father go to Japan to spread her ashes. Callie, who happens to be enrolled in a Japanese program for college goes too. They meet up to spread her ashes at Chinsei shrine.Okiku, who has been following Tarquin and protected him from a child murderer/rapist, accompanies them to Japan. Both Tarq and Callie can see her at times. She is always counting objects in rooms wherever she goes, but when there is only nine of a certain object, she freaks out. The reason for this is one of the best parts of her story.************************Spoiler**************************** Tarq becomes ill and when they go to the shrine, the women there reveal that he is ill due to being possessed and that his mother was a powerful exorcist. She housed an evil spirit within Tarq, then places binding seals in the form of tattoos all over him to prevent the bad spirit from escaping. The problem is, the seals are fading and she is growing more powerful.The exorcism doesn't go as planned, and they have to find a less evil evil spirit to inhabit Tark*************************************************End Spoiler******************************************************************************************************************I am more familiar with the Catholic rite of Exorcism, so reading about a Japanese exorcism was really interesting. Even though it is a different culture, some of the techniques used to rid the possessed person were the same.The <em>mikos</em> and <em>obaasan</em> (female exorcists), drive the evil spirits into ichimatsu dolls similar to the way Jesus drove the evil spirits into the herd of pigs.Kagura, a <em>miko</em> said this:<em> When a spirit of such malignancy vacates a body, it leaves behind negative energy that can serve as a beacon to other less powerful but still dangerous demons.</em>It reminded me of this from the bible: <em>When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, I will return to the house I left. When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.</em> Luke 11:24-26Good story. Parts of it dragged, and some of the tangents the plot went through seemed unnecessary, but overall it was interesting and informative.

I really enjoyed how this book has been written in the ghost's point of view. Since the popularity of The Ring and the Grudge we have always viewed the scary woman with the long hair as the villain and nothing else. In this book, while she is still scary, another side is shown. This was a page-turner, a fun read. I will be buying book 2 right about... Now.

This story is told like a horror film, from the perspective of the one person who can see and understand almost everything: Okiku, the stringy-haired ghost girl who died centuries ago. Her mindset is both alien and all-too-familiar, making for a first-person narrator whose thoughts on her surroundings, goals, and fate are both chilling and heart-wrenching. I bought and read the sequel as well, but was deeply disappointed to find a human had taken over narration duties. Okiku's first-person perspective provides at least 50% of the book's flavour, and I hope that any future installments will be told from her POV.

I really loved this story, especially the Japanese myths surrounding it.

I really enjoyed this. Ghost stories can be hit and miss with me because far too many authors seem to forget that the point of a ghost in fiction is to mirror the problems of the main characters. Ghost stories are about people, not about the ghosts. That's the mark of good horror imo. A ghost story where the pov character is the ghost is an even harder sell. And yet Rin Chupeco has pulled off both masterfully with this book.The main character is a malevolent Japanese spirit with a special interest in avenging children and wronged women. Her style of retribution is horrific, bloody and extremely violent. And then Tarquin Halloway comes to her attention. A strange boy covered in mystical tattoos who trails a far darker presence behind him. For the first time, it occurs to the MC that she can protect children as well as avenge them. What follows is an intense, fast paced and at times epically creepy story about revenge and atonement, family and forgiveness.I loved the interweaving of Japanese mythology, much of which I was familiar with, and which I enjoyed seeing carefully mixed with Western understanding of ghosts and spirits. I must be super dense though because despite the title, I didn't realise it was thatgirl from the well. The one which all Japanese horror such as the Ring and the Grudge were based on. It was only when Chupeco mentions Himeji Castle that it clicked - because I have visited the castle when I went to Japan and I saw Okeku's well!My absolute favourite character was Callie. She was brave without being stupid. Compassionate without being insipid. Openminded without being preachy. I really hope she gets a cameo in the companion novel which I must now go and read. Tark is also an engaging character and I never thought I'd feel so connected to an inexplicable spirit of vengeance as I did with Okeku. This was a brilliant book. Highly recommend for lovers of horror and those who want a ghost story with a twist.

I wasn’t too sure going into this book how it was going to turn out as I hadn’t heard to much about it but I can safely say that it was worth the read.This book is told from the perspective of Okuki, a revengeful spirit who after her own tragic past has taken it upon herself to set the victims of child murderers free by killing their killer. Out with seeking revenge Okuki stays out of the way of the living until she comes across a boy with a secret of his own and leads her into a battle with a being that may just be stronger than she is.Okuki is by far the best part of this book. She is definitely the most developed character in the book, she is morally grey and has a brilliant story arc. She is also terrifying. I liked the other main characters Tark and his cousin Callie but they sort of faded into the background a bit as Okuki stole the show.This is such an atmospheric book, it’s creepy and unsettling from the get go. It’s a slow burn story that reels you in from the first line and will leave you feeling tense and edgy the whole way through.Unfortunately, I wasn’t too keen on the ending it just seemed to fall a little flat for me. I don’t know whether this may be because they were setting up for a sequel when I feel it would have made a really good standalone.Overall, this was an enjoyable, spooky read and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.