REVIEW: The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco

            I am where dead children go.
            Okiku is a lonely soul. She has wandered the world for centuries, freeing the spirits of the murdered dead. Once a victim herself, she now takes the lives of killers with the vengeance they’re due. But releasing innocent ghosts from their ethereal tethers does not bring Okiku peace. Still she drifts on.
            Such is her existence, until she meets Tark. Evil writhes beneath the moody teen’s skin, trapped by a series of intricate tattoos. While the neighbors fear him, Okiku knows the boy is not a monster. Tark needs to be freed from the malevolence that clings to him. There’s just one problem: if the demon dies, so does its host.

            There aren’t a lot of books that come around with fresh writing in the young adult world. The young adult world is largely controlled by trends. Rin Chupeco’s The Girl from the Well brings a lot of things into the genre that had not previously been there.
            The Girl from the Well reads like a horror film, which is reasonable since the legend Okiku belongs to be the same legend from which the film The Ring was born. I knew from the first chapter, when I was introduced to Okiku and her spine-tingling profession that I was going to love the book. Girl who hangs upside down and kills murderers? Sign me up! But not only are there a lot of really spooky scares, but the writing is superb. Plus, the Japanese lore shined through beautifully, as did all of the characters.
            There weren’t a lot of things I thought could have been done better, honestly. The only thing that stuck out to me as annoying was the lack of emphasis on the fact that if the demon inside Tarquin dies, he dies too. This wasn’t really showcased well; only in tiny little actions do we see it. I definitely think the ending could have used a little more build up in this department to make the ending pop better. Then there was the awkward shift between the U.S. and Japan that was obvious. There was just too much of a lapse in time between leaving the U.S. and finally going to Yagen Valley, and it was awkward.
            But that’s pretty much it for the cons. The characters were all amazingly well rounded, and the method of making Okiku the narrator/protagonist/omniscient POV was perfect. There were so many places that we as the readers needed to be, and Okiku being the main character provided for that.
            This might be my shortest review because the book was just brilliant. The lore, the horror, the characters, the plot. I loved it all. Plus, it’s still NaNoWriMo while I’m writing up this review, and that means I’m a little busy. But at least I’m not neglecting my other duties. Seriously, though, check out this book if you love horror even slightly as much as I do. I think this book could bring some great new ideas and stories to the young adult genre.

XOXO Tia