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inverarity) wrote2021-10-31 11:24 am
inverarity) wrote2021-10-31 11:24 am
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Book Review: The Girl from the Well, by Rin Chupeco
A ghost story about Yokai and vengeful ghost girls, unfortunately too YA to be spooky.
Sourcebooks Fire, 2014, 267 pages
As you might have noticed from my last few reviews, I like to stock up on horror novels in October. I initially thought The Girl from the Well would be a spooky Japanese horror story, with its obvious resemblance to The Ring and many other stories about sinister long-haired ghosts, but it turns out it's written by a YA author and while it does indeed have ghosts and other yokai (Japanese spirits or demons) and plenty of graphic violence, including child murders and drownings and people shoved down wells, it lacked any real fright.
Based on the tale of Okiku, the protagonist of The Girl from the Well is the original Okiku, a vengeful ghost who now walks the world as a vigilante spirit. Okiku is the narrator of most of the book, but there are some confusing shifts in POV, in which Okiku seemingly steps into the minds of the other protagonists to give their thoughts.
The story doesn't exactly explain how Okiku wound up in America, other than that she's been around for hundreds of years and has learned to travel away from her homeland. Having wandered the world for 300 years, Okiku now hunts for child murderers, apparently feeling some empathy for other young murder victims even though she wasn't exactly a child when she died.
When she encounters Tark, a "special" American boy, I was afraid at first that this was going to be a cringey YA ship, but the reason he's "special" is that his mother went insane, inked him with magical tattoos, and then tried to kill him. Okiku is first drawn to him because he's being stalked by a serial killer. While she's hunting the serial killer, she becomes aware that there is an even darker spirit attached to Tark.
From there, the story actually gets more interesting as the author delves deeper into Japanese folklore, with miko (shrine maidens), yokai, and of course, the tale of Okiku. It still felt like the American characters were sort of forced into the narrative to make it not just a Japanese ghost story, but there are a lot of ghosts and demons, some fairly clever magic worked out that's consistent with Japanese folklore, and graphic Haunting of Hill House and The Ring style violence and creepiness.
It was still a YA story, so the characters (even Okiku) are all youngish and rather shallow, but while this was hardly bloodcurdling horror, it was also not just a juvenile ghost romance. It's the first book in a series; not sure if I am interested enough to read the next one.
My complete list of book reviews.
Sourcebooks Fire, 2014, 267 pages
Okiku wants vengeance...and she gets it. Whenever there's a monster hurting a child - the same way she was hurt 300 years ago in Japan - her spirit is there to deliver punishment. But one American boy draws her like no other. The two are pulled into a world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from the American Midwest to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan. The boy is not a monster, but something evil writhes beneath his skin, trapped by a series of intricate tattoos. Can Okiku protect him? Or is her presence only bringing more harm?
As you might have noticed from my last few reviews, I like to stock up on horror novels in October. I initially thought The Girl from the Well would be a spooky Japanese horror story, with its obvious resemblance to The Ring and many other stories about sinister long-haired ghosts, but it turns out it's written by a YA author and while it does indeed have ghosts and other yokai (Japanese spirits or demons) and plenty of graphic violence, including child murders and drownings and people shoved down wells, it lacked any real fright.
Based on the tale of Okiku, the protagonist of The Girl from the Well is the original Okiku, a vengeful ghost who now walks the world as a vigilante spirit. Okiku is the narrator of most of the book, but there are some confusing shifts in POV, in which Okiku seemingly steps into the minds of the other protagonists to give their thoughts.
The story doesn't exactly explain how Okiku wound up in America, other than that she's been around for hundreds of years and has learned to travel away from her homeland. Having wandered the world for 300 years, Okiku now hunts for child murderers, apparently feeling some empathy for other young murder victims even though she wasn't exactly a child when she died.
When she encounters Tark, a "special" American boy, I was afraid at first that this was going to be a cringey YA ship, but the reason he's "special" is that his mother went insane, inked him with magical tattoos, and then tried to kill him. Okiku is first drawn to him because he's being stalked by a serial killer. While she's hunting the serial killer, she becomes aware that there is an even darker spirit attached to Tark.
From there, the story actually gets more interesting as the author delves deeper into Japanese folklore, with miko (shrine maidens), yokai, and of course, the tale of Okiku. It still felt like the American characters were sort of forced into the narrative to make it not just a Japanese ghost story, but there are a lot of ghosts and demons, some fairly clever magic worked out that's consistent with Japanese folklore, and graphic Haunting of Hill House and The Ring style violence and creepiness.
It was still a YA story, so the characters (even Okiku) are all youngish and rather shallow, but while this was hardly bloodcurdling horror, it was also not just a juvenile ghost romance. It's the first book in a series; not sure if I am interested enough to read the next one.
My complete list of book reviews.