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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
I read this as a part of the Read Harder challenge- not my normal cup of tea but it was very good. Perhaps it'll take a me a little while to forget the imagery of the girl from the well but that's ok. It's very well written and the story keeps you turning the pages to see how it all resolves.
I listened to this on audiobook. To be honest - I think I would have enjoyed reading it more. It didn’t draw me in as much as I would have liked. However I loved reading the Bone Witch series by this author.
Really enjoyed this. A bizarre narrator in the story (an actual Japanese demon/ghost) Plenty of gore, nice scene setting and some very interesting characters. Would have been a 5 star but I feel the ending was rushed. I suppose they want to get you to pick up book 2 straight away.
The audio reader is fantastic. Would recommend to anyone who likes Japanese folk lore, customs and beliefs. This gave extra meat to the bones of the book and made me want to go there soon. I googled quite a bit from this book. I think physical copies at a good price would be perfect!
The audio reader is fantastic. Would recommend to anyone who likes Japanese folk lore, customs and beliefs. This gave extra meat to the bones of the book and made me want to go there soon. I googled quite a bit from this book. I think physical copies at a good price would be perfect!
DNF at around 20 pages. The writing style just isn't for me, I found it too hard to connect to when every other line was something I had to decipher quickly before I could move on.
A really good book, especially since it deals with a topic not many books I've come across do. The only thing I would have to complain about is the ending, but that's due to subjective reasoning as I don't like real-life people or legends being overly influenced, for the lack of a better word, by fictional characters since it trivialises them in my opinion. But the book is fantastic despite that.
This felt like two books. One set in the US. Then there is an awkward and unrealistic transition to Japan. This transition is filled with a lot of "stage business" to explain why and how the whole stories picks up from the US and moves wholesale over to Japan. Additionally, there is an excessive amount of exposition, of background, of conversation with the purpose of conveying background facts. There is a little passage when - poof -- out of nowhere two of the lead characters turn into active, long-winded email correspondents. This does not last very long. Jarringly, the ghost narrator is confused by modern technology to the point she can not name and is confused by e-mail but is able to call a laptop a "laptop."
The climactic ending is well done and vivid.
There is a great deal of promise here.
But it has a pretty long third quarter where it sags and loses its way.
The climactic ending is well done and vivid.
There is a great deal of promise here.
But it has a pretty long third quarter where it sags and loses its way.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I read this book months ago. I must have forgotten to rate it. I really liked it.
Okiku and Tarquin were good characters.
Okiku is the (murdered) Girl in the Well. She now delivers vengeance for other victims. Tarquin is half Japanese. He is covered in strange tattoos.
There were chills and retribution. You got to learn the story of the evil spirit/demon that is haunting Tarquin.
My only problem was the way Tarquins mother was written. It smacked of bad horror movie. Not her being crazy or why. The way she was written.
I also feel like there is A LOT going on. Okiku is very busy getting vengeance. But, that is not necessarily a minus.
Okiku, is a part of Japanese folklore. That's one thing I really liked.
I would definitely recommend.
Okiku and Tarquin were good characters.
Okiku is the (murdered) Girl in the Well. She now delivers vengeance for other victims. Tarquin is half Japanese. He is covered in strange tattoos.
There were chills and retribution. You got to learn the story of the evil spirit/demon that is haunting Tarquin.
My only problem was the way Tarquins mother was written. It smacked of bad horror movie. Not her being crazy or why. The way she was written.
I also feel like there is A LOT going on. Okiku is very busy getting vengeance. But, that is not necessarily a minus.
Okiku, is a part of Japanese folklore. That's one thing I really liked.
I would definitely recommend.
Okiko is a spirit that wanders the world freeing the spirits of murdered children. She was murdered herself, and now she takes the lives of killers and releases the innocent ghosts. One day she meets Tark, a grumpy teen with some pretty weird tattoos. Something evil clings to Tark, but Okiko knows he is not evil. There is a dark spirit inside of Tark, trapped only by the tattoos. Okiko, Tark, and Tark's cousin Callie try to free Tark, without killing him too. The Girl from the Well is filled with the paranormal, evil doll rituals, exorcisms, spirits, and ghosts.
I was pretty torn between a 3 and a 4 star rating on this one. In the beginning of The Girl from the Well I was a little bit put off by the writing style. It starts off in Okiko's point of view with her saying, "I am where dead children go." At first I was like, what the hell does that mean? Once the story moved on a bit everything started to make more sense though. The style of prose was different and it took a bit of time to get adjusted to it. Surprisingly the style of prose ended up suiting the book very well.
The Girl from the Well takes inspiration from a Japanese legend (the same one Sadako/Samara from The Ring was based on) and has a few parts that did remind me of The Ring and The Grudge. Which both of those movies creeped me out, and this book did in a few parts too.
***Side note: Once I went to a haunted house and someone was dressed as the girl from The Ring (which is scary!) and she touched me!! They aren't supposed to touch you! I about died. It turned out the person dressed up as Samara was a guy, and he knew one of my friends that I was with. So he was just trying to say hey to my friend. It was still freaky. ***
So you see this whole creepy girl with long hair covering her face, coming out of wells or dangling from ceilings is a bit scary to me. Which is why I ended up at the 4 star rating instead of 3 stars. I've never read a YA novel that creeped me out at all, and this one did in some parts. So that's worth an extra star to me because I'm a huge horror fan!
I obviously recommend this for fans of The Ring, The Grudge, and other scary Japanese shit.
http://angelerin.blogspot.com/
I was pretty torn between a 3 and a 4 star rating on this one. In the beginning of The Girl from the Well I was a little bit put off by the writing style. It starts off in Okiko's point of view with her saying, "I am where dead children go." At first I was like, what the hell does that mean? Once the story moved on a bit everything started to make more sense though. The style of prose was different and it took a bit of time to get adjusted to it. Surprisingly the style of prose ended up suiting the book very well.
The Girl from the Well takes inspiration from a Japanese legend (the same one Sadako/Samara from The Ring was based on) and has a few parts that did remind me of The Ring and The Grudge. Which both of those movies creeped me out, and this book did in a few parts too.
***Side note: Once I went to a haunted house and someone was dressed as the girl from The Ring (which is scary!) and she touched me!! They aren't supposed to touch you! I about died. It turned out the person dressed up as Samara was a guy, and he knew one of my friends that I was with. So he was just trying to say hey to my friend. It was still freaky. ***
So you see this whole creepy girl with long hair covering her face, coming out of wells or dangling from ceilings is a bit scary to me. Which is why I ended up at the 4 star rating instead of 3 stars. I've never read a YA novel that creeped me out at all, and this one did in some parts. So that's worth an extra star to me because I'm a huge horror fan!
I obviously recommend this for fans of The Ring, The Grudge, and other scary Japanese shit.
http://angelerin.blogspot.com/