99 problems, and a book ain't one

    Let me just start by saying that I absolutely love horror. I've been watching and reading it since way before I was probably supposed to. Even when it scares the living crap out of me, in fact that's the exact time when I love it the most. The Girl From The Well definitely had a few spine-chilling moments. It was sort of this great mix of The Ring meets The Grudge, with something completely unique, and I really liked it!

   I loved the idea of this spirit that reaped her vengeance upon the real life monsters. Who doesn't like a good anti-hero?!

    "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 the storms without season, in time without flux. We do not go because people do not let us go." 

    This spirit, Okiku is something quite horrifying, but truly only to those out there who are horrifying in their own gruesome ways. She is an avenger of sorts for those children out there that meet their untimely, unfortunate ends at the hands of the worst kind of predators out there. I loved this! I couldn't help but to root for her to exact her revenge on these terrible people. I reveled in it as much as the monster Okiku was did. We did ultimately get to see a.....softer side if you will, of Okiku. A side of her that took interest in a troubled boy who was struggling with his own demons, something far more sinister than Okiku.

   This interest sparked a real change in Okiku and I enjoyed seeing a side of her that protected a child in need, rather than just avenged an already destroyed one. I also loved that no matter the changes in her, she still was a true force to be reckoned with, and one that wouldn't forget what she had become and her purpose.

    "This Okiku is clawing at her own face, black bile bubbling up from the wounds scored into her skin. Her mouth is wide and black and hollow, and she is screaming soundlessly, horrid gurgles at the base of her mangled throat, where bone protrudes. But the most frightening thing about this Okiku are her eyes, as they contain nothing but hollow sockets stemming with black leech-like maggots, and look nothing at all like eyes. It was this Okiku that drowned in this well three hundred years ago, the Okiku I was when I first began my existence as a dreadful spirit, as a nothing-more. This Okiku only remembered

pain

suffering

hate

vengeance."

     While their were things that I LOVED about this books, there was equally things that I did not enjoy. I found it confusing at times when the story would switch from 1st to 3rd person, even at times in the middle of a paragraph. I think the author was going for something kind of poetic and different here, and there a few times where it worked for the particular scene she was trying to get across, but mostly it was just confusing. It just didn't work well for me. Also, the constant counting of EVERYTHING that Okiku does throughout the entire story was just annoying. I get that she never rested, I also realize the importance in numbers to this particular spirit, but enough was enough. It was too much. Count just one more thing Okiku, just one more...

   I really liked Okiku, but the other characters didn't do all that much for me. Tarquin was alright, but if I'm being honest I was much more interested in his plight than I was in him. I was totally intrigued by his struggles, and his sarcasm was appreciated by me at times, but he just wasn't as remarkable as his situation was. Callie, Tarquin's cousin came of as generic to me. There was nothing notable or unique about her, and I just couldn't seem to bring myself to care if she continued being in the story or not.

   All in all this was a pretty good story with some quite creepy scenes. I may or may not have spent a night staying up rather late with a Disney movie playing in the background after having read some of this in bed. Who am I kidding, I totally did that.

So thank you for that Rin Chupeco. I think that this is the first novel by this author, I'd say she's off to a good start, and I would definitely be willing to read more from her in the future.

   I received a copy of this book from SOURCEBOOKS Fire via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review