The Girl From the Well by Rin Chupeco

August 5, 2014     erinbook     Book review

The Girl From the Well by Rin Chupeco


Release Date: August 5, 2014
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
272 Pages
Received: Netgalley
Format: eARC


Rating: 

3.5 Nuts
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Description: You may think me biased, being murdered myself. But my state of being has nothing to do with the curiosity toward my own species, if we can be called such. We do not go gentle, as your poet encourages, into that good night.
A dead girl walks the streets.
She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.
And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.
Because the boy has a terrifying secret – one that would just kill to get out.
The Girl from the Well is A YA Horror novel pitched as “Dexter” meets “The Grudge”, based on a well-loved Japanese ghost story.
Review: I wanted to really love this book, I wanted to be able to rant and rave about the awesomeness that is this book. As it stands, I can’t really do that. I mean, it was ok. It wasn’t particularly bad. For some reason I just could not get into the book, it did not grab me and hang on tight. I found that it was easy to get distracted from this book or to put it down in favor of something else.
That being said, the “Dexter meets The Grudge” tag-line is very accurate. I immediately thought of The Grudge when I started reading the book. That sort of thing may not be everyone’s speed, I personally love The Grudge though. Unlike when I watched The Grudge, I couldn’t feel like I was immersed in what was happening. Still, I did enjoy the Grudge aspect, and the change of scenery from the same old settings in YA.
Before I continue on talking about content, I want to take a moment and talk covers. Raise your hand if you can guess my reaction to this cover. Well, I love it. I love the birds (I kind of thought of the movie The Crow for a minute), it’s creepy, and I love the base color. No really, I’m a bit obsessed with it.
Now, this story is based on an old Japanese ghost story in which said ghost avenges the murders of children by taking care of their murderers. The spirits of these dead children are tied in a way to their murderers by some kind of tether. Killing the murderer frees the spirit. Pretty cool, and the opening of the book really had me interested. It’s creepy in the best way.
From there I just kept losing interest. I’d set the book down and pick up something else, then come back. So while the boo isn’t bad, it just couldn’t hook me. That can be a bit of a problem. Compared to Mortal Danger, also a creepy book, it just doesn’t hold up. Mortal Danger had me hook, line, and sinker. The other characters in this book, while ok, did not make me really feel for them at all. If I don’t care what happens to you then why am I reading a book about you? Queue the boredom.
So I’d say the book was decent, but not amazing, not really even GOOD. Just sort of ok.
Have you read The Girl From the Well yet? What did you think, tell me in the comments.
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