The Girl from the Well

Starred review from June 16, 2014
Chupeco makes a powerful debut with this unsettling ghost story, drawing from the same ancient Japanese legend that inspired The Ring and other horror pieces. Okiku is a vengeful spirit who wanders the world, tracking down those who abuse and murder children, killing them to free their victims’ souls. When Okiku encounters 15-year-old Tark Halloway, she discovers that he’s haunted by a terrifying spirit who is capable of great violence. Okiku has dispassionately existed only to take vengeance, and the unexpected fondness she develops for Tark and his cousin Callie eventually takes them to Japan, where Okiku confronts her own tragic origin and sees a chance to rid Tark of his demon. Told in a marvelously disjointed fashion from Okiku’s numbers-obsessed point of view, this story unfolds with creepy imagery and an intimate appreciation for Japanese horror, myth, and legend. The tropes Chupeco invokes will be familiar to any fan of J-horror, but the execution is spine-tingling, relying more on cinematic cuts than outright gore. Ages 14–up. Agent: Nicole LaBombard and Rebecca Podos, Rees Literary Agency.

A Japanese ghost tries to fight an evil spirit that haunts a 15-year-old boy in this strange, Stephen King-like horror story.Okiku was brutally murdered 300 years ago at age 16 and has roamed the world ever since, killing child murderers. Murderers unwittingly carry the ghosts of those they have killed on their backs, making them easy for Okiku to spot. She's chasing down a particularly nasty serial killer when she encounters Tarquin, the son of an American man and a Japanese woman. Now institutionalized, Tarquin's mother inscribed strange tattoos on the boy, which act as seals to imprison the evil ghost inside him. The family travels to Japan after Tarquin's captive spirit horribly murders his mother so they can scatter the dead woman's ashes at a shrine. There, they meet some women who can try to free Tarquin from his spirit tormentor, but exorcisms aren't easy. Chupeco bases her modern horror story on an old Japanese folk tale about a vengeful spirit named Okiku. She writes in Okiku's formal, ghostly voice, requiring readers to piece together strange episodes that introduce not only Okiku, but also Tarquin and his family, only slowly revealing the severity of the danger Tarquin faces. They come together eventually to reveal the full story and, with their opacity, contribute to the book's slowly mounting suspense.A chilling, bloody ghost story that resonates. (Paranormal suspense. 14-18) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2014

Gr 9 Up-This tale continues and reimagines the Japanese folktale of "Okiku and the Nine Plates." The title character is a ghost wandering Earth to free the souls of murdered children who live chained to their murderers. The author delivers on this interesting premise, which lends itself to some creepy moments, as the protagonist avenges the murdered children. A human teenage boy, Tark, catches her attention because she can sense something in him, tied to the strange moving tattoos his mother gave him when he was five. As she gets to know more about Tark and his disturbed mother, a friendship forms as they travel to Japan to figure out his story. The relationship between Okiku and Tark could have used a little more development to make the ending plausible, but readers used to fast-paced horror films will easily suspend disbelief. A dark novel that will appeal to horror fans, lovers of Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl (S. & S., 2008), and also potentially to teens interested in Japanese culture.-Sarah Jones, Clinton-Macomb Public Library, MI

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