*REVIEW* The Girl from the Well

Synopsis:

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. 

My thoughts:

I really wanted to love this book and the premise sounded AWESOME, very much like The Ring movies that I found quite good. But for some reason, I just couldn't get there with this book at all. I'm thinking it's cause I must be visual with my horror, needing to actually SEE the grisly details, rather than just read about them. And I also just didn't form an emotional connection with any of the characters. In fact, my favorite character was the girl from the well and I don't think that bodes well for the other alive characters in the book.

The Girl from the Well introduces us to Okiku, a malevolent spirit who seeks out those who murder children. The deaths she cause are frightening and stump officials as it seems that the victims drown without water being present. Okiku meets Tarquin, a teenage boy with a malevolent spirit of his own. The spirit inside Tarquin is attempting to break free, and Okiku finds herself drawn to him, wanting to help save him. She's aided by Callie, Tarquin's sweet cousin who finds herself drawn into the dark world of exorcisms and creepy doll rituals. All must travel to Japan to try to put an end to the woman in black's reign of terror... for good. 

I really think that some people will LOVE this book and find it frightening in all the right ways. But again, I just couldn't seem to get there. While the details were there and I felt like I should be scared, I just didn't have any sort of emotional response to this book. The only character I had any feels for whatsoever was Okiku and I was impressed by her choices at the end of the book. But really, I could have gone without reading this and even considered making it a DNF at one point. Definitely not the type of book for me but if reading horror is your jam, this book could be for you. Check it out when it releases in August if you think it's for you. Enjoy! *XOXO*

Expected publication date: August 5, 2014 by Sourcebooks Fire