Proceed With Caution:
This book contains scary images, death, abuse, murder, pedophilia, and blood and gore.
The Basics:
The Girl From the Well follows three-hundred-year old ghost, Okiku, who was drowned at age sixteen. Now she roams the earth and takes revenge on those who prey on kids and teens. She's not all rage and horror though, as she protects fifteen-year-old Tarquin from a truly evil presence that has attached itself to him.
My Thoughts:
The Girl From the Well was well outside my comfort zone, as I do not typically read Horror. However, I wanted to try something new, and sadly it just didn't work out. I liked the idea of Okiku killing murders and child molesters, but her sudden attachment to Callie and Tarquin was kind of weird. I also felt like I didn't get to know them at all, mostly because of the narration.
The narration of The Girl From the Well felt really off. It's hard to tell if this is completely from Okiku's perspective or if it alternates. Okiku is telling the story in first person, but as she's an outside observer rather than an active participant most of the time it reads more like third person. But there are times we're in Callie's head, so did it switch to third person from Calli's POV or is Okiku omniscient? It got confusing and took me out of the story.
It was also weird how Tarquin and Callie just conveniently had life changes that put them in Japan exactly when they needed to be. Tarquin's mom gives some ominous last words directing them to her home village to break the curse. But instead of having to find a way to get there, Tarquin's dad just happens to need to transfer to Tokyo and Callie just signs up for a last minute school trip. Right.
Overall, I wouldn't consider The Girl From the Well scary. There are definitely some scary scenes that had my heart racing, but they were few and far between. Thankfully. I am a baby. If this were a movie, I would have been crying under a blanket. But as a whole, this was pretty tame since Okiku really isn't bad. And the bad ghost is hardly present. There's also a distance due to the narration which keeps us apart from the action.
In the end, The Girl From the Well was okay. It definitely had some great eerie scenes, but the characters and plot didn't pull me in at all. The narration was the biggest hurdle though.