THE GIRL FROM THE WELL SERIES BY RIN CHUPECO

“It is not in my nature to be interested in the living… but there are many things, I have found, that defy nature.” ~ the girl from the well, rin chupeco

Horror has never been my reading genre of choice (I prefer horror movies, instead), but something, long ago, compelled me to pick up this series & I will NEVER forget it & have read it multiple times.

Based on Japanese folklore (the first book about the well-known ghost story, Bancho Sarayashiki, and the second about the Aokigahara forest which is said to be home of the ghosts of the dead), these stories follow a restless spirit named Okiku who has been dead for 300 years and has made it her mission to take revenge on those who abuse and murder children the way she was murdered. But things change when a boy named Tark with strange tattoos and a stranger past moves to town. Their meeting will plunge both of them into a world of eerie doll rituals and exorcisms and take them from America to Japan while Tark battles the secret inside him that would simply kill to get out.

I have been so attached to these two characters for YEARS. Their fierce bond is something I have seen rarely replicated in all my reading history & you will find yourself laughing, crying, and probably screaming in fear right along with them.

This is such a wonderfully strange, dark, beautiful story of Japanese myths and legends & I would HIGHLY recommend these to literally anyone, even if horror isn’t your go-to.