Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco

23 reviews

readsforlove's review against another edition

3.5

Another delightful read from Chupeco. It was after I spent three and a half hours riveted and unmoving that I realized I just need to go read every book by this author. They are incredible. 

The premise was dope AF. A ghost that takes vengeance on the murderers of children? Hell. Yeah. I ate that shit up. It was scary and sad and well written. I loved how it was told from Okiku's point of view, and thought that was a really interesting choice. 

I would have given this a solid four stars, but I had to knock off another half star because of the lack of emotional depth in the story. I really feel like there was a lot of potential to make me sob with the weight of this story. And it was so heavy. Like. Wow. But due to the distance of Okiku's narration, a lot of that emotional weight just didn't happen. Sure, it can be inferred and implied, but the narrative should work to evoke that. (It would have helped if the narration was shared between Okiku and Tark.) I think this is an area that Chupeco has really grown in, having read their most recent books first, so I think the issue is just that this was an early novel from this author. I still really enjoyed it, and have already downloaded the audiobook for the sequel. (I think Tark is the narrator in this one, which is very exciting!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Stalking

weedhorse69's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I had so much fun reading this book :DDD

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse

alex2691's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

heather_harrison's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

 The Girl from the Well follows the story of Okiku, a vindictive ghost that stalks predatory men as a result of the horrific death she experienced 300 years ago. She doles out not only karma against their transgressions, but also seeks to free the children they have harmed; who are bound to their killers so they can move on from their next life. 

She meets Tarquin (Tark) - a young Japanese American teenage boy with strange tattoos, and something else which is stuff off about him. His mother has attempted to kill him twice now, and so with Tark and his cousin - we embark on this creepy tale. The relationships between these two and Okiku is amusing and heartfelt. 

Okiku, the narrator of the book have a penchant for counting things, which really just kept pulling me out of the audiobook. 

It feels like Chupeco did a good amount of research surrounding the Japanese aspects of the story. However, there was one seemingly throwaway line which really just threw me headfirst out of the story - 

"2004. Gruesome discovery in Queensland, Australia. Fully clothed body found washed up on the beach in North Narrabeen in Sydney and soon identified as a Patrick Neville, 52. A local cars salesman... Sharks and other large fish are not known to inhabit this particular coast..." 

To which I say - Sydney is not close to Queensland, another state which borders the state Sydney is located in. Likewise, there is no end of the sharks and other large fish that are found between these two locations. This careless oversight seems at odds with how well thought out the rest of the story and research would have been. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse

tspice24's review

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

brickwall27's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I am quite the fan of removing assholes and she is very good at it 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Grief, and Abandonment

p0kefan24601's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Murder

Minor: Child abuse and Kidnapping

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

The Details:
Narrated by Andi Arndt
Unabridged

This reminded me of Anna Dressed in Blood.

There's were scenes that generally terrified me, and it amplified from listening this at home, on my own, in the dark. I loved that.

I liked that the main perspective was from Okiku, the ghost, as she observed life around her. It particularly interesting when some touched with the sight interacted with her in some way.

I was fascinated by Okiku's habit of counting. I think this is usually used in myths and legends to distract some of the paranormal beings, but here it felt self soothing and we found out the reasoning for it later, which added to a compelling back story.

The dolls were really creepy! 

I definitely zoned out during some scenes, but generally this was hooking and intriguing.

I immediately went and listened to the companion novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Vomit

vidalovesspice's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying and Torture

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death