Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco

10 reviews

dreamerfreak's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

dodie_sullivan's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Kidnapping and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death

the_books_music_life's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

If you like audiobooks you HAVE to listen to the audio version of this book. The narrator is fantastic, the breaks and skips she does the she's reading reflect perfectly with what Okiku is feeling/thinking/experiencing. It adds a whole other level to the reading experience. Do not read this book at night. This is coming from someone who lives for horror movies and scary stuff, this book freaked me out. It was like watching The Grudge for the first time when I was a kid. Ron Chupeco is a master of horror, the book verges on the side of gross, but it’s done in a way where it’s still considered YA.

The way the story is narrated by a spirit is so fascinating and different. Okiku as a narrator makes the story feel as if you’re watching a movie. I was not expecting the book to be so fast paced I was on chapter 7 and a major thing happened. Even though the plot moves kinda fast it’s done in a way that you’re not left behind or lost. 

You follow, see and experience everything the way Okiku does and that lends a different lens to the story itself. We only get Okiku’s point of view and the writing jumps and skips to follows Okiku’s moods and what she is experiencing. It honestly felt like I was watching a movie instead of listening to an audiobook, the only time the spell broke-so to speak- was when Okiku started counting things. 

I kept getting/seeing similarities between this book and two of my all time favorite Japanese horror movies, The Ring and The Grudge. When I got that validation from the book itself I was so excited because I’ve never seen those movies done in a book like this before. 

You can’t help but feel so badly for Okiku. The more you learn about who she was and what happened to her, the more you feel for her and understand her. I want to wrap her in a blanket and just cuddle her. Which, you might find weird since she’s a murdered vengeful ghost.

The big climax was a little juvenile in my opinion, I think it could have been done better but that small thing doesn’t take away how much I enjoyed this book. This is now on my all time favorite book list. There was something that happened near the end of the book that had me so worried. 

Overall I would definitely recommend this book, any lover of scary books and horror movies will love this book. I wouldn’t recommend it as a starter into horror cause this book had some scenes that freaked even me out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Stalking and Death of parent

brookey8888's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I really liked the beginning of this but like I didn’t care for where it went. I wish it just followed the ghost and her killing disgusting men. The characters were fine but I didn’t really care about them. I did feel bad for the ghost though. Also I think it’s because I was listening to the audiobook but I kept getting confused about who was narrating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

daniellestarredpages's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Read my review here: 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Mental illness, Torture, Vomit, and Medical content