The Girl from the Well

This book calls itself Dexter meets Ring. I'm starting to really hate when books try to say that it's similar to other books. I don't know whose job it is to come up with these blurbs, but they need to get their priorities straight. First, this is nothing, and I mean nothing at all, like Dexter. Did they even read/watch Dexter? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller? This isn't even in the same universe as Dexter. Second, while I'll concede this shares some general traits with Ring, this is nowhere near as atmospheric and creepy as that. Okiku, the ghost of a murdered girl, stalks the streets, looking for child murderers. Killing them, she frees the children still tethered to their attackers, but she can't find such relief. You'd think that would mean that you'd see many people get their comeuppance because there are many sickos in the world. You don't. You spend more time reading about how Okiku just watches people like Netflix and chills in people's attic. I didn't need a gorefest, but I needed something to at least make me believe this was creepy. And it was creepy for the first few pages and then... *sigh* Anyway, a tattooed boy named Tark moves into the town Okiku's currently haunting, and something about him reminds her of home and happiness and warmth. However, there is also something dark imprisoned deep inside him.

Okay, this wasn't a bad book. This book was more lyrical than scary. In fact, I enjoyed the experimental style that Chupeco used writing this. Okiku has an obsession with numbers and counting that pops up frequently. Paragraph structure is purposely inconsistent when we're seeing things from her POV. This would be all fine and good if this was an experimental novel, but this novel wants to be Dexter meets Ring. I may be jaded because I've been reading/watching horror for a very long time, but I can still appreciate the elements that actually make a story scary even if I'm not scared myself. This book tried to be scary, but this book also tried to be poignant, different, and moving. It can be hard to mix all those things together and get a story that's both scary and emotional. It's been done many times for sure, but it's easy to focus on one aspect more than others. She obviously gets what makes J-Horror work, but she's not as adept as putting it all together. Add to the fact that it was hard for me to care about the characters. They all felt so generic, even Tark with the strange tattoos put on him by his Japanese mother. I couldn't say I found anything riveting about them-save for one character. Typically in a horror novel, it's okay to have some generic characters because the horror is supposed to be front and center. Because this book tried so hard to be deep, it was too easy for me to realize how shallow the characters were because I didn't have any actual horror to hide that fact. Not a bad book, but it feels as if it tried too hard. For me, the horror is lacking. For someone else, this might be perfectly scary.

Yays!
- A YA book that doesn't find a way for the boy and girl to be together (no romance, not even a friendship really; just a state of existing together for a common purpose)
- Interesting experimental writing style

Nays!
- Not Dexter meets Ring, I don't care how hard you squint
- Cardboard characters that I didn't actually care about
- Squandered potential, especially with Okiku who was a badass for three seconds