HORRIFYINGLY AMAZING 
 I was give an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. 
 This review can also be seen on our blog: 
 Musings of the Book-a-holic, inc. 
 I will of course, be honest from the start. I LOVE HORROR. My sister and I bond over horror movies. I love Sadako and I love the Exorcist. Of course, I don't love what happened to them. I just love how they make me almost jump out of my skin and scream like a banshee. Watching a horror film is like electrocuting yourself.. You may feel weird, but you'll feel alive more importantly! :) 
 I may not have read many horror / ghost books lately, but I started reading with this genre. I remember R.L. Stine, Stephen King and Christopher Pike. In a way, reading this feels like coming home. :) 
 Okay so let's proceed with the review. 
 I can't believe that I would get to read a book that would make my imagination run wilder! I never even imagined that I would read a story about my all time favorite ghost. 
 Okiku. Okiku. Okiku. 
 The girl from the well. The girl who's a big part of Japanese culture way, way back. She's the protagonist of this story, but she's also some kind of a villain. 
 Imagine a ghost having a conscience. Isn't that just great? 
 Scary, but still GREAT! 
 Okiku has lived for a very long time and she has developed a taste for vengeance. She takes vengeance for children who were abused. Let's just say that she's the serial killer of abusers, which in my book is really OKAY. The book details the things that she does to people who have wronged kids and I must say, it's just horrible... but they deserved it. 
 She fixates on one boy in particular, Tarquin. She sees something in him, something innocent and yet sinister. You see, Tarquin has been afflicted by umm.. something... ever since he was young. He now repels people and doesn't want to mingle in fear that he might be the cause of them getting hurt. It's heartbreaking, really. When Okiku starts protecting the boy, I was really jumping up and down. A badass ghost protecting the boy from a another vicious ghost? WOW. I also love her interaction with Tarquin. They're like friends. Weird friends, but still friends. 
 Then there's Callie. I like Callie's spunk. She's brave and also very concerned for her cousin. I like it that she was always there. She never gave up on Tarquin. It's nice. I like her loyalty, even though she was suspicious of Okiku in many, many scenes, I'd like to believe that she understands her and is maybe there's also a friendship somewhere in there. 
 The plot revolves around what's happening to Tarquin and that "something" that has afflicted him. It takes them from the U.S.A to Japan. This book introduces lots of Japanese terminologies and culture. I like how the pace is like a movie's. It's not overwhelming, it's also not too slow. It's good, very good. 
 The weirdest thing to me in the story is how Okiku just pops in out of nowhere like it's so normal for you to see her. She follows Tarquin and Callie everywhere, so I can just imagine their shock all those times wherein she pops in. 
 I kinda admire myself too because I felt the things that happened here! Thank you, imagination. Haha! Of course, I admire the author too because I totally felt creeped out in many scenes. The descriptions are so strong, it's like I could almost see it in front of me. The author did a great job with that! 
 About the ending... well, it could've been very bad. So I'd like to thank the author for that ending. It was unexpected, caused my head to form so many questions, but in the end I decided to just accept it and be happy that everything went well. I think this might just be the best depiction of Okiku because just like in real life, we all like to believe that in every person, there's always goodness. 
 All in all, this is a great book! I hope everyone gets to read this.