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Title: The Bone Witch
Author: Rin Chupeco
Series: The Bone Witch #1
Publication: March 7th 2017 by Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Fantasy ~ Young Adult
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Kobo
Rating: 5/5
Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise. If there's anything I've learned from him in the years since, it's that the dead hide truths as well as the living.
When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she's a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.
In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha-one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles...and make a powerful choice.
I've enjoyed the author's YA horror books, The Girl from the Well and its sequel The Suffering but I've always felt they missed that little extra to make them full five star reads. Now The Bone Witch, the first book of her new fantasy series, was a very different one compared to her previous books. Different in genre but it also felt like a whole new level of storytelling than I've experienced from her. Consider me throroughly and utterly in awe of this amazing book!
I almost don't know where to start with this story. First of all it has two points of view. The first one is of Tea, who finds out, after she brings her dead brother back to life, that she has the gift of necromancy which makes her a bone witch. The second point of view is in the perspective of a bard. It has a very unique style and is very different compared to Tea's. I totally loved these two POVs. I probably liked the bard's POV the most because it was so deliciously dark and captivating.
Tea definitely was a great character to read about. The story continues over a few years so we actually get to see her growing up a little, learning more about the magic she has and what it all means. I also really liked her brother Fox. I absolutely loved his sense of humor and his relationship with Tea. Because she accidentally raised him from the his grave he is her familiar, which makes them connected and in tune to each other.
There's only hint of romance, which I thought was perfect for this book The story does move slowly so I totally get why some people wouldn't like it. Personally I loved this aspect of it because it build everything up perfectly without rushing anything. And then there's the writing... it was beyond a doubt one of the most beautiful prose I have ever read. It was seriously amazing!
Overall, The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco is nothing short of brilliant. I would absolutely recommend it to any lover of fantasy, especially to fans of Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone and Kiersten White's And I Darken.
Despite an unsettling resemblance to Japanese revenants, Rin always maintains her sense of hummus. Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, she keeps four pets: a dog, two birds, and a husband.
She is represented by Rebecca Podos of the Helen Rees Agency.
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Title: The Suffering
Author: Rin Chupeco
Series: The Girl from the Well #2
Publication: September 8th 2015 by Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Horror ~ Young Adult
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
Rating: 4/5
Breathtaking and haunting, Rin Chupeco's second novel is a chilling companion to her debut, The Girl from the Well.
The darkness will find you.
Seventeen-year-old Tark knows what it is to be powerless. But Okiku changed that. A restless spirit who ended life as a victim and started death as an avenger, she's groomed Tark to destroy the wicked. But when darkness pulls them deep into Aokigahara, known as Japan's suicide forest, Okiku's justice becomes blurred, and Tark is the one who will pay the price...
I can't quite decide if I liked the first book better than The Suffering, so I'm just going to say that both books were equally great!
The Suffering is wrtting in Tark's point of view, so that makes it a little different from book #1. But it didn't make the story any less enjoyable to read (or any less creepy...)
This book was very well-written and I just loved the setting of it too (even though it freaked me out so bad) in the forest of Aokigahara, which is also known as the suicide forest of Japan. I really loved how the author crafted the story and how it all fit together perfectly.
I gotta admit I feared things wouldn't work out in the end for Tark and Okiku. I loved them together and how they cared for one another so much. They really made a great team!
Overall, The Suffering by Rin Chupeco was scary as shit. I'm not gonna lie, I read most of this book at night in the dark, and I ended up wishing I hadn't because it kept freaking me out. But there's no denying this book was perfect in its creepy way. And I definitely want to read more of Tark and Okiku in the future.
About the Author:
Despite an unsettling resemblance to Japanese revenants, Rin always maintains her sense of hummus. Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, she keeps four pets: a dog, two birds, and a husband.
She is represented by Rebecca Podos of the Helen Rees Agency.
Title: The Girl from the Well
Author: Rin Chupeco
Series: The Girl from the Well #1
Publication: May 1st 2015 by Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Young Adult ~ Horror
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
Rating: 4/5
You may think me biased, being murdered myself. But my state of being has nothing to do with the curiosity toward my own species, if we can be called such. We do not go gentle, as your poet encourages, into that good night.
A dead girl walks the streets.
She hunts murderers. Child killers, much like the man who threw her body down a well three hundred years ago.
And when a strange boy bearing stranger tattoos moves into the neighborhood so, she discovers, does something else. And soon both will be drawn into the world of eerie doll rituals and dark Shinto exorcisms that will take them from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Aomori, Japan.
Because the boy has a terrifying secret - one that would just kill to get out.
The Girl from the Well is A YA Horror novel pitched as "Dexter" meets "The Grudge", based on a well-loved Japanese ghost story.
Starting The Girl from the Well I was a little on the fence about it because when it comes to Japanese horror stories I'm a total wuss. Really. The movie The Ring scared the crap out of me. And there were some seriously creepy parts in the book but I ended up really liking the story, especially the author's writing style.
This was really a unique story, in my opinion, because it was told from the point of view of Okiku, a centuries' old spirit that hunts down child murderers and unleashes her wrath on them. One day she comes across Tarquin a.k.a. Tark, a fifteen-year-old boy who's covered in strange tattoos. The more she follows—and ultimately communicates with—him, the more she learns about the dark side within him.
The story eventually takes us to Japan, which I had been waiting for. This probably was my favorite part of the book because we finally started getting more answers. I loved that Okiku was the narrator because you got to see all the characters through her eyes. She was terrifying but I couldn't help but care about her.
I really liked all the side characters too. Tark was kind of a smartass but in a cute way. I was pretty horrified what his mother had done to him, even if it was to contain this menacing spirit but he still managed to be a pretty great person in spite of that.
Then there was his cousin Callie who kind of got sucked into it all unwillingly. I may not have always liked her completely but I did admire how she didn't run away from it all. Tark's father was a bit clueless but all in all that wasn't a major point for me.
Overall, The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco was great. Usually I'm not a fan of horror stories but this one really captivated me. It was a little bit scary at times, of course, and I wouldn't recommend reading this at night, but it was the best kind of creepy I could've asked for.
About the Author:
Despite an unsettling resemblance to Japanese revenants, Rin always maintains her sense of hummus. Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, she keeps four pets: a dog, two birds, and a husband.
She is represented by Rebecca Podos of the Helen Rees Agency.
