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…
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/
Praise for the Suffering:
"Rin Chupeco's The Suffering is a horror lover's dream: murders, possessed dolls, and desiccated corpses. I cringed. I grimaced. You won't soon forget this exorcist and his vengeful water ghost."
--Kendare Blake, author of Anna Dressed in Blood
“Chupeco deftly combines ancient mysticism with contemporary dilemmas that teens face, immersing readers in horrors both supernatural and manmade. The Suffering is a chilling swim through the murky waters of morality.”
--Carly Anne West, author of The Bargaining and The Murmuring
From the novel:
It’s still early morning when our group is given clearance to enter. Aokigahara is a deceptive forest. It has all the hallmarks of a popular tourist destination: narrow but well-maintained hiking trails with a surprising amount of litter, not to mention strips of tape and ribbon wrapped around tree trunks. The leader explains that hikers use them as markers to maintain their bearings. Later on, one of the other volunteers whispers to us that some of the tapes were left by those who came here to kill themselves, in case they decided to change their minds. The revelation horrifies Callie.
A few miles into our hike, anything resembling civilization disappears. Roots crawl across the hard forest floor, and it’s easy to trip if you’re not constantly looking down. We’re outside, but the trees make it feel claustrophobic. They reach hungrily toward the sun, fighting each other for drops of light, and this selfishness grows with the darkness as we move deeper into the woods.
It’s quiet. The silence is broken by the scuffling of feet or snapping of dry twigs as we walk. Every so often, volunteers call back and forth to each other, and rescue dogs exploring the same vicinity that we are will bark. But there are no bird calls, no sounds of scampering squirrels. We’re told that there is very little wildlife in Jukai. Nothing seems to flourish here but trees.
This deep into the woods, any roads and cleared paths are gone. At times, we’re forced to climb to a higher ledge or slide down steep slopes to proceed, and there’s always some root or rock hiding to twist an ankle.
And yet—the forest is beautiful. I like myself too much to seriously think about suicide, even during my old bouts of depression, but I can understand why people would choose to die here. There is something noble and enduring and magnificent about the forest.
That sense of wonder disappears though, the instant I see them. There are spirits here. And the ghosts mar the peacefulness for me. They hang from branches and loiter at the base of tree trunks. Their eyes are open and their skin is gray, and they watch me as I pass. I don’t know what kind of people they were in life, but they seem faded and insignificant in death.
Okiku watches them but takes no action. These are not the people she hunts. They don’t attack us because they’re not that kind of ghosts. Most of them, I intuit, aren’t violent. The only lives they had ever been capable of taking were their own.
I’m not afraid, despite their bloated faces, contorted from the ropes they use to hang themselves or the overdose of sleeping pills they’ve taken. If anything, I feel lingering sadness. I can sympathize with their helpless anguish. These people took their own lives, hoping to find some meaning in death when they couldn’t find it in life. But there’s nothing here but regret and longing.
And there’s that tickle again, so light it is nearly imperceptible. Something in this forest attracts these deaths. It lures its unhappy victims with its strange siren’s call and then, having taken what it needs, leaves their spirits to rot. A Venus flytrap for human souls.
Something is wrong here, and suddenly, the forest no longer looks as enticing or majestic as when we arrived.
Let me preface this rambling review with this: I love a good scary story. I'm sure I've said that before. I grew up on horror movies, so finding a scary story is like falling in love to me. In the last few years, it's been rather difficult to find a truly scary story that makes me paranoid about looking outside, afraid that someone is going to be out there, looking back at me. Many scary stories these days rely on the jump and grab, as I call it. They make you gasp and laugh right afterward, rolling your eyes at your silliness. I want a novel that pulls me inside it, a story that makes the line between fantasy and reality blur to almost nonexistence. These two books have accomplished that, and it makes walking into my bedroom full of windows an ordeal.
Tark and Okiku are back, and they're traveling to Japan in order to find Tark's friend and mentor of sorts, Kagura, who is lost in the mysterious forest of Aokigahara. This story may have a basis in a creepy village and terrifying rituals, but really, this book is about Tark and Okiku finding out what they mean to each other. Tark is navigating his final year of high school and bold girls that actually find him attractive, all the while balancing Okiku and her need for vengeance. Tark's confusion over what he feels for Okiku feels so real and you understand what he's going through, even if his feelings are about a ghost. Sometimes you forget that Okiku is a ghost, because the two of them fighting evil and being in each other's lives feels like a buddy comedy at some points. When they fight for each other and risk everything they have to make sure that the other is okay, the reader has to wonder: how can these two be so right for each other, but in the worst possible circumstances? You cheer these two on and want them to find happiness, and you know that their happiness lies in each other.
Without spoiling too much, the last half of this book was amazing. The first half was really good, too, but it's the second half where we see a lot of the action. Aokigahara and the accompanying village inside it are terrifying and creepy, and the author does a fantastic job at describing it so your imagination is full of the eerie surroundings. Since I'm especially afraid of dolls (THANKS MOM), all the scenes involving the ritual bridal dolls freaked me out, to the point that I couldn't even look at my stuffed animals without wondering, Is this the night you reveal your evil plan to me? (Yes, I still have stuffed animals. Deal with it.)
What I loved best about this story is how everything was connected. You know how in Harry Potter everything comes full circle, even the smallest details that we all missed the fourth time rereading? Yeah, The Suffering is like that. Rin Chupeco would plant the seeds, casually and relaxed, and then they would grow throughout the novel, until I reached the point of saying, out loud, Oh, junk, right! This can happen because this and this happened earlier! It was exciting and fun, like solving a mystery, and I felt a thousand times smarter by the end.
Seriously. Pick this one up.
Buy Links:
Indiebound- http://ow.ly/PrLXu
While you're grabbing this one at one of those sites, slip The Girl from the Well into your cart as well. Trust me, you won't regret it.
The Ring meets The Exorcist in this haunting and lyrical reimagining of the Japanese fable.
Okiku has wandered the world for hundreds of years, setting free the spirits of murdered children. Wherever there’s a monster hurting a child, her spirit is there to deliver punishment. Such is her existence, until the day she discovers a troubled American teenager named Tark and the dangerous demon that writhes beneath his skin, trapped by a series of intricate tattoos. Tark needs to be freed, but there is one problem—if the demon dies, so does its host.
With the vigilante spirit Okiku as his guide, Tark is drawn deep into a dark world of sinister doll rituals and Shinto exorcisms that will take him far from American suburbia to the remote valleys and shrines of Japan. Can Okiku protect him from the demon within or will her presence bring more harm? The answer lies in the depths of a long-forgotten well.
Praise for The Girl From The Well:
“[A] Stephen King-like horror story.” -Kirkus Reviews
“Told in a marvelously disjointed fashion.” -Publishers Weekly STARRED Review
“This gorgeously written story reads like poetry.” -Brazos Bookstore
“Darkly mesmerizing.” -The Boston Globe
“A superior creep factor that is pervasive in every lyrical word.” -Booklist
Buy Links:
Indiebound- http://ow.ly/PrQp2
About the Author:
Despite uncanny resemblances to Japanese revenants, Rin Chupeco has always maintained her sense of humor. Raised in Manila, Philippines, she keeps four pets: a dog, two birds, and a husband. She's been a technical writer and travel blogger, but now makes things up for a living. Connect with Rin at www.rinchupeco.com.
Social Networking Links:
Website: http://www.rinchupeco.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RinChupeco
Also, I've got a giveaway for you guys, too! Just click here to be taken to the Rafflecopter site where you could win copies of The Girl from the Well and The Suffering! How awesome is that?
Okay, guys, I'm out of here, but promise me that you'll give these two books a check. Seriously, because I can't handle these books being out in the world and not being in every home. They are both that good.
I'll see you on Friday, hopefully with some writing updates. If not, at least I can talk about the pheasants some more, right? Well. Sort of.
