The Girl from the Well by Rin Chupeco

Ha! I told you I'd be back Wednesday and here I am! It's pretty late and I should have done this earlier, but I was busy running around with some new friends (more on that on Friday!). But today I thought I'd put up a fun review for The Girl in the Well by Rin Chupeco.

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. 

Yes, this book did come out about a year ago, but the second one in the series is coming out next month (and I'll have a review of it up next week), so I thought it would be an opportune time to review this one!

First off, let me start by saying that The Ring and Ringu scared the junk out of me when I first saw them. I don't particular like either movie, but I loved the story and the idea of that scary girl. Then I learned it was based on a real Japanese folk tale and I was kind of hooked. This story takes that tale one step further. Okiku is a revenge spirit, hunting down child murderers and killing them in a fashion that's only okay for horror movie monsters. During one of her hunts, she runs across Tark Halloway, a young boy that appears normal on the outside, except for several strange black tattoos that hold back a dark secret in his life.

I'l be honest: I didn't know that this story was based on the same legend as those movies, so when I started reading, I thought The Girl from the Well was a straight rip off. Then I decided to be smart and remember that this was a Japanese tale and that there is no ripping off. After that, I enjoyed the junk out of this book. I loved Tark and his cousin Callie, because they were both so different from other YA characters. Tark's mom is in a mental institution after tattooing her son to "keep him safe" and then trying to kill him. Tark, of course bothered by this, is sarcastic and tries to be tough, but he's sweet and such a good kid. Callie does her best to be a guiding light in Tark's life, but it's hard, especially when she learns just what Tark is holding inside his body.

Okiku, of course, is awesome. She's vengeful and ruthless, but you cheer her on as loud as you possibly can because she's going after truly awful people. She sets these sad souls free, letting the murdered children turn into fireflies and go off into the afterlife. She chooses to stay in order to help these souls and to reek her terrible revenge on these gruesome people. Her relationship with Tark becomes something special and other worldly, and it's beautiful. Neither of them look at each other romantically, and it's not some weird, gosh, I wonder how they would make out. No, it's more like two people (well, one person and one ghost thing) watching out for each other. 

One of the best parts of the novel involved all the description about Japanese culture and the dolls that are used in the exorcisms. I'm completely ignorant when it comes to this culture, and it was interesting to learn a few things, even if I can't exactly use this information in my day to day life. But reading about the dolls and what they do for the ghosts...it was creepy (because I hate dolls) and informative. Now I feel ready to try my own exorcism. Maybe on my cat, because there must be a fat demon inside her.

I would highly recommend this book and highly recommend you coming back next week when I review the sequel, The Suffering. I'm almost done reading it and, so far, each chapter is more exciting than the next!

Have a good two days off, because I'll definitely be back on Friday. I'll let you know about my new friends, my new acquisition, and plans for the future. Not all of it has to do with writing, but that's coming, too. Slowly but surely. Like the turtle. And now all I have to do is win the race.

First, I have to find a race.

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

Today we have a (slightly) oldie but a goodie. I finally looked through my Kindle and picked out the books that I haven't read yet (THERE WERE TOO MANY) and now I'm just grabbing one (symbolically, of course) and reading it. I'm kind of glad that Horrorstör was the first one I blindly picked.

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.

To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.

A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstör comes packaged in the form of a glossy mail order catalog, complete with product illustrations, a home delivery order form, and a map of Orsk’s labyrinthine showroom.

I'll be totally honest: my entire house is filled with IKEA furniture. When I was in college, IKEA was the most amazing place in the world. A desk for $50? A couch for $100? I imagined that this huge factory-like building was what Heaven was like. Then, as I grew up, I understood that IKEA wasn't the best furniture and that I didn't really care. I still had my same desk from college and that thing had lasted for years. But I still worried about one thing: the employees. Whenever I went to IKEA, I could see the absolute hopelessness in some of the employee's eyes. The people they had to deal with, the environment they were working in, the vast area of crap that they had to keep clean. It's enough to drive anyone mad.

And that's exactly what this book is about.

Amy doesn't like Orsk. She doesn't like her fellow employees, the fact that she has to smile all the time at stupid customers, and her boss that keeps pushing her to do more with her time at Orsk. But she needs money, and that's why she volunteers for the night shift, because it'll get her her rent money and keep her roommates off her back. But she never signed up for ghost hunting employees, strange writing on the walls, and ghosts that want revenge any way they can get it.

At first, I thought that Horrorstör was something of a comedy/horror, where I could read it at night and not be totally paranoid about looking out the windows. But that was not the case. Sure, there were parts to this book that were really funny, especially anything that involved Amy's disdain for everything around her, but, for the most part, Horrorstör is a scary, scary book. Grady Hendrix did a wonderful job at detailing each and every scare, bringing them all to life and causing your imagination to work overtime. I had to put the book down a few nights and read something else because it was giving me the chills.

Basically, this book is a trip from the beginning to the end. I think what I loved especially was the ending. I won't spoil anything, but let's just say that the ending left a lot to be desired. And that's why I loved it! Horror movies aren't supposed to have an ending. They're supposed to resonate with you forever and make you look over your shoulder twice at that weird sound in the other room. Great horror movies make you feel safe for about two seconds at the end before throwing another wrench in your face. That's exactly what this book does. It reminded me of the original Nightmare on Elm Street, when Nancy walks outside and everything is lovely, and then the car turns into Freddy. That's exactly what this book does.

So, my advice: grab this book. Buy it, rent it, steal it from a friend. Do whatever you can to read this book. You'll be so glad that you did.

I'll see you guys Wednesday!

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

I think everyone knows this book, so I'm going to skip the synopsis and all that.

It's been almost three weeks since Go Set a Watchman came out, and I'm sure everyone is tired of reading it. I was tired of reading it before I even bought the book. With all the controversy surrounding the actual "finding" and publishing of the book, it was looking pretty doubtful that I would even read it.

And then the reviews rolled in. 

"Atticus is racist!" I saw that one on almost every book blog I visit. Not that they were lying. I mean, he does say some pretty racist things. In fact, he says some things that made me wonder what the hell I was reading.

You have to understand something. When I was a kid, I loved to read. I would grab whatever I could and read, but I tended to drift toward Baby-Sitters Club or horse books when we went to the bookstore or the library. I think we picked up To Kill a Mockingbird when I was in fourth grade. I read it in about two days and couldn't fathom that there were books out there like this. It instantly became one of my favorites and I would quote Atticus in high school and college papers, finding a reason to fit him in. I'm sure there are many other people out there in the world that feel the same way as me, because Atticus was always up there when people talked about folk heroes or those that inspired them to live better.

So I did what any rational Atticus-ite would do: I read this book as a standalone.

Um, what?

When I picked up GSAW, I decided that I would read this book the way Harper Lee had written it: as her first - and perhaps only - book. I forgot about Scout and Jem and Dill, I forgot about Atticus and his good nature toward everyone, I forgot about Calpurnia and the way she treated those children as her own. Basically, I acted like TKAM had never happened.

And I ended up really, really liking GSAW.

Look, in this particular social climate, I get that people were having a deal with some white guy spouting off racist remarks. There's no getting around it; it's really uncomfortable, even if you forget that this is Atticus Finch spouted it all. But, at the same time, Atticus needed to do it. Not that he needed to be racist, but this was the 1950s South, people. Many white Americans thought this way, in case you didn't know. Even Jean Louise - the girl that's spent years in sophisticated, forward-thinking New York! - says some pretty reprehensible things. But the whole reason he did this (and minor spoiler alert) is because he had to make Jean Louise see that he wasn't perfect, that she shouldn't idolize him, that she needs to be out in the world and make her own opinions so people don't just keep spouting the same bull over and over again. He was telling her, while saying this horrible things, that being your own person means understanding that your parents are not always right.

That's a HUGE thing.

Look, growing up, parents are a huge influence on our lives. Lucky for me, I grew up with parents that accepted people for who they were and told me not to judge someone by their cover. But not all parents are like that. Some pass their own poison down to their children and then those children, if they don't grow up and realize their parents aren't infallible, will continue to pour that poison down the generations. Atticus put a stop to that in a horrific way, but he did put a stop to it. And he was happy about it.

Besides that whole thing, and the fact this book could have used a better editor, the story was resounding, just like TKAM. Jean Louise is trying to grow up and maybe get married, even though she worries about not being able to be "wifely." I get it. I'm terrified to care for my boyfriend and myself because I can't cook worth anything, and what kind of mother would I be? But she's also worried about coming back home and being around people that are, frankly, too stupid to function. The women she reconnects with spew whatever their husbands say they read, even if it's ridiculous and terrible. 

Gosh, just like people today. 

It is interesting to see these people that Jean Louise grew up with turn into something she's not. She says, "We were both born here, we went to the same schools, we were taught the same things. I wonder what you saw and heard." Racism and being a all-around terrible person are strange things. I know some people who are so good and want to change the world for the better, and then their siblings or parents or what have you make remarks that make me wonder what era we're in. 

Jean Louise also tells Atticus, "You are using frightful means to justify ends that you think are for the good of the most people." And that really hit me because *some people* watch a certain news network that uses the same scare tactics, and then those people regurgitate whatever they heard back at me, and when I don't care, I'm suddenly the bad person. Well, no, I don't believe that five women of color dying in police custody within a month is a coincidence and, no, I don't believe that these police officers are acting in "our best interest," so how does that make me a bad person?

The line that resonated with me the most was when Uncle Jack told Jean Louise that "every man's watchman, is his conscience." 

I think many people forget that.

Before I say or do anything, I usually think to myself, would me in five minutes be okay with this? If the answer is no, I keep my mouth shut or don't do what I'm about to do. No one is standing next to me, holding my hand, telling me what is right and what is wrong. I'm the only one that's able to do that now, because I've grown up and my parents can't follow me around anymore. I try to act in a way that would make me proud a few years down the line, and that means treating everyone around me in a good way. I just don't know when that became such a difficult concept for people to grasp onto. Seriously, think about it: how hard is it to, instead of looking at someone's skin and pre-judging them, how about you get to know them? If they're a jerk, walk away. But if they're not, take a few more minutes to get to know them. You'd be surprised.

Okay, my Mr. Rodger's rant is done for the day. I don't know anyone else who has read this book, so I kind of went overboard, but seriously, read this book. Don't concentrate on Atticus being racist or the fact that this was probably published under sinister motives. Take the story as it is: be good to one another. Build a better place for everyone to live in. 

If I could steal some words from one of our greatest philosophers, Jerry Springer: Take care of yourself, and each other.

Damn right, Springer.

Summer Colds and More Posts

...What is this? Is this a...post?

Why, yes, yes it is.

I know. I promised I would put something up for Go Set a Watchman, and then I didn't. That's just me, isn't it? Handing out promises and then never banking on them? Well, my excuse is a good one this time. I had - yet another - summer cold. On Sunday, I thought I had allergies because the weather had changed and then Monday I woke up with a sore throat, snot launching itself from my nose, and the strength of a newborn baby. Basically, I looked like this for three days:

It was no good.

My computer is still being a little weird, but I'm going to go with it for now. Until I can get some money to buy a new one (and stop drooling over the gorgeous MacBooks, which are definitely not in my future), this one is just going to have to last. Thank god for Dropbox and Google Drive and external hard drives and all those other things that I'm supposed to be backing all my stuff up on every day...and I don't. But I did when my other hard drive failed, and I think I said that before. So no worries! I still have all my writing and everything that goes with it. I apologize to anyone that I ever laughed at when they complained about their computer crashing and they never backed up. I'm so, so sorry.

Anyway, this is going to be pretty quick because this week has been a dead week. I've been thinking of things to write, of course, but with the computer and the cold and the fact that my office is Hades during the summer, I haven't even given my laptop a thought. Now, of course, I have a semi-open weekend and I've been reading a few books, so I'm going to get some posts ready for next week. Who knows, I might just have three up! I know for sure I'll have two up, because I have two books in my queue that I'd like to talk about (oh, three, really, but I don't want to get too crazy here), so I'm going to get those up next week. FOR SURE. TAKE THAT TO THE BANK AND CASH IT.

Anyway, I'm going to finish up my cold today (I schedule these things) and hopefully finish up my book that I've been so excited about for awhile, but this stupid summer cold. I have less than a hundred pages, so what am I doing updating this thing? I'm getting out of here!

See you Monday!

PS - Happy birthday, Harry Potter! Oh, and JK Rowling, too, I suppose.

Max Colton's Road to Wonderland by H.A. Robinson

Hey everyone! I have a computer again (for how long, who knows, really), and now I'm back with another installment of the always fantastic Road to Wonderland series. This time around, we get into the mind of Max Colton (written by H.A. Robinson, one of my new favorites), the privileged son of a wealthy architect. We've met Max before, but now we get to learn about his life prior to Izzy and Paris, and how he is trying to reach his own Wonderland.

Check out the awesome trailer before reading about it! https://youtu.be/22tkijOBq1M

Growing up with certain expectations and your entire life mapped out for you is never easy, but when the bar is set impossibly high, most would give up.

Not Max Colton.

Even as a child, his father is unrelenting. Discipline, rules and rigid control are all he knows. Nothing Max does is good enough, and no matter how hard he works, approval and recognition are always just out of reach.

From boarding school to university, Max gets a glimpse of the freedom he’s always been denied, and learns unexpected things about himself along the way. When he somehow finds himself thrust back under his father’s iron rod of control, that freedom proves harder to let go of than he anticipated and he finds himself caught in a balancing act between his lifelong battle for his father’s approval and living out his own hopes and dreams.

With loves found and lost and his friends at his side, Max has to navigate through the world one step at a time. People aren’t always as they seem, and every stone unturned reveals a new challenge, bringing him closer to a future that has always seemed elusive and uncertain.

A future that holds success, freedom and love he never expected to have.

A future that will offer loyal friends and a home that isn’t confined to a building.

A future that leads him to Wonderland.

It's no secret that I love this series. Each time I receive an email about a new book, I jump on the chance to review it. This group of authors have created characters with such depth and real worldliness that I get sucked in every time I start reading a new part. I think I've mentioned this before, but here I go again: the way they connect these stories is amazing, and the way that different authors write the same character is so smooth, like they all know what the other is thinking.

Max, by far, has to be my favorite character (do I say that for all of them? Oh well). He's sweet and real, and wants nothing more than his father - a hardass that couldn't have any chill if he lived among polar bears - to be proud of him. He works hard in school, in work, in life, and doesn't stop until his dreams are made real, even if that means throwing aside a few things he thought he truly loved. Max discovers things about himself that might not be considered normal with others, but he loves these particulars, and they make him happy. But that's his downfall: trying so hard to be happy that he's blind to those around him that are trying to hurt him.

I think my favorite part about Max's story was the end. This books don't follow a certain pattern, but I think I had become used to certain characters making certain decisions that seemed obvious (I'm trying so hard to be vague here so I don't ruin anything, so sorry if I sound insane). Max does not follow this same path, and that made me even more excited for the next installment of this series. I want every character in here to eventually be happy, and now that there are three lives I'm invested in thanks to this ending, I need the next installment now, thank you.

Get This Book!

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1GZNLX6

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1HEWvFX

About the Author

H. A. Robinson is a jet-setting billionaire with a home on each continent, who spends her free time saving kittens from trees and babies from burning buildings. A graduate of Hogwarts and a frequent visitor to Narnia, she drinks coffee in Central Perk and tames dragons in Westeros.

In her dreams…

In reality, she’s a support worker living in a small town in Cheshire, who would almost always choose fantasy over reality. She’s been an obsessive reader from the moment she picked up her first Enid Blyton book, more years ago than she cares to admit, and enjoys nothing more than getting lost in new worlds and adventures from the minds of all the amazing authors out there.

She’s had the voices of characters in her head for as long as she can remember, and puts them down on paper in order to convince herself and the men in white coats that she isn’t crazy.

Connect with the author!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HARobinsonAuthor?fref=ts

Twitter: @H_ARobinson

The Road to Wonderland Series Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RTWSeries?fref=ts

And don't forget about the three other books in this series. I've done reviews for all three of them: here, here, and here!

        Izzy @ Amazon US

        Izzy @ Amazon UK

        Paris @ Amazon US

        Paris @ Amazon UK         

        Ethan @ Amazon US

        Ethan @ Amazon UK      

Of course, here's the link to the giveaway:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/95cb0282180/?

Thanks for coming everyone! I'll see you here later this week, for a rambling review of Go Set A Watchman. I'm warning you now: I had lots of feelings while reading that book.

Super Duper Quick Update

I have no computer. *cue gut-wrenching tears*

Look, I'm not dependent on my computer or anything. I can turn it off and walk away whenever I want. (Yes, I'm aware I sound like I'm deep in denial And my next step is to accept God into my life) But this week, I've been thinking of everything I want to do...and all of that involves a computer. OF COURSE. Anyway, long story short, my computer decided to die. And not just die, but die in such a dramatic way that I had to wonder if I gave birth to it. I had to order a new hard drive and it won't be here until tomorrow (keep your fingers crossed). But I will be posting on Monday no matter what, so come on over!

So have a wonderful weekend and think of me each time you power up your computer. Give it a hug. 

PS - In case you're wondering, I managed to back up all my writing and other important files. Do that, too, while you're hugging your computer. 

Story time!

Gather around, children, and let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a woman. All she wanted was to write a book, so she could share her thoughts and feelings and amazing writing skills with the world. But then problems popped up. Problems of such magnitude that she couldn't concentrate on anything else. Problems that took over her entire life and beat her down until she could barely function on a day to day basis, let alone write a book. When she did sit down to try, the words never came, because she knew there were a million and one things that she should be doing instead of foolishly writing a book that might never see the light of day.

And then what happened to that woman?

Thankfully, this story has a happy ending. The problems were solved. Silly problems they were, too. Not silly in the way that she shouldn't have been fretting over them, but silly in the fact that they could have been solved simply and a thousand years ago if people stopped being silly.

And now? What is that woman doing right now?

This might shock you, but that woman is me (GASP!). It's been a rollercoaster ride these last few weeks and I've been doing little more than eating, working, and shuttling back and forth to the vet and home. The real fun part of my problems didn't even really involved my dog and HIS SECOND SURGERY IN SO MANY WEEKS. Nope, that was old hat for me. Without going into it, I wasn't sure if I was going to have to move again (IN SO MANY MONTHS) and that stressed me out. I hate moving, and I've moved pretty much every year of my life for the last twelve years. It's been annoying and frustrating to say the least. But now my boyfriend and I are happily situated in a house where the cat can have her own room and the dog doesn't have to see her if he doesn't want to. She gets to wander the house, too, occasionally, do don't feel too bad for her. If she could live the rest of her life on her bed (HER BED), then she would be a happy, fat kitty.

But enough about my problems. What about writing?

Well, impatient person, let me tell you a thing: I've been writing this whole week. The moment that we solved our problems, I went into my office and sat down in front of my laptop. I've only stopped, really, to work and eat. I've written about 12,000 words...but not for Amory. I'm still working on her, but there's writer's block with that story. This one I'm working on is a bit more mainstream YA, and, to be honest, I might finish it up either this weekend or next week. It's helping me write again everyday, and once the writer's block with Amory ends (it freaking better), I'll get back to her. But this one I'm working on could be something, and that makes me excited rather than absolutely terrified, like I was two years ago when I sent my manuscript out. I don't know if I'll do that with this story, or if it'll be self-published, but it's so much fun. I hope you'll laugh with me when you read the story and realize that it's not fun at all.

So things are picking up on my end. Of course, that's not going to last very long because we're doing stuff around the house, so I'll have to concentrate on that. But I'm not going to stop writing. This story has made me rediscover my love for writing, like I'm doing this for the first time. And I promise to update this thing more, mainly because now I've finished a few books and can do some reviews. Oh, and be sure to come back on July 20, because I have some special in store for that day. So, yay!

I guess the short version of this post is that things happened, they were solved, and now I'm back. I'll get into the groove of things again, just in time for summer to be over. Better late than never, right?