Title: The Suffering
Series: The Girl from the Well
Author: Rin Chupeco
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: YA, Horror, Fantasy
Release Date: 1st September 2015
BLURB supplied by Sourcebooks
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…
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EXCERPT
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.
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 man made. The Suffering is a chilling swim through the murky waters of
morality.”
--Carly Anne West, author of The Bargaining and The Murmuring
REST OF THE SERIES SO FAR
Title: The Girl From The Well
Series: The Girl From The Well
Author: Rin Chupeco
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: YA, Horror, Fantasy
Release Date: 5th August 2014
BLURB from Goodreads
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.
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.
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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
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 atwww.rinchupeco.com.
Social Networking Links:
Website: http://www.rinchupeco.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RinChupeco
***GIVEAWAY***
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