The Girl From the Well by Rin Chupeco

For centuries, Okiku has traveled the world avenging the untimely deaths of children. Okiku is a spirit whose own death was both violent and untimely, but her anger and malevolence has waned and is now under her control. Rather than wreaking unseen havoc and terror, she has a focus and a goal; her vengeance means the release of the young souls she fights to redress. One afternoon, though, Okiku crosses path with a teenager who is still very much alive. His name is Tark and though he still walks among the living, there is something about him that Okiku cannot ignore. 

The Girl From the Well is told from the perspective of a ghost. Okiku's tale - the same ghost who inspired so much J Horror not so very long ago - is a very real ghost story in Japanese folklore. While I always suspected that, for some reason I never looked into it until now. Her story does feature as part of Chupeco's book, however, so I'll leave that for you to discover in the reading.

I liked the narrative style here. Okiku is very detached and unemotional until she meets Tark. Her actual narration evolves to reflect this, moving from very impersonal (referring to Tark and others simply as "the boy" and such) to more personal (Tark as Tark!). Her story is actually just a small part of the overall plot, too. Surprisingly the first third of the book features a kind of astounding amount of action causing me to pretty much barrel through the book in just a few hours. The pacing is quite fast but the introduction of so much intense action early on left me with an undeniable curiosity about where the book would go next. I don't think you could have pried the book from my hands until I was able to see it through to the end! Fortunately it's a bit on the short side and thankfully I didn't start it at midnight.

The Girl From the Well is creepy as all get out. I found it to be way darker than I would have expected for a teen read. Actually, if I'd come across this one as a teen I probably would have been thoroughly freaked and pleased as punch about it, too.

This is, in my opinion, quite an accomplished debut for Rin Chupeco. While not being an overall perfect read, any issues are easy to move past simply because of the unique aspects of the story. It's packed with Japanese folklore the likes of which I personally have never been exposed to before now. It's really fascinating and couched in the context of the book gives the story a depth that would otherwise be sorely missing. And apparently this isn't the last we'll see of Okiku. Chupeco's works in progress page lists a second title in the series as well!

The Girl From the Well actually hits shelves next Tuesday, August 5. If you're a horror fiend I definitely recommend it.

Rating: 4/5

Scorched by Mari Mancusi

I like dragons. Dragons can be pretty cool. I realized today, though, that I really don't seem to read a lot of stuff with dragons. Yes, there's the Song of Ice and Fire series and I did start the Temeraire series way back there (need to get back on board with that) but that's all that really comes to mind right now. Imagine my surprise then when I discovered that Mari Mancusi had started a modern dragon series :)

Trinity is used to her grandfather's increasingly madcap schemes, but he's the only family she has left. When he spends the last of their money on a dragon's egg, though, she thinks their time together may soon be at an end. How on earth could he have been scammed into buying a dragon's egg? Then armed men claiming to be from Homeland Security arrive with their eye on taking said egg and Trinity begins to wonder if her grandfather may have been onto something after all. But the real kicker is when a boy who says he comes from two hundred years in the future starts to tell Trinity a story. A story about a girl and an egg and a dragon apocalypse.

It's a little bit like Terminator meets Reign of Fire except that the Reign of Fire pieces are all sort of off screen. I really liked Scorched but then again I've really liked everything I've read by Mancusi so far.

My one issue with the book was how quickly it progressed. The reader is pushed into the action almost immediately with very little set up. I did think that there was enough explanation and development spread out through the story that by the end I felt the overall book worked on all levels - plot and story development, getting to know the characters and their motiviations, etc.

I also liked the wrinkle here between the Dracken and the dragon hunters and whether or not either side  is truly good or bad. This is the first in a series so I'm sure we'll get more on this front to come but for this first outing it's an interesting conundrum as far as deciding which side to root for.

Rating: 4/5

Guest Post: CJ Lyons

Hi, everyone! I am super excited to be hosting CJ Lyons today. CJ is the author of a number of titles, including her upcoming teen debut Broken, but before becoming a published author she worked as a pediatric emergency room doctor.

I had the pleasure of meeting CJ at Left Coast Crime in Denver back in 2007 when her Angels of Mercy medical thriller series was kicking off. Today CJ talks about why she decided to become a writer and whether she misses working in medicine.

So, without further ado, I'll hand things over to CJ Lyons!

I’ve been a storyteller all my life and in high school wrote my first novel (a YA fantasy) and two SF/F novels in med school. But everything changed during my pediatric internship year. 

Halfway through my first year at Childrens Hospital of Pittsburgh one of my fellow interns was killed in a very horrendous way. The police apprehended the killer, thanks to good forensic work and cooperation of several agencies. But we interns were still traumatized. Left to mourn and make sense of this terrible thing while simultaneously caring for infants and children entrusted to our care and trying to help families cope. 

For me, writing helped me to heal. I wrote my first crime fiction novel, a romantic thriller called BORROWED TIME (which hit the USA Today Bestseller list). Before I'd always written SF/F, but after Jeff died I needed to explore good/evil, justice/truth more than I needed the escapism my previous novels provided me. 

I wanted to change the world, to bring Jeff back. To punish the bad guys and give the good guys a happy ending. To find the courage to stand up and face the darkness. And the only place I could do that was in my writing. 

I never could have made the leap of faith that took me from medicine to published author without the courage I learned from Jeff. Without finding the strength to climb out of the despair his death created and to face the pain of living with the loss. 

My writing explores the gray spaces between the black and white of good and evil. That’s why I call them “Thrillers with Heart”—they’re less about the action and more about the people. Stories about every day heroes finding the courage to change their world. 

I think Jeff would have approved. 

Leaving medicine was hard, especially since at the time I was practicing as a community pediatrician and had long-term relationships with my patients. Plus, it took a real leap of faith to abandon that job security for the vicarious life of an author. 

Becoming a doctor was amazing—I come from a small town in Pennsylvania and worked three jobs to put myself through medical school—but becoming a writer was a dream I'd had all my life, so being able to make it come true has been fantastic beyond words. 

My writing career hasn't been smooth sailing, in many ways it's as hard as being a doctor (I actually work longer hours now!) but it has been fulfilling in so many ways. 

As a doctor the greatest rush came from those rare moments when I actually saved a life. As a writer I get the chance to touch hundreds of thousands of lives—and I can't begin to describe the feeling I get when I hear from fans about how my stories have done more than provide entertainment but have inspired or empowered them. Talk about your dreams come true! 

About CJ: 

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of twenty-one novels, former pediatric ER doctor CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge Thrillers with Heart. 

Winner of the International Thriller Writers’ coveted Thriller Award, CJ has been called a "master within the genre" (Pittsburgh Magazine) and her work has been praised as "breathtakingly fast-paced" and "riveting" (Publishers Weekly) with "characters with beating hearts and three dimensions" (Newsday). 

Learn more about CJ's Thrillers with Heart at www.CJLyons.net

Broken hits shelves November 5 and if you pre order the ebook before then, you can get it for just $4.99.

Here's a bit about the book from the publisher:

The only thing fifteen-year-old Scarlet Killian has ever wanted is a chance at a normal life. Diagnosed with a rare and untreatable heart condition, she has never taken the school bus. Or giggled with friends during lunch. Or spied on a crush out of the corner of her eye. So when her parents offer her three days to prove she can survive high school, Scarlet knows her time is now... or never. Scarlet can feel her heart beating out of control with every slammed locker and every sideways glance in the hallway. But this high school is far from normal. And finding out the truth might just kill Scarlet before her heart does.