First off a big thanks to NetGalley and to Sourcebooks Fire for allowing me to read and review an ARC e-book copy of The Suffering by: Rin Chupeco. Also, many thanks for allowing me to be apart of the spotlight tour and giveaway.
The Suffering
By:Rin Chupeco
September 1,2015; Hardcover ISBN 9781492629832; Trade Paper ISBN
9781492629849
Book info:
Title- The Suffering
Author- Rin Chupeco
Release Date- September 1, 2015
Publisher- Sourcebooks Fire
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
Summary:
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, bit 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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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
http://www.rinchupeco.com/.
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Excerpt from The Suffering:
It's still early in the 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 endearing 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 it's 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.
New in paperback from this author: The Girl From the 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
Summary:
The Ring meets The Exorcist in this haunting and lyrical reimagining of 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.
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My Review:
The Suffering is YA horror at its finest. I have yet to find another YA series that has terrified me like The Girl From the Well series. Well to be blunt, it's the only YA series that has ever given me the heebie jeebies. In The Suffering I really enjoyed seeing Tark and Okiku working together and kicking butt! However, they also had some moral disagreements along the way that was really interesting to read. Because, ya know, they are kind of stuck with each other. I would have to say I enjoyed the book more once they got ot the Suicide Forest. That's when the story REALLY begins. Once I got to this point I just couldn't put the book down. You can tell Rin Chupeco knows what she is talking about when it comes to Japanese legends and culture. There are so many creeptastic horror elements in the novel. Voodoo-like dolls, exorcisms, ritual sacrifices, the suicide forest, ghost brides, and a haunted village. That's just to name a few! This is exactly what I wanted in a sinister sequel to The Girl From the Well. I would recommend The Suffering for anyone who enjoyed the first novel. Trust me you won't be disappointed in the sequel! I would also recommend it for fans of exorcisms, horror, YA creepy reads, and anyone interested in the Suicide Forest.
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