The Girl from the Well

Told from the perspective of a vengeful spirit resembling the Japanese legend of Okiku, this YA horror novel follows the ghost as she becomes connected to Tark, a boy covered in protective tattoos and haunted by his own dark past. A genuinely terrifying novel inspired by Asian horror cinema.

Content Ratings

Mild Romance

There is a developing connection between the ghost narrator and Tark that has romantic undertones, but it is complicated by her being a spirit and is not physically consummated.

Intense Themes

The novel centers on child abuse, murder, and violent death; the ghost is a victim seeking revenge; Tark is processing profound trauma; themes of revenge, the cycle of violence, and the darkness that trauma creates are emotionally intense and genuinely disturbing; this is YA horror with real bite.

High Violence

The ghost narrator kills people violently as revenge for murdered children; her own death involved being thrown into a well; Tark is haunted by a malevolent entity that has killed his mother; violence is graphic and disturbing, inspired by J-horror aesthetics.