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Flash Fiction Challenge: Dragons

Red Firey Dragon

Via Chuck Wendig’s blog Terrible Minds, I’ve once again decided to do another flash fiction challenge. This time, the writing challenge is simple: the story I write must include a dragon.

So for this writing challenge, since April is National Poetry Month, I’ve decided to write a poem about dragons. Thank you for taking a look at this post and I hope you enjoy my poem!

 

Creatures of fire and brimstone,

Destroying the earth with their mighty talons

And breath that smells like death.

 

Red or blue,

Black or gold.

These creatures of various colors inspire nothing but fear.

 

Myths and legends,

Are told outside of campfires at night

About mysterious creatures who fly in the sky.

 

Protectors and defenders

Of hidden treasures

Hold secrets rarely worth keeping.

 

Shiny and sleek,

These creatures could very easily

Tear you apart with one mighty swipe.

 

With the strength of many men,

Dragons are some of the deadliest

Foes in the world.

 

Mysterious in their beauty,

These creatures of fire and brimstone

Eat other animals to survive.

 

Dragons are very dangerous,

So if you ever happen upon one,

Beware.

Beware.

Beware.

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Book Review: A Girl’s Guide to Moving On

A Girl's Guide to Moving On Book Cover

Rating: 3 stars

When Nichole discovers that her husband, Jake, has been unfaithful, the illusion of her perfect life is indelibly shattered. While juggling her young son, a new job, and volunteer work, Nichole meets Rocco, who is the opposite of Jake in nearly every way. Though blunt-spoken and rough around the edges, Rocco proves to be a dedicated father and thoughtful friend. But just as their relationship begins to blossom, Jake wagers everything on winning Nichole back—including their son Owen’s happiness. Somehow, Nichole must find the courage to defy her fears and follow her heart, with far-reaching consequences for them all.

Leanne has quietly ignored her husband’s cheating for decades, but is jolted into action by the echo of Nichole’s all-too-familiar crisis. While volunteering as a teacher of English as a second language, Leanne meets Nikolai, a charming, talented baker from Ukraine. Resolved to avoid the heartache and complications of romantic entanglements, Leanne nonetheless finds it difficult to resist Nikolai’s effusive overtures—until an unexpected tragedy tests the very fabric of her commitments.

An inspiring novel of friendship, reinvention, and hope, A Girl’s Guide to Moving On affirms the ability of every woman to forge a new path, believe in love, and fearlessly find happiness.

 I really enjoyed reading this book. The plot wasn’t too complicated and the story was a breeze to get through. I enjoyed reading about Nichole and Leanne moving on from their previous marriages, doing the best they could on their own.

I also enjoyed reading A Girl’s Guide to Moving On because of the characters. I found I really enjoyed Nichole and Rocco as a couple, Rocco’s relationship with his daughter Kaylene, Shawntelle and Leanne.

What I enjoyed about Nichole and Rocco as a couple was their conversations. I found myself laughing almost every time they were talking to each other and I could see how their relationship continued to bloom.

I also enjoyed the relationship between Rocco and his daughter Kaylene. I honestly expected Kaylene to be a typical cliché teenager, always doing everything against her father’s wishes. Instead, Kaylene and Rocco’s relationship throughout the book is a respectful one. They had their moments when they weren’t completely okay with each other, but those moments were few and far between that they were hardly noticeable. These moments occurred when it came to Kaylene’s fashion choices so usually Nichole had to step in, but they weren’t overblown and drawn out and actually brought Kaylene and Rocco closer together.

I also enjoyed Shawntelle and Leanne as characters. I found Shawntelle’s character to be very enduring because I found her to be the type of friend Nichole needed. Shawntelle is blunt and straight to the point where she says whatever is on her mind, not caring what others think of her. She really made me smile while reading this book because you could tell how much she cares about Nichole. I also enjoyed Leanne as a character, both with regards to her relationship with Nichole and everyone else in the story. My heart really went out to her while reading this book because she’s very selfless, yet was put in situations that hurt her relationship with Nikolai.

To be honest though, Leanne’s relationship with Nikolai was one of many things I didn’t enjoy while reading this book. I liked Nikolai as a character because I could tell he really cared about Leanne, but he got jealous too easily of Leanne’s ex-husband Sean. Every time Leanne was kind to Sean in any way, Nikolai usually flipped out about it because he wasn’t completely okay with Leanne still having some love in her heart for her former husband even though she was married to him for most of her life. To the point where their relationship felt too unreal to me. I know Nikolai loves Leanne, but he got jealous of her former husband every time she interacted with him and it always resulted in their relationship falling apart. But then he’d always come back conveniently right when she needed him, apologizing for his behavior and telling her how much he loves her. And I know relationships aren’t perfect and people make mistakes. But I always felt like their relationship fell apart the moment Sean was mentioned, which bothered me. It made it hard for me to see both of them together and believe they were meant to be.

Another aspect of A Girl’s Guide to Moving On I didn’t enjoy was how easily manipulated Nichole and Leanne were by their former husbands. I get they both still cared about their ex-husbands despite everything they put them through, but I found it to be too much sometimes. Especially because it resulted in their new relationships falling apart, despite how much Nichole and Leanne cared about their new boyfriends. This aspect of the novel bothered me a lot because it showed they weren’t ready to be in another relationship, yet they both got themselves romantically involved with another person anyway, as if that was the only way they’d be able to physically move on from their failed marriages.

I was also bothered when reading A Girl’s Guide to Moving On because it lacked a lot of plot and character development. Yes, the plot wasn’t overly complicated which made it enjoyable to read. But, I felt as if the conflicts in the story were too easily resolved with very little actually being done to resolve them. One example is the moment Jake threatens Nichole’s relationship with Rocco and her being able to have their son Owen. She makes the mistake of doing something that hurts her relationship and calls one of her sisters to find out what to do. But the solution to this conflict was a simple one that she could’ve done in the first place and that would’ve saved her a lot of heartache. It made me emotionally sad to see her character in this situation, but I felt like she could’ve avoided a lot of the pain she inflicted on herself. And that really bothered me because there were a lot of moments in this book that I felt certain situations could’ve been avoided.

There also wasn’t a lot of character development too. Both Jake and Sean learned from their mistakes so I saw some character development from them but I didn’t feel like Nichole and Leanne changed all that much in the story. Yes, Nichole and Leanne both stood up to their ex-husbands a couple of times in the story, but they were still being manipulated by them until Rocco and Nikolai intervened.

But I found A Girl’s Guide to Moving On overall to be a simple and enjoyable read. I enjoyed a lot of aspects about the book and would’ve loved to have given it a higher rating. Unfortunately, there were too many things with this story that were lacking, but I still enjoyed reading it nonetheless and hope others have enjoyed it too.

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Get to Know Me Tag

Christmas Part 2 2013

Decided to post one of my favorite selfies with this tag because I wanted an image with this tag to stand out.

Hello everyone! So I saw this Get to Know Me Tag over at Eve Estelle’s blog Edge of Night that I’ve been meaning to do, because it looked like fun and I wanted to do something so that you all can learn a little bit more about me. So here we go!

Vital Stats

Name: Lorrane Simmon (My real name. But you guys know me as my nickname on my blog.)

Nicknames: Raney (This is the name I normally go by on my blog), Rainy Day (A nickname given to me at a Christian daycare I went to in elementary school , a play on my name because of rainy weather. Haha, very funny, right?), and Little Sissie (The current nickname my older sister uses for me. We come up with different nicknames for each other all the time, but they change quite frequently. For example, one of my nicknames my sister had for me in elementary school was Pool Shark because at the time I was learning how to play Pool and was really good at it to where I beat every I played against, even the person who’d taught me how to play.)

Place of Birth:  Reading, Pennsylvania in the United States of America.

Firsts

Best Friends: A girl from elementary school who lived in the neighborhood I live in now where I grew up. Her Mom and Dad would have football parties at their house and all of us kids would go over there and play in the backyard. When we first moved into the neighborhood, they had a pool so we’d all swim. But then the pool was replaced with a trampoline so we’d take turns jumping on it. I was a bit of a tomboy in elementary school so a lot of my friends were guys so she was one of the few close friends I had in elementary school.

Award: I haven’t really ever been given any awards. I mean in elementary school, I received awards for getting all A’s and B’s in my classes, but that was about it.

Sport: My sister and I took gymnastics whenever we were really little. But other than that, I didn’t really do too many other sports besides the stuff we did in gym class and daycare except for whenever I was taught how to play tennis by my grandmother in middle school, which is a sport I still know how to play now and want to play more often. Oh, and I know baseball too, probably because of daycare or something, though I don’t know where I learned the rules of it or anything.

Real Holiday: I’m not really sure how to answer this. I would have to say the first holiday I remember celebrating would either be Easter, Halloween, or Christmas. But I’m not sure which of these holidays I have a real memory of celebrating first.

Concert: It would have to be the Skillet concert I went to at Carowinds because I hadn’t really gone to any other concerts until after that one.

Favorites

I’m probably going to end up picking more than one favorite for all of these options because I know I enjoy more than one of each of these things already and more than one have a special place in my heart.

Film: All of the Disney films I enjoyed as a child would have to go here, such as The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, etc. But I’ve also enjoyed watching the Narnia films, the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Harry Potter, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Freaky Friday, and The Parent Trap, just to name a few more. There are more movies I’ve enjoyed watching, but can’t currently think of them right now.

TV Shows: Like with favorite film, I have multiple answers to this question. Some of the shows I enjoyed as a child include Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, Avatar the Last Airbender, Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, The Fairly OddParents, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and ChalkZone. The TV shows I like now include The Bachelor/The Bachelorette (yes, I watch trash TV from time to time, I dare you to judge me), Dancing With the Stars, Flip or Flop, Criminal Minds, and How to Get Away With Murder.

Color: Blue is my favorite, followed by purple as my second. But the color silver is also up there with me too.

Song: I have a lot of favorite songs, honestly. These include “Stronger Than You Think” by Fireflight, “The Phoenix” and “The Mighty Fall” by Fall Out Boy, “Demons,” “Warriors,” “Bleeding Out,” “I’m So Sorry,” and “I Bet My Life” by Imagine Dragons, “Awake and Alive,” “Not Gonna Die,” “It’s Not Me It’s You,” “Never Surrender,” and “The Last Night” by Skillet, “My Demons,” “Halo,” “Down With the Fallen,” and “Dark On Me” by Starset, “Far Too Young to Die” and “The Ballad of Mona Lisa” by Panic! At the Disco, “Blown Away,” “Something in the Water,” “Cowboy Casanova,” “Flat on the Floor,” and “Before He Cheats” by Carrie Underwood, “Til It Happens to You,” and “Applause” by Lady Gaga, “Honey, I’m Good” and “Good to be Alive (Hallelujah)” by Andy Grammer, “Losing Grip,” “Complicated,” “Sk8er Boi,” “Anything But Ordinary,” “Fall to Pieces,” “Girlfriend,” “When You’re Gone,” “Innocence,” “Keep Holding On,” “What the Hell,” “Goodbye,” “Bad Reputation,” and “Here’s to Never Growing Up” by Avril Lavigne, “Love Runs Out” by OneRepublic, “Chasing the Sun” by The Wanted, and “Falling and Flying,” “Feather in the Wind,” “Hard,” “Long Lost Child,” “California,” “Crazy Love,” “Anchor,” “All About Your Heart,” “All the Pennies,” “Hourglass,” “I Do Adore,” and “I Take Flight” by Mindy Gledhill.

Wow, sorry guys. I feel like I might’ve almost listed my whole playlist for you. But yeah, I really love music and these are some of many of my favorite songs and songwriters.

Restaurant: Well, I really love Japanese steakhouses as well as Italian food and pizza places. But some of my favorite places around me to go and eat are Yamatos, Olive Garden, Tokyo Grill, Hu Hot Mongolian Grill, Bellacino’s, Deno’s, Jalisco’s, Wings & Ale, and Hudson’s. I enjoy eating at these places because they typically have food I really like.

Books: Surprisingly, this list probably won’t be as long as my songs list, but we’ll see. But some of my favorite books include the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, the Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, the Uglies trilogy and Afterworlds by Scott Westerfield, and Dracula by Bram Stoker. Some of these books became favorites the first time I read them while others I didn’t realize had a place in my heart until I reread them again. Dracula is a book I make my point to read almost once every year whenever the mood to read it strikes me and is a story I never get enough of.

Currently

Feeling: Like I’ve been working on this post for a really long time. I don’t even remember when I started working on it. I think it’s because I spent such a long time listing my favorite songs. But anyway, I’m also feeling okay. Mostly sleepy and hungry. Sleepy because I always feel like I don’t get enough sleep anymore and I have a headache so I might be taking a nap later. And hungry because my Mom just heated up some of the pizza she got at Wings & Ale that she really likes and it smells really good. So I might be hitting that up too.

Single or Taken: I’m technically single. But even though I just got out of a relationship five months ago (really, it’s been five months? Hmmm, time sure does pass.), I still feel like my heart is taken. So for this question, I’m going to say my relationship status feels complicated because that’s the best way I can think of describing how I currently feel about my love life right now. Maybe a couple months from now things will be different, but will just have to wait and see.

Eating: Nothing at the moment. But I’ll probably be stuffing pizza or something else in my face soon enough.

Watching: I’m just going to use the same response Eve used for hers that she got from Faith because it really seems like the only appropriate answer to this: “I’m watching letters appear on the screen in front of me.”

Wearing: PJ’s. Because I feel too lazy to change into real clothes anyway.

Future

Want children: At some point in time. After I start my career, have a place to call my own and am married to the person I plan on spending the rest of my life with. Because I want to be financially stable and be able to afford having children before I have any.

Want to be married: Well, I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life. But I want to be married to someone who truly makes me feel loved and really cares about my well-being and who I can love just as equally in return. And someone who says they won’t leave me and actually means it. So the day I meet a man whose completely honest about his feelings for me and makes actual promises he intends on keeping is the day I’ll get married.

Careers in mind: I don’t have anything specific in mind yet with what I want to do. But what I know for sure is that I enjoy writing so as long as I have the opportunity to do that then I’m fine with whatever career I end up having. But some options I am considering include being a journalist, author, or blogger. But there are many more opportunities I need to look into before I make any sort of decision.

Where do you want to live: Hmmmm, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t have anywhere particular in mind. Though I wouldn’t mind living in Pennsylvania or Boston because I’d be closer to family. But I really don’t have anywhere particular I’m interested in living as long as I have a way of getting back and forth to where I need to go because I don’t have a driver’s license.

Do You Believe In

God: Hmmmm, this question I honestly have a difficult time answering. I’m not overly religious or anything and I do believe there is a higher power. But at the same time, I have a hard time believing that one being created the universe we live in. If anything, I believe that God had to have help in creating the world we live in because I have a hard time believing he did everything by himself. So yes, but I’m not convinced that he’s the only higher power in our universe.

Miracles: Yes because miraculous things happen every day of our lives. A lot of them are things that can be difficult to explain, but I really do believe anything is possible.

Love at first sight: Yes and no. I believe a person can be physically attracted to someone at first sight based on physical appearance. But I don’t really think it’s possible for someone to immediately fall in love with a person the moment they meet them. I do believe love is something that can happen quickly because of my own experiences, but I think it does take a little bit of time for a person to realize those feelings. Doesn’t mean it can’t happen, but I don’t think it’s something that’s immediate.

Ghosts: Yes because I believe our universe is too small for only humans and animals to be the only creatures that encompass our world. But I also believe in supernatural and paranormal things because I believe anything is possible and because I’m open minded to such things because I’ve had friends who’ve had paranormal experiences.

Aliens: Pretty much the same answer I used above because our world is too big that I believe it’s possible.

Soul Mates: I believe that there is a person for everyone. But I also believe that we could all have multiple soul mates, but that the only way we meet any of them is by chance or what life decides to bring to you. Or you could have multiple soul mates because you meet so many people that you have a connection with, such as your close friends. But yes, I do believe in the idea of everyone having a soul mate.

Heaven: Yes, because the idea that you could be with your loved ones who’ve already passed once you die sounds really appealing to me.

Hell: Yes, but I’m not one hundred percent convinced that hell is made out of fire. I believe everyone’s hell is based on their personal weather hatred with heat and cold. As in, I believe people sentenced to hell who prefer the cold and hate warmth would be placed in a warmer climate to maximize their suffering.

Kissing on the first date: I really think this depends on how the first date goes and the person I’m with. If the date goes really well and there’s an obvious connection, I’d be perfectly fine with it. But if the date is horrible and the person I’m with I realize I’m not really into or if I’m just not ready for it then no. Just really depends for me on the date as a whole and the person I’m with on the date.

Yourself: Not really. I’m really hard on myself and criticize everything I do. Even when I do things correctly, I doubt myself and question whatever it is I’ve done. Tell myself I could do better even when there’s not much else I can do. I’m my own worst critic.

I hope you all enjoyed this post and finding out more about me! Feel free to do this tag yourself whenever you feel up to it. Here’s a copy of the questions for when you do:

Vital Stats

Name:

Nicknames:

Place of Birth:

Firsts

Best Friends:

Award:

Sport:

Real Holiday:

Concert:

Favorites

Film:

TV Shows:

Color:

Restaurant:

Books:

 

Currently

Feeling:

Single or Taken:

Eating:

Watching:

Wearing:

 

Future

Want children:

Want to be married:

Careers in mind:

Where do you want to live:

 

Do You Believe In

God:

Miracles:

Love at first sight:

Ghosts:

Aliens:

Soul mates:

Heaven:

Hell:

Kissing on the first date:

Yourself:

 

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Writing Prompt: “I Never Loved Reading” Quote

To Kill a Mockingbird Scout Quote

Image via NDTV.

“I never loved reading until I feared I would lose it. One does not love breathing.” –Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Inspired by zenandpi’s blog post on this quote, I decided I wanted to write about it too.

I can relate to this quote quite a bit. I discovered my love of the written word through reading a fantasy children’s book about people being able to bring characters into the world through the power of their voice.

I’ve already mentioned this on my blog on this post, but I feel like I need to reiterate on this once more. Reading has become a very big part of my life that I can’t imagine living without it. I’ve never yet feared reading being lost in my life, but that’s because I’ve never gone through a time period where I wasn’t reading a book, except whenever I wasn’t a lover of the written word.

But that doesn’t mean the thought of losing my love of literature hasn’t crossed my mind. Because it’s something all book lovers fear. That one day, we will read a book (any book) and discover that our heart isn’t into it anymore. That we can’t take in the words anymore and the story being told to us isn’t holding a special place in our hearts. That the world we’ve discovered we love so dearly isn’t as great of a world as we thought it once was and close the door on that world for good.

All readers fear that they won’t love reading anymore. Because it means something has changed inside of us and that we’ve lost a love we once sought. Because for readers, a book is like breathing. It’s something we can’t live without. And once that’s taken away from us, what will we have left?

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Writing Prompt: Albert Einstein Quote

only-a-life-lived-for-others-is-a-life-worth-while19

I agree with this quote completely. I believe living your life for other people is worthwhile.

Everyone has someone in their life who completely cares about them. Even people who don’t necessarily believe it. Whether that person is a friend, family member, or significant other, there is someone who has always been a part of your life and made you the person you are today. Without that person, you feel as if you have no one to relate to.

That person in your life is who you should be living your life for. Not because they want you around, but because you care about that person so much that you wouldn’t want them to face any pain at your expense.

You live for them because you care about them deeply. Whenever you have moments in life where you’re facing life’s hardest challenges, you think of them. You think of what they’d do if in your situation. But you also talk to them about the situation because you know they’ll always have your back.

And you live on for this person because you’re selfless. You live on for this person because you care about them so much and believe they’d do the same for you. This person makes up all of who you are and makes each difficult day easier to breathe in.

So you live on. Even at moments when you feel too weak to continue, you push on because you care about someone so much you never want them to suffer. And by living life because of them, every painful experience is worthwhile.

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Writing Prompt: “There is Nothing to Writing” Quote

HemingwayWritingQuote

I don’t necessarily agree with this quote. Not because I don’t believe that writing involves you putting all of your emotions out there. But because I believe there is a lot more to writing than what meets the eye.

Writing is a very lengthy process. It’s not something one easily does, unless they are in the mental state where words fly off the page. Whenever you are writing, you’re not only putting your thoughts and feelings into the story/words being created, but are also creating something new. Something others might not have written about just yet. Something that is truly, deeply yours.

But you don’t just feel when putting words down on a page. You have to look into your thoughts to figure out what exactly you want to do. You have to think about what you’re doing before you do it. In order to create a story, you have to think about what you want to write.

And writing isn’t very easy either. There’s a lot that goes into it. But most of it depends on what you want to write. If you’re looking to write a poem for example, you have to think about lyrical prose and how to get words to fit together. You can’t just write a bunch of random words and hope to make a poem out of it.

The same goes for a writer who decides they want to get a book published. They have to think about what genre of writing they want to create, what story they want to tell, character development, etc. Then do research if absolutely necessary to get a better idea of the world they want to create for their novel.

But at the same time, whenever a writer is creating a story uniquely their own, they do bleed on the page. They have to if they want their voice to be heard. This occurs whenever a writer decides to write their stories based off of their own personal experiences. In these type of stories, a writer is very much bleeding onto the page. They are putting themselves out there in the hope that their audience will listen to what they are saying and understand them better. This type of writing allows the writer to connect with their readers in a whole new way and allows them to wear their heart on their sleeve.

Writers can also bleed when writing their novels. Especially when creating a character in a story that is based off themselves or is someone they can personally relate to.

The only time I believe writing isn’t so hard is whenever I’m able to write about personal experiences of my own because those are the moments when I find words easy to express.

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Writing Prompt: “Darkness Cannot Drive Out Darkness” Quote

MLK Quote

Only bad can be destroyed by good and only hate can be driven out by love. That is very true because the only way to destroy one thing is to do the opposite of said thing. That is the only way we’ll be able to live in a peaceful world.

You can’t drive out darkness with darkness because all that’ll do is bring about more darkness. Instead, you have to bring light into the world to push the darkness away. This can be done through doing good deeds to show that the world isn’t as dark of a place as people think.

The same can be said for hatred and love too. The only way to cast hatred out is by showing love. This can be accomplished by being compassionate and kind to the people around you, even the people trying to bring about chaos. By showing these types of feelings, positive change can be brought into the world.

But there is a problem with our society to where doing this is easier said than done. There is currently too much darkness in the world that even if people change their actions, it won’t be enough to encompass all of the bad. Because there are some bad people too who will never show light and love, being able to get rid of it all will be impossible.

But that’s okay too. Because while there is still light and love in the world, there is hope for a better and brighter future for us all. So while there is still darkness and hate, continue to fight it anyway and do the best you can to extinguish it. Only once you have given up will we be unable to fight it anymore. So do the best you can and only good things will be sure to come your way.

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Book Review: The Girl From the Well

The Girl From the Well Book Cover

Rating: 3 stars

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.

The Girl From the Well was an interesting read that kept me turning, wanting to find out more about what happened.

It was an enjoyable read because I found the author’s writing to be quite amazing. I enjoyed the way she weaved her story, including elements of description that made all of the horrific elements easy to believe. I loved her descriptions of the places the characters visited in Japan and how she weaved Japanese culture into the story to make sense of what happened with Okiku still inhabiting the world. Seeing another culture in a book full of horror and terror that explains all of the supernatural phenomena going on always adds more to the story and makes the universe surrounding it all the more real. Having this information in The Girl From the Well shows that the author did a lot of research before writing this story, allowing the reader to learn something new about a culture they might’ve not known before.

Another aspect of this book I enjoyed was seeing horror and terror implemented in the story. This was incorporated during the scenes where Okiku discovers another person who has killed children and goes after them in order to bring the murdered children retribution. I enjoy these scenes because they helped me get a better sense of Okiku’s character throughout the story and allowed me even better insight into her mind. They also reminded me of the American Gothic Literature course I took during my last semester of Columbia College and brought back so many fond memories.

But, there are some issues I have with this book that made it a little difficult to enjoy. While I didn’t overall mind reading the book from Okiku’s perspective, I didn’t absolutely love it either. There were times where I found her perspective jarring and difficult to read. For example, whenever she was getting herself involved in Tark and Callie’s lives and talked about them, there were times where I couldn’t absolutely tell who she was talking about. Those moments made me enjoying her perspective a little less. But at the same time, I also enjoyed reading the story from Okiku’s perspective because the reader saw things in the story that we wouldn’t have seen if the story was told from Tark or Callie’s point of view. We wouldn’t have gotten to see her murder any of the people who killed children and understand why she kills them. It is also the first time I’ve ever read a supernatural story told from the perspective of a spirit.

I also found some plot holes while reading this book that made it difficult to swallow. Some parts of the story were just completely rushed to the point where certain things happened that were left unexplained. For example, when Tark gets kidnapped in the story, he willingly goes in the stranger’s car. That struck me as odd, considering all of the things Tark has been through in his life with his mother. Then, there’s also the lack of time being explained in the story in the sense that I thought what happened throughout took place within a couple days, not a couple months.

Another issue I had with The Girl From the Well is the characters. While I like Okiku’s character, I thought that Tark and Callie were badly developed. While I liked them both as a whole, I didn’t really like how she developed both of them and think both of them are very flat characters. I feel as if Okiku is the only main character in the story even though the story is about Tark.

Despite these issues, I found this story was an okay read. I enjoyed reading the story because of the author’s writing and all of the supernatural elements and plan on reading the sequel The Suffering.

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Writing Prompt: “Sometimes You Just Got To Stay Silent” Quote

Sometimes You Got To Stay Silent Quote

So true. My thoughts are really crazy sometimes. I don’t know what my mind is thinking half the time because it doesn’t make sense. One minute, I’ll be really happy, thinking about something I really enjoy. But in an instant, that happiness can quickly be taken away whenever something that makes me angry or frustrated happens.

But at the same time, silence can be golden. It can get a message across way quicker than saying something you might later on regret. It can convey what words can’t without you having to worry about whether you got your point across. I often deal with silence whenever I find myself dealing with someone who irritates or frustrates me. Often with people who’ve hurt me in some way because I usually don’t want to deal with them.

Silence is a good way of conveying to someone you have no words for them because you don’t want to say exactly what’s on your mind. Oftentimes, I find myself not talking to people who’ve hurt me afterwards because I know what I want to say. But I also know that if I say exactly what I’m thinking, it’ll hurt them and I’ll regret it.

So instead, I keep my words close to my heart and wonder how differently things could’ve gone if I’d only just spoken my mind.

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