Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Mar 2016
224 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A hilarious and heartwrenching story about a bullied girl whose search for a new beginning takes a dire wrong turn.
Newcomer Kammie Summers has fallen into a well during a (fake) initiation into a club whose members have no intention of letting her join. Now Kammie's trapped in the dark, growing increasingly claustrophobic, and waiting to be rescued - or possibly not.
As hours pass, the reality of Kammie's predicament mixes with her memories of the highlights and lowlights of her life so far, including the reasons her family moved to this new town in the first place. And as she begins to run out of oxygen, Kammie starts to imagine she has company, including a French-speaking coyote and goats that just might be zombies.
Karen Rivers has created a unique narrator with an authentic, sympathetic, sharp, funny voice who tells a story perfect for fans of Flora and Ulysses, Reign Rein, and Counting by 7s. The Girl in the Well Is Me will have readers laughing and crying and laugh-crying over the course of its physically and emotionally suspenseful, utterly believable events.
"Starred Review. Moving, suspenseful, and impossible to put down. Ages 10-16." - Kirkus
"Rivers (Finding Ruby Starling ) adheres to the advice that fiction writers "give their characters trouble" in this psychological horror story." - Publishers Weekly
"An unusual story with uncommonly truthful emotions. Grade 4-6." - School Library Journal
"I dare you to pick up this riveting novel without reading straight through to its heart-stopping conclusion. Karen Rivers has penned a dazzling voice, at once hilarious, heartbreaking, and searingly honest. The Girl in the Well Is Me is a triumph." - Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal-winning author of The One and Only Ivan
"A gripping story that doesn't shy away from dark places but explores them with heart, humor, and light ... This book will spark thoughtful conversations about choices, consequences, and what makes us who we are." - Kate Messner, author of All the Answers
This information about The Girl in the Well Is Me was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Karen Rivers has written novels for adult, middle-grade, and young adult audiences. Her books have been nominated for a wide range of literary awards and have been published in multiple languages. When she's not writing, reading, or visiting schools, she can usually be found hiking in the forest that flourishes behind her tiny, old house in Victoria, British Columbia, where she lives with her two kids, two dogs, two birds, and two fish.
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