Girl in the Well is Me

I think it's safe to say that very few of us, unless one of us is Baby Jessica, can say for sure what it's like to fall down a well. But I think that if I were 11, in a new town, trying to impress some new friends while not thinking about a lot of tough family stuff, and I fell down a well where my oxygen supply became limited, my inner monologue would probably be a lot like Kammie's in this engaging new book. Out of improbable circumstances comes a very plausible response. Kammie moves through denial, anger, bargaining, sadness and acceptance (with the help of some zombie goats, a touch I very much appreciated) with regards to her circumstances. Just when you think you're getting a handle on Kammie, she lets another piece of her past out. I don't think you have to have been in Kammie's shoes (at least the one that stays on) to empathize with her here. Karen Rivers gets the mind of the tween girl - even better, the mind of a tween girl when she has ONLY her mind for company - and how many of us can say that either?

I love how author Karen Rivers starts this book off with a bang. Kammie falls into a well after trying to impress her “new” friends. Kammie was desperate to make friends after moving to Texas. The friends told her she had to pass an initiation to be a part of their club. Now Kammie is stuck in a well as three girls she barely even knows stare at her from above. And they are not taking the situation very seriously.Karen does an excellent job pulling the reader in. Making you enraged at the three girls who caused this to happen. The whole story is told from Kammie’s perspective as she is trapped, hurt, and losing oxygen. As Kammie waits to be rescued, the reader finds out about Kammie, why she moved to Texas, and much, much more. A great read for grades 4 and up.

I loved this book and this is not the kind of books I usually read. I usually like fast-paced stories where one thing happens after the next and a lot of things happen in the book. This book the girl is in the well the whole time and you feel sad, suspense, anxious, but what I love most is it makes you ponder on the important things in life, what really matters, and how life can always be worse when you think it's already bad so we should learn to appreciate before we lose everything. She switches back and forth between the reality and whatever is in her head (her past, her imagination, her regrets, her feelings). It is very clearly written, I definitely recommend. But as a 30+ year old adult, I would not recommend for 10 year old kids. I say 15+ young adults to be able to fully understand her deep thoughts, besides, it talks about suicide at one point.

The book was slow and confusing at times. The author would start to write something and just forget about it and start to write about something totally different.The author would go in and out of reality and it was hard to keep up when she was in reality, in the past, or in her imagination/dreams. The book was not organized neatly but I understand and like the concept the author was going for.I did however like reading about the author as she had some very interesting facts and quotes.Read & Reviewed by Alexandrea R. for summer readingReviewed July 11, 2017 on Amazon.com where book was purchased.

My 10-year old wrote this review. I like this book because it is a hilarious and heartbreaking tale about a girl who fell into a well. I also like this book because it has a lot of suspense.

I stayed up WAY past my bedtime to finish this novel that I had started only hours earlier. It is an absolutely captivating story about a girl who finds herself, surprisingly, in a well. Told from her viewpoint, it's an anxiety-filled, laugh-inducing, heartwarming story of a tween finding her way in, and (hopefully - no spoilers) out, of a tight space. Karen Rivers has done an excellent job making the story's dark parts find light again. A must-read for YA and adults as well.

Good and fast delivery

One of the most innovative, engrossing, and beautifully written novels I've read. Most of the novel is written from the perspective of a girl trapped in a well, and yet I could not put the book down. Rivers uses flashbacks to thread through the experiences of Kammie as she hangs suspended, gradually losing logical thought as she suffers dehydration and oxygen deprivation. Best for more sophisticated and mature middle grade readers.