The Girl in the Well is Me by Karen Rivers Book Review

Title: The Girl in the Well is Me
Author: Karen Rivers

Longing to be one of the popular girls in her new town, Kammie Summers has fallen into a well during a (fake) initiation into their club. Now Kammie’s trapped in the dark, counting the hours, waiting to be rescued. (The Girls have gone for help, haven’t they?)

As hours pass, Kammie’s real-life predicament mixes with memories of the best and worst moments of her life so far, including the awful reasons her family moved to this new town in the first place. And as she begins to feel hungry and thirsty and light-headed, Kammie starts to imagine she has company, including a French-speaking coyote and goats that just might be zombies.

Before reading this book it was on my radar for a while.  About a month ago I finally sat down and read it.  I wish I hadn't waited so long.  First - it is a fairly short book, so I read it quickly.  Don't let that fool you into thinking it's a simple book.  It's not.  It has much much going on! The book opens with Kammie having just fallen into the well and is stuck.  At the start I just wanted to yell at the girls who knew she was down there but were doing nothing to help! They didn't seem to get the seriousness and that was very frustrating to me! They leave with the idea they are getting help.  From there the story grows.  I was fascinated by the way the back-story of Kammie unfolds.  You get little bits and pieces about what has happened to her and her family to land her in this new town and now in this well.  I felt so much for her.  I wanted to hug her so many times.  What I liked was that at points I thought I had the whole story, but then a new piece would come out.  It really wasn't until the end that I had it all. 

I really like Kammie.  The longer she is down there the more her personality comes out.  She is brave, stubborn (my favorite characteristic because I can relate to it!), confused, angry and uncertain of what to do.  We've all had times in our life like that and to watch a young girl struggle with this was hard.  I really cheered for her and felt for her.

There are a few giggles in the story especially when she starts to hallucinate.  It lightens the mood a little when it's needed.  

Final thought:  This is an emotional book.  Some kids may struggle with it finding it too serious so keep that in mind.  But some kids will relate to her emotions completely.