October #5 - THE WELL

Title: The well

Author: A.J. Whitten

Publisher: Graphia

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-0-547-23229-4

Series or stand-alone: Stand-alone

Setting: Maine

1st Sentence:

Prologue
The boy would be his.

Comments:

Summary from author's website:
If Hamlet thought he had issues, he should have talked to Cooper Warner.
His mother’s normally sunny American-pie, car-pool driving demeanor has turned into something— Homicidal.

And what’s worse, she has help in her hunt for Cooper: A ravenous monster living at the bottom of the old well in the woods behind their house. She’s determined to deliver her 14-year-old son straight into the creature’s eager clutches.

Cooper’s doing his best to avoid becoming the monster’s next meal, but he can’t get the thing’s voice out of his head. It talks to him, taunts him day and night about the terrible destiny Cooper must fulfill. He turns to his girlfriend, Megan, for help, but then, to Cooper’s horror, the creature takes her prisoner.

Now, it’s up to Cooper to fend off his murderous mother, finish his Hamlet paper, and enter the putrid lair at the bottom of the well to rescue his girlfriend. And when he confronts the creature, this high school freshman must make the toughest decision of his life: kill, or be killed.

This horrific tale, inspired by Hamlet, puts a modern, terrifying twist on the Shakespearean classic.


This was a spooky YA book - a great read for the Halloween holiday and I really liked the Hamlet tie-in. The author is a pseudonym for author Shirley Jump writing with her teenage daughter, Amanda.