The Witch in the Well by Camilla Bruce
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
The Witch in the Well sounds intriguing. The cover image is subtly haunting. The title makes me want to discover what is happening. Is there actually a witch?
Sadly, even after reading it, I have no idea what happened. This is one of the extremely rare cases where I get progressively more ticked off the further I get into a story.
There’s a property, I guess a castle and a well on this property, where many years ago a local woman, Ilsbeth, who the townspeople believed was a witch, drowned.
Many years later, two young girls, playing in the woods discover the well and have mystical, or spiritual, or supernatural experiences there.
These girls, Elena and Cathy, grow apart and eventually become estranged. As adults, one of the women, Elena, I think, moves back to the castle after her Uncle’s death, as I understand it, to prep it for sale.
In the meantime, both women, inspired by the events at the well during their childhood, have taken it upon themselves to write books about Ilsbeth; to tell her story. Each believes they have the right to write it and the other one should stop.
Then I’m not sure, there’s like an Adult version of a prank war, there’s a handsome repairman turned suitor, and most confusing to me was a lot of content regarding a horse, or a ghost horse, and a horse as an embodiment of a demon.
Honestly, your guess is as good as mine and there it is. That’s what I got out of this book.
Oh, wait, one more thing, I think you also get the perspective of Ilsbeth, but I could be wrong on this. I think so, but I’m not 100%. Also, don’t get me started on how confusing the presentation of events was. I could not in a million years assemble a timeline for this story.
I listened to the audiobook. The narrator was okay, but I am not lying, or exaggerating, when I tell you that I RARELY knew whose perspective I was reading from and where the events fit in time.
I could not wait for this to be over. I didn’t want to DNF because, mistakenly, I thought perhaps I would have some sort of epiphany and it would suddenly all make sense.
Alas, this story just was not for me. I know there are some positive reviews out there and I’m definitely glad those Readers had a better experience with this one than I did. Please be sure you read those reviews and take them into account as well.
There’s a book for every Reader and a Reader for every book. Only you can decide if this one is for you or not.
Thank you to the publisher, Tor, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I was excited for this one. I’m sad it didn’t work out.
On to the next!