The Well »

A. J. WHITTEN is a pseudonym for New York Times bestselling author Shirley Jump writing with her teenage daughter, Amanda. A shared love of horror movies and a desire to spice up the Shakespeare stories that are required reading in high schools led to their collaboration on The Well. They live in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

If Hamlet thought he had issues, he should have talked to Cooper Warner.

     His mother’s normally sunny 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 turns to his girlfriend, Megan, for help, but then, to his 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 Megan. And when he confronts the creature, Cooper must make the toughest decision of his life: kill, or be killed.

     Inspired by Hamlet, THE WELL puts a terrifying twist on the Shakespearean classic.

VOYA

A. J. Whitten skillfully weaves ordinary teen troubles—girlfriend drama, cruel stepfathers, sibling conflict—with creepy, bizarre struggles for survival. The constant references to Hamlet add a deeper level of horror to the novel, as well as help teen readers to understand Shakespeare. Although some parts are implausible—how quickly his friends and family believe his tale of a creature in the well, for example—the novel is generally well-written and certainly memorable. Reviewer: Isabel Crevasse, Teen Reviewer