Camilla Bruce’s novel is dark and dangerous, exploring the supernatural and human flaws in a compelling way. What makes it so intriguing is that both characters are obsessive and flawed, both dark and both not willing to step aside from their competition and it is the story of where those ambitions lead them that keep you coming back for more.

There other aspect is the way the narrative is laid out builds such tension and intrigue. I can’t say I fell in love with either character but I did want to solve the mystery of Ilsbeth as much as the two women did, I wanted to find out what they were each being haunted by and whether the danger would catch up with them. The story unfolds in three different points of view and that is what keeps the story evolving and keeps you waiting for the twist. Ultimately even the monsters are miserable. 

Camilla Bruce’s novel is dark and dangerous, full of the supernatural and the human, blending human misery and anger with a haunting story. If you like mystery and intrigue layered with the paranormal, I think you might like this one. The characters were not likable but were all too human and the ending was satisfactory.

This was such a quick read. I loved the atmosphere of this book. I was immensely curious about the witch in the well. My only thing is, i found it confusing on who the witch actually was?

I did struggle with the timelines and keeping some together. But i was fascinated. And i loved the slow dive into each characters life and how they all came to be. The beast and the mistress were one in the same but left me with questions, especially because the term was used interchangeably.

I felt for these characters even tho they were a bit unlikeable and spiteful. I really liked how it basically showed that even tho we’ve progressed in our society. Our society still judges and persecutes others so strongly that it basically doesn’t matter what really is the true story. The court of public opinion is strong.

Really enjoyed the story.

This was an interesting, and unique witchy book. Definitely not what I expected, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There was a lot of history, back story and jumping timelines. Which I enjoyed. But I feel like all the going back and forth, was done in a confusing way. It took me awhile to get characters and timelines in order, but once I did, I was able to enjoy the story.

The Witch in the Well by Camilla Bruce is difficult to classify.  I wouldn't say horror, but the supernatural aspect is creepy. It's also a mystery.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher  MacMillan-Tor/Forge and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


Series Background:    (Warning – May contain spoilers from previous books)
Elena returns to "the castle", her uncle's home where she spent summers as a child.  She is there to get the house ready to sell.  She is still grieving his death, and she hopes that the peaceful atmosphere will inspire her to write her second book.

She gets more than inspired when she seems to connect with the ghost of Ilsbeth Clark, who, centuries ago, was accused of witchcraft after several children disappeared.  Although acquitted, the town drowned her in the well.  Elena decides her next book will be about Ilsbeth, who she feels was unfairly treated.

Unfortunately, Elena's old friend Cathy has been researching Ilsbeth Clark for a number of years, and is also planning on writing a book.  Elena and Cathy were once close, but no longer.  Now their real and imagined grudges, ambitions and attitudes will clash.  Competition is dangerous.


My Opinions:
This was interesting.  We knew up front that one of them is dead, and the other accused of her murder.  But their stories were wonderful.  Although it was a little confusing in the beginning, a little more concentration on my part revealed the separate entities.

Through Elena's journal entries, Cathy's blog, and another's writings, we learn of both the past and the present.  It is a rather dark book,  the atmosphere rather creepy, and your mind doesn't quite know who to believe -- the unreliable narrator could be everyone!  The supernatural aspect was really good, and the beast unique.

Unfortunately, I really wish I had liked the characters, any of them.  Both Cathy and Elena were rather self-centered, and both just annoyed me at different times in the book.  As well, I felt the ending was a little weak.

However, the premise and prose was wonderful.  The writing  is very descriptive, and you felt you were actually in that small, gossipy Norwegian town and woods.  The overall story was really quite good, and I can't wait for Camilla Bruce to write another book!

A reader's enjoyment for this book is going to live or die by their tolerance for unlikeable characters. In a way, it almost reads like a satire - although both the leads are first-person narrators, they're held at something of a distance while the reader observes their foibles - and there are no moments of genuine human connection to ground the story. That doesn't necessarily mean that this book won't find an audience, but the unpleasantness of the leads does detract somewhat from the building dread of the plot, simply because I never cared about the characters' fates. I would recommend it for readers interested in atmospheric, bleak horror.

The Witch in the Well is such a fun weird, a strange book that feels like it’s half horror and half domestic thriller, a blend that completely worked for me.  

I love female-centric mysteries told in opposing viewpoints and through different time periods, but I’m used to reading them as typical thriller novels.  The horror content of this one surprised me and blends together two of my favourite genres.

The Witch in the Well follows the perspectives of two former best friends: Elena, a social media influencer, and Cathy, a novelist.  They’re each obsessed with a woman from their small town who was killed decades ago for being a witch.

They’re both kind of terrible people, but I found their voices to be fascinating and weirdly relatable.  It’s a book where you could ask readers, “Are you an Elena or a Cathy?” and I think I’m a Cathy, unfortunately.  Cathy’s bitter, jealous, and unable to move on with her life.  Elena’s flighty, self-centred, and a bit shallow.  They make terrible choices and watching them happen is strangely interesting.

While these two women fight over who can write the witch’s real story, there’s a bunch of creepy goodness happening in the town, and flashbacks to how the women imagine the witch lived and thought.  

I’m not sure yet how I felt about the ending — I think I need to sit with it for a bit.  Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed getting there. 

I think this one might have trouble finding the right audience, but I love a weird genre mashup and am excited to read more of Bruce’s work.

Thank you to Tor Books and NetGalley for my review copy of this book.

Childhood friends cross paths once again. They're originally met in the small town where Ilsbeth Clark was accused of witchcraft and thrown down an old well which still stands in the woods, dark secrets waiting in its depths. In one particularly entertaining scene, mother lets her children climb on the low stone walls, insisting that they're too smart to fall in. Elena and Cathy are both writing books about Ilsbeth, both convinced that they have the right to tell her story.

The book is creepy and atmospheric, but at times I found myself struggling to keep the characters straight because multiple women are telling the story.

This was my first novel by Camilla Bruce and won’t be my last. It is a deeply atmospheric novel told in different points of view through various documents and online accounts. Generally speaking, a complete use of this type of story-telling could feel broken and choppy but Camilla did a wonderful job making it flow as if there were narrators instead.

Although mostly set in the present, the accounts of Ilsbeth while she was alive gave the story a historical and folklore-like feeling that validated the witchcraft element. Seeing both Cathy and Elena’s points of view shows how easily one’s own perception of an event translates into their personal reality. It’s hard to decide whose intentions to believe, adding more suspense overall.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read even though it isn’t at all a thriller. It’s more of a suspenseful speculative fiction with magical realism and I was completely consumed! A slow burn through and through, the tension builds and provides a wonderful witchy ending!

Thank you to @netgalley , @torbooks , and @camillabruce_writing for the advanced copy! All thoughts are my own.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor Books for the chance to read an advance copy of the The witch in the well by Camilla Bruce. I picked this book because the premise sounded wonderful and creepy. And the beginning of the book was good, but as the book continued I became disappointed. It was written in a two POV (Elena and Catherine), but in first person, and written as diary entries and blog posts that I just couldn't get into. I wanted to read a novel. I am sure there will some people who will love this unique written book which is creepy, but it was just not for me.

The Witch In The Well is a suspenseful paranormal thriller with a mystery that will keep you second-guessing until the very end. This is the perfect book to read on a dreary, dark day or perhaps at dusk. It's creepy and odd. It's not horrific or scary, yet it sets a mood. It's mysterious but does not have a huge reveal at the end.

The Witch in The Well by Camilla Bruce had a promising premise. Unfortunately for me, it did not deliver.

The story is told from the perspectives of three different women; Cathy, Elena, & Ilsbeth.

The town the story takes place in was only referred to as F-. This was your typical small town where everyone knows everyone and there are no secrets and even the smallest happening in town has everyone gossiping and excited. The town has a morbid past due to a legend from centuries ago that still plagues some of the townsfolk in the present day.

Two of those people are childhood friends, Elena and Cathy.

Cathy was born and raised in town on her parents’ farm along with her two older sisters. She was a lonely kid and not a very happy child. Her dad had a drinking problem that always lead her parents to argue and her sisters paid no attention to her as they were teenagers and had their own things going on.

When Cathy was eight, her mom took her and her sisters to the car in the middle of the night angry and upset after a bad fight with their father. Cathy noticed how fast her mom was going but before she even had a chance to say a word, they crashed leaving them all injured, Cathy the worst.

Cathy’s legs were severely damaged after that accident and she was bedridden for a while before she could even use her legs again. This led to further depression for young Cathy. She spent most of her school-aged years on crutches and was tormented for this and bullied by her peers.

Because of the sadness, loneliness, and desperation, Cathy sought solitude in the one place she knew she’d find it; at the well in the woods near her house.

Elena was a city girl, not from the town of F-. Her uncle bought a manor house in town though so she spent many of her summers there enjoying time with family and nature.

This is how Cathy stumbled upon Elena and being so close in age, the two quickly bonded and grew a strong friendship over those many summers.

Ilsbeth is a ghost. She is the woman on whom the town’s macabre history is based.

In the stories, which Ilsbeth will tell in her own words, the town assumed she was a witch when one by one the children of the town started disappearing. They had assumed she ate the children as all they would find was an item of the child near the well in the woods. No matter how many times Ilsbeth swore it wasn’t her, the town wanted her gone.

The people chose to take matters into their own hands when Ilsbeth was acquitted of all charges and in turn, they showed up at Ilsbeth’s house late at night, bound her, threw a burlap sack over her head, and murdered her by dumping her into the very well they assume she threw the children into, forcing her to face the same fate.

This haunted well was in the middle of both Cathy and Elena’s properties.

From child to adult, Cathy was always drawn to this well, whether in person or in dreams, she always found her way to it. She spent many hours there when she had no friends and useless legs. The well calmed her in some strange way she could not explain. She’d bring stolen gifts of silver and raw meat to dump into the well all the time and she wasn’t even sure why.

As Cathy got older, she started to experience what she felt was magic at that well and once took Elena there to experience the sight with her. While Cathy was excited to share her secret at the well with her best friend, what Elena saw terrified her and so began the rift between the two girls that they were never able to repair. That one night deteriorated years of friendship.

At present time, Elena is now a well-known spiritualistic author who’s come back to town to clear out the manor house to prepare it to be sold since her uncle has passed. She finds out through the grapevine that Cathy has spent a lifetime on that weird well and the stories that surround it, trying to re-write Ilsbeth’s story as Cathy feels the woman was misjudged and wants the whole town to know how wrong their ancestors were. Elena thinks this is crazy…at first.

The ghost of Ilsbeth has different plans though and would rather use Elena to accomplish them. So she enters Elena and speaks to her through images and feelings. Now Elena has decided to write a book too which obviously doesn’t make Cathy very happy.

As the story goes on, it seems all women are completely untrustworthy and it’s really hard to decipher who’s honest, who isn’t, and what is even happening. That’s all I can provide as far as a summary goes as saying anything further will reveal too much making this read pointless for those who want to read it.

I never truly got into this novel. I didn’t like any of our main characters. The somen seemed not only incredibly petty and childish but just too unbelievable. I could not feel for any of them but annoyance. Their stories meant so little to me. I was also confused about what was going on during the entire book until the very end.

I would not have finished this book if I had not received it as an ARC. I felt I owed it to the author to at least provide my time and honest feedback.

This one just wasn’t for me. I couldn’t take how the town’s name was only ever referred to as “F-.” It drove me so crazy that I made up my own name for the town. I also couldn’t take how anytime Elena mentioned her “soul” or “magic” she put it in all caps as if what she was saying were incredibly important when it wasn’t, ever. As for Cathy, she was too crazy about a story from centuries ago that she tore up her entire life over it. That just didn’t seem likely to me.

I really hope someone will enjoy this novel but being that I was just so confused and the reveal wasn’t anything that made this worth it, this one for two stars from me.

If you like super weird witches and history, then maybe you’ll enjoy this. If that’s your case, I encourage you to give this one a shot but sadly this was not what I had anticipated, so I just can’t give this book my full recommendation.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Tor Books, for providing this digital ARC with me in exchange for my honest opinion. This review was based on uncorrected text which did not sway my opinion either way. All feedback is my own.

The village has a legend. A witch once killed children, last seen near a well on her property. In turn, the town drowned the witch in the well. Now, two women are connecting with the witch in very different ways. The story and concept were incredibly interesting. I don't read a lot of books like this, but really enjoyed this one. The main characters of the book were all strong and unique women and it made for a heavy read. While by the end of the book everything made sense, the disjointed presentation with multiple points of view made getting there sometimes confusing and I frequently couldn't decide if it was me or the story telling that made me feel lost. The end result was a book that might take more concentration that most reads, but by the end it is worth it.

This is definitely an atmospheric, spooky, and twisty book. The concept is eerie and I really enjoyed Ilsbeth’s point of view.

However, this fell a bit flat for me. The different POVs and timelines were sometimes confusing to follow and it took some time to discern each character’s voice. I found Cathy and Elena to be such annoying, toxic characters. I get that that was the point but it made it very difficult to relate to them at all. I also really wish there had been more explanation and focus on the daemon in the well and Ilsbeth. They were the best part of the story.


Thank you to NetGalley and Tor/Forge for an ARC!

The Witch in the Well is a spooky, atmospheric book for the start of spooky season. Two women (Elena and Cathy) are former childhood friends that happen to be each writing a book about Ilsbeth, the witch in the well. Told by journal entries, transcripts from each book, and Ilsbeth herself can get confusing as the story goes on.

I didn’t love it, to be honest. The plot kept tripping up for me and aside from the ghostly setting of the book, I didn’t particularly like any of the characters. The actual witching stuff took a little too long to get to and the ending was just ok.

Thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan-Tor/Forge for this eARC.

Ilsbeth Clark was accused of witchcraft centuries ago when area children went missing. Townspeople doled out her punishment by drowning her in a well.

Elena and Cathy met when they were children. Cathy grew up in the small Norwegian town while Elena and her family spent their summers there. Now adults, Social Media influencer, Elena has come back to the town to prepare her family's manor house ready to sale. But she becomes inspired to write about Ilsbeth's spirit. Elena is not the only one who has been inspired to write about Ilsbeth. Cathy has been researching and writing about Ilsbeth for years.

What has inspired both women to write about Ilsbeth and her story? Who owns the right to write about her?

This was an atmospheric and dark book. It is told using Elena's journal, books, Cathy’s blog, and mysterious pages. It took me a little bit of time to get used to this style of storytelling. It's a little confusing (at least it was for me) at times I wasn't sure who was telling the story. Yet, it was oddly compelling and enjoyable.

The characters are not likeable as we see them in written form (remember the book is told through journals, blogs, book, etc.). I wondered who is reliable, who isn't, etc. But the mystery sucked me in. This is a book that creeps up on readers, sucking them in with questions, trapping their interest while soaking them with unease and tension.

The Manor is old and not in the best shape. This creates the perfect stage for the creepy, dark feel of the book. An old manor home, the forest and the infamous well provide the atmospheric and sense of impending doom.

This is the perfect book to read on a dreary, dark day or perhaps at dusk. It's creepy and odd. It's not horrific or scary yet it sets a mood. It's mysterious but does not have a huge reveal or knock-your-socks-off at the end moment. More like a soft 'aha' at the ending.

Gothic, Dark, Atmospheric


Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Oh man. I just couldn’t get into this! I really really tried but I felt like the transitions were awkward and hard to keep up with. It was a DNF for me.

The atmosphere of this book had me from the beginning. It's perfect for spooky season.
Unfortunately, that's all I really enjoyed about this title. The characters were unlikable for me,
And the way it was written made it seem disconnected.
The story was good just not really my preference in the way it was written.

Cathy & Elena were once childhood. summer buddies but have since grown up and apart. They are both working on a book of the same topic: Ilsbeth Clark, local witch legend. The books would be completely different but Cathy can't stand having Elena in town or invading her territory, and things come to head rather quickly when Elena moves back to the town of F____, in order to clean up her Uncle John's estate and get it ready for sale. Elena seems to be having more and more difficulty with this, however, as thoughts of Ilsbeth invade her mind. She'd rather "commune" with the old well on the estate. The book is told through Elena's journal, Cathy's (very public) blog posts and historical papers written by Ilsbeth. It's a bit confusing until you realize what's actually going on. Both main characters are extremely unlikable in my opinion. Only Ilsbeth brings any redeeming interest back to this book.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor/Nightfire for an e-arc of this novel.*

"The Witch in the Well is a dark Norwegian thriller from Camilla Bruce, author of You Let Me In.

When two former friends reunite after decades apart, their grudges, flawed ambitions, and shared obsession swirl into an all-too-real echo of a terrible town legend.

Centuries ago, beautiful young Ilsbeth Clark was accused of witchcraft after several children disappeared. Her acquittal did nothing to stop her fellow townsfolk from drowning her in the well where the missing children were last seen.

When author and social media influencer Elena returns to the summer paradise of her youth to get her family's manor house ready to sell, the last thing she expected was connecting with - and feeling inspired to write about - Ilsbeth's infamous spirit. The very historical figure that her ex-childhood friend, Cathy, has been diligently researching and writing about for years.

What begins as a fiercely competitive sense of ownership over Ilsbeth and her story soon turns both women's worlds into something more haunted and dangerous than they could ever imagine."

Writing about the past can be dangerous!

This book started out a tad slow, but once it got going it never stopped pulling me into the web of it’s compelling narrative. In the beginning this book appears to be about nothing more than a fight between two former friends, but then it morphs and changes until you realize that what is going on much more complex than was originally thought. And then there is the big reveal that is completely unexpected and once again changed the perspective about what I was reading and left me feeling shocked and excited in this best way possible.

This book was a win for me. It has so many things that I love- a mystery, an eerie town, unreliable narrators, historical and horror elements. And the most important thing was that all of these elements were tied together by a really good story.

Thank you to @netgalley and @torbooks for an advanced copy of this book.