The subject matter and setting might lead one to believe that this would be a story of sad struggle, but the adversity is met with such courage while still cherishing the beauty of life. Ultimately, it's an uplifting story about what it truly means to choose your happiness and be true to yourself.

This was a delightful, charming read. The characters were vividly drawn, and the story simultaneously tugged at the heartstrings and was a little ray of hope. It's exactly the kind of book you want to dig into on rainy weekend with a bottomless teapot!

This is an ambitious, well-structured book - but not actually an enjoyable one. It's a tough one to review because the writing is nearly flawless, the characters and their struggles incredibly vivid. Perhaps that's why I wasn't absorbed - the struggles. I'm not one who needs happy endings, but I wasn't compelled by these interweaving narratives. I was impressed by the author's skill, but I just wasn't drawn into much of the gritty subject matter without a broader narrative arc.

I was looking forward to reading this book, billed as a Gothic, erotic tale, but it's neither deliciously creepy nor sexy. The protagonist, Sandrine, only becomes marginally adventurous due to ghostly influence and never displays traits to make the reader care about her. Unfortunately, there's no sense of thrill or peril with the story, and there's a great deal of telling instead of showing, e.g. he stand close to her, she feels excited - buy why? There's no wit or sparking dialogue between Sandrine and Julien, and the Gothic aspect of the plot never feels foreboding, so there was really no point of tension to keep me absorbed in the plot.

The narrative structure of The Well is well-constructed to provide the reader the sense of isolation and desperation for social connection while imprisoned - both voluntarily and involuntarily - in relative paradise. However, I struggled with certain aspects of the protagonist's journey because I didn't find all of her choices believable. I do think the cult aspect of the plot is a realistic one given the setting and circumstances, but I had a hard time believing Ruth's absorption. (I actually thought I'd somehow inadvertently skipped a chapter or two.) There's a moment with the Sisters of Rose that, for me, made the resolution of the murder mystery obvious and muddied Ruth's characterization. I didn't see a progression in the narrative to support her shift from influenceable to fully controllable. While we clearly see the other lengths she goes to for self-preservation, the degree to which she does this with the Sisters at the expense of the one source that anchors her happiness didn't make sense to me.