The Girl in the Well is Me by Karen Rivers

From Goodreads,

"Longing to be one of the popular girls in her new town, Kammie Summers has fallen into a well during a (fake) initiation into their club. Now Kammie’s trapped in the dark, counting the hours, waiting to be rescued. (The Girls have gone for help, haven’t they?)

As hours pass, Kammie’s real-life predicament mixes with memories of the best and worst moments of her life so far, including the awful reasons her family moved to this new town in the first place. And as she begins to feel hungry and thirsty and light-headed, Kammie starts to imagine she has company, including a French-speaking coyote and goats that just might be zombies.

Karen Rivers has created a unique narrator with an authentic, sympathetic, sharp, funny voice who will have readers laughing and crying and laugh-crying over the course of physically and emotionally suspenseful, utterly believable events."

Goodreads - The Girl in the Well is Me

This book is about a girl that is trying to fit in after her dad disrupts life for the family.  Kammie wants to fit in with "The Girls" at her new school, but they tell her she must go through initiation first.  She proceeds to try to fit in with these girls, and does everything they say, until she falls into a well.  They quickly abandon her and she has to hope and pray that someone will rescue her.

The idea of someone being stuck in a well made me think of the baby Jessica ordeal that happened back in the 80s.  It is a very unique setting for a book to take place.  However, there wasn't a whole lot that I really enjoyed about this book.  I did come across a quote that I really liked.  It says, "He says that it doesn't matter what you listen to, as long as it moves you inside, that it's not about being cool or doing what everyone else is doing, it's about what makes you feel.  He says that music is poetry that has a tune that you hear with your soul."  I love music and can name a wide variety of songs that hold some sort of significance in my life.  So many people just listen to music to be listening, when really there is a message in most songs.  This quote was probably the most exciting thing in the entire book.  I connected with it on a personal level because of my love for music.

This book has ridiculously long chapters.  They just kept going and going.  And Kammie just kept rambling and rambling in these chapters.  I understand that this was done so that we understood that time seemed to stretch on and on, and that she was lonely and was thinking of anything and everything she could think of.  I dislike long chapters because they don't hold my attention and they seem to stretch on for a lifetime.  This book put me to sleep because of the dragging on and rambling.  I'm afraid that my 4th graders will find this book dull and exhausting, much like I did.

This book just wasn't interesting enough for me, and it seemed to drag on.  I give this book 2 stars.  I wasn't a fan of the imaginary creatures and the ongoing dull thoughts that were going through Kammie's head.  I expect my students to say the same thing about it just going on and on.  I don't think they will find it very intriguing and interesting once they get into the book.  I will try to update once I get a review from a student.