I really enjoyed this book ! I do love a spooky , gothic style or witchy book but I have never read a storyline quite like this one before. I read it without looking at the outline and it kept me interested from start to finish

I have given up on this - the overall idea interested me, but having read a fair bit of it, I just don't like it. The different viewpoints don't help - and the 'voice' in Elena's diary is irritating and unconvincing. Sorry, it is not for me, but thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this novel.

I really liked the story and the twists and turns it took. I’m not a huge fan of multiple POVs and also using news articles/emails etc to tell the story but that’s just my own personal issue and nothing against the book.

I enjoyed this read and got through it very quickly in one sitting, I feel like some of the characters could have been a bit more developed but I don't think that took anything away from the plot itself or the overall enjoyability of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book!

DNF at 48%

I genuinely tried to like this book, but I was simply bored. Both Cathy and Elena are unlikeable in different ways, which isn’t a bad thing in itself, but it’s really hard to latch onto either of them when they have no redeeming quality nor they show any sign of development in the story.

The only perspective I was enjoying was that of (I believe) Ilsbeth, but they were few and far between. I would have been more interested in learning her story through her and seeing her connection with the daemon over time. Unfortunately, it was more the case of “telling” rather than “showing” for me, and this is a complaint I have for the other POVs too.

The two main characters could be the point for some interesting discussions: who is entitled to tell a story? what do “witch hunts” look like nowadays and what makes someone a “witch”? how have social media changed the way we interact with our peers, our perception of success, and what harm can they cause (whether to the self or from us to other people)? However, it fall shorts on all accounts, with both Elena and Cathy being extremely self-centered, the former privy to her own privilege and entitlement, and the latter being caught up in obsessive behaviours online found on the worst online groups and forums.

I felt this had a lot more potential that it ultimately delivered; the use of an ‘open letter on Facebook’ and journal entries allow the opposing personalities and views to be well articulated as part of a developing narrative, but the authorial voice of both characters is irritating until you settle into it (about half way through in my case). More interesting are the other source materials, which eventually make sense and offer a sense of ambiguity about much of what we’ve read.

I think I’m done with witchy books for a while though. - there have been rather a lot and it feels like diminishing returns for me.

This book promised so much, tension, creepy and sprinkled with horror. Maybe I was reading a different book. No definitely not. It was so slow, nothing was happening. So disappointed and not what was promised. I just hope that other readers will enjoy it more just not for me.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

A very interesting premise but unfortunately it lacked any really atmosphere or intrigue.
I found all the characters dull or unlikeable, I didn't like the changing storytelling, the journal entries being the most fun to read. The continual referral to the town as F_ was irritating.

A shame because the description sounded very interesting.

Unfortunately I marked this as a DNF!

(For the purposes of this review I had to choose a star rating but this does NOT reflect anything I felt as I cannot rate the book fully if I didn’t not finish it)


For obvious reasons I will not be giving a rating or review as I didn’t finish the book and this would be unfair towards the book and author. I will review why I marked the book as a DNF.

The story (from my understanding) is based around two childhood friends in competition over their books based around Ilsbeth Clark, a historical woman who was accused of witchcraft and murdered in the town’s well by the residents of F-

I really tried with this book, I got around 50% of the way through and decided to put it down for now. I couldn’t connect with the story or the characters and found myself quite bored and not enjoying what I was reading. Saying this I don’t think it was the book, it was maybe myself or the writing style that I just couldn’t connect with. There seemed to be an overuse of exclamation marks in the story?!

I may pick this up at a later date or try another of Bruce’s works but for now this is a DNF!

I was really looking forward to this book as I really enjoyed Triflers Need Not Apply, but I was disappointed. The story is about two women who had been friends as children but now are rivals, with both writing a book about the same woman, one is writing fiction and the other a non fiction account, I am not sure if I was supposed to come out on the side of one of the women but as they are both horrible characters, especially Cathy, I didn't care about what happened with their books, and when one of them dies and the other is blamed I wasn't interested in whether they had done it or not.

I loved Camilla Bruce’s first book You Let me In so I was thrilled to start The Witch in the Well.

This sorry unfortunately wasn’t like the first book. Very different type of the read. I was expecting great metaphor full of darkness and shocking revelation at the end. Especially the shocking revelation...

The start of the book was great! The first 30% were mysterious and disturbing and my brain was
working overtime to crack this HUGE puzzle made of 3 women’s lives. But somewhere in the middle the plot started to slow down and didn’t pick up for a long time. There was a passage I was genuinely scared as I was reading about some creepy and gory parts. The ending of the book kind of fizzled out. It was missing something. Maybe some big moment, when the coin drops and suddenly everything is upside down.

I felt like at the end of the book there is no mystery. Everything is explained. Every loose end is tied. Everyone is accounted for and all is clear. Which is not what I was expecting from Camilla Bruce.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the ARC!

This book just wasn't for me it was a really slow and I struggled to get through it. So I've given a pretty low rating I found the story just didn't grip me at all, I found it slow and i just felt very disinterested in the plot.

I really enjoyed this and was hooked from start to finish. I love stories told with diary excerpts and online posts. I also loved the book within a book parts!

This is a translated work, originally written in Norwegian set against the backdrop of a well in some spooky woods. Elena and Cathy became friends when Elena first came to stay at her Uncle’s summerhouse, nicknamed “the castle”, during the summer. In present day Cathy and Elena no longer speak and Elena has been found drowned in the lake. It seems that both women we’re obsessed with the story of Ilsbeth Clark, a woman who was accused of being a witch and thrown down the well in the woods near “the castle” in the 1800s.

We get diary extracts from Elena as she cleans out “the castle” after her Uncle’s death, excerpts from a blog Cathy keeps protesting her innocence and a mysterious point of view that talks of serving a beast.

I found this absolutely fascinating! The writing was incredible and almost lyrical and the characters were brought to life so vividly. I don’t think this book was supposed to be funny but Cathy and Elena at times made me laugh because the things they did and said were so outlandish but in a good way. There were also a decent amount of creepy scenes as well, the horse gave me the creeps.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone who likes books involving witchcraft, spooky woods and wells and a lot of historical talk! I will definitely look forward to reading more from Camilla Bruce!

The Witch in the Well by Camilla Bruce
Review by Kelly Lacey - Three Stars


I was very excited about The Witch in the Well, with its eerie cover (the UK version). I had high hopes and unfortunately, they were dashed. It started off really well, I was hooked with the girls connecting over the summers and then the book changed into varying points of view that at times just didn’t work for me. I didn’t understand some of it and it became a very heavy read. Even at the end, I was totally confused.

It has all the ingredients of a really good read. But I felt the writing style just didn’t work for me. I don’t rate books under three stars it is just not in me to do that. I won’t be reviewing this title on the blog and I won’t be leaving my review on Amazon either.

Camilla Bruce's prose is good but that's not a surprise - she's a skilled writer. The story, though... I can't say I loved it. While I loved her previous book, The Witch in The Well disappointed me. I guess it comes mostly to excessive time spent on characters lamenting their respective fates and uneven storytelling.

Feminist and magic related books are popular at the moment – I read some brilliant ones in 2022, and I have another on my TBR that comes out in the same month as The Witch in the Well. Although I do sometimes struggle with historical dramas, I thought the split perspective and timelines would help keep me engaged with this one, as well as an intriguing plot that made me want to pick it up.

The Witch in the Well alternates perspective between Cathy and her childhood friend Elena who are obsessed by the local story of Ilsbeth Clark, who was accused of witchcraft and drowned in a nearby well and are rivalling each other to write a book about her. These characters are quite similar but also each unlikeable in their own way which did not help to keep me engaged in the story. Cathy is paranoid and narcissistic, thinking that everyone in the town is judging and talking about her at all times. Elena is shallow and deluded – a social media influencer who readily accepts dark forces into her mind without a second thought until she is consumed by them. There is no-one to really root for or empathise with which made it difficult to get into and I found it dragged in a lot of places.

There are also odd choices in writing style – the town that the events happen in, for example, is always referred to as ‘F-‘. I’m assuming that this is supposed to be alluding to the fact the name of the town is redacted, but I found this jarring and it took me out of the story - I would have preferred just a made-up name to be used. In Elena’s perspective, certain words are oddly capitalised – such as SOUL and WILL which made very little sense. I would have liked to have more of an understanding of what she meant by hearing her soul talking to her as this event happens before the events in the book take place.

There is a third perspective which is interesting, but I found this, added to the end reveal about what had been happening to be confusing. I didn’t understand how the words had been found to be written down – this is certainly a big plot hole! It is more of a horror story as there are some paranormal elements and I found that as I didn’t like any of the characters there were very little stakes involved for me.

Overall, The Witch in the Well did not draw me in – with unlikeable characters and odd writing choices which culminated in a confusing conclusion. Thank you to NetGalley & Random House UK, Transworld Publishers & Bantam Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Norwegian writer Camilla Bruce writes a creepy gothic tale with elements of horror that draws on folklore, many decades previously, children went missing and Ilsbeth Clark was shockingly drowned in the well, the shame of the events have echoed in F-- (?) through the years. The narrative includes a blog, journal entries, along with other documentation. Cathy, a local teacher, has taken to the historical figure, feeling a sense of kinship with her, she wants to focus her attention on Ilsbeth's innocence by researching and writing about her. Elena, a friend from childhood summers, returns to the Norwegian town to facilitate the sale of her uncle's dilapidated family manor. She is now a renowned figure, a social media influencer who wrote the book 'The Whispers Inside: A Reawakening of the Soul'.

A bitter rivalry is set to develop between the ambitious women, as Elena too finds herself inspired to write about Ilsbeth Clark, with a focus on her natural magic side, something Cathy intensely resents, particularly as she thinks it is far too speculative, additionally she is unhappy about Elena's fame. All three come across as unreliable narrators, and none of the women are likeable. This is an atmospheric read with the old manor, the notorious well, the forest location, and the growing and disturbing sense of unease, and incorporates other elements with regard to the long dead Ilsbeth. It all culminates in a dead woman and accusations of murder, whilst raising the question of who exactly is Ilsbeth Clark?

I found this an uneven read that often struggled to hold my attention, there were occasions when the storytelling felt incoherent, and the main characters did not really appeal to me. However, I think there will be readers who will love this far more than me. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

So many negative reviews for this book...WHY? It was dark and was absolutely delightful...I do love a good witchy read, could you tell?

Elena's family manor provided the perfect backdrop, making the story atmospheric and creepy.

It's narrated from various POV in the form of Elena's diary excerpts, open letters, Cathy's book and the Nicksby documents.

The Witch in the Well is rich in history and full of folklore and legend. It has some fantastically flawed female protagonists in both Cathy and Elena, now sworn frenemies. Throw a witch and some daemons into the mix, add a touch of the supernatural and there you have it, this cleverly woven, multi layered masterpiece!

Many thanks to Netgalley for my ARC in return for my honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

everybody loves a good mystery story, and while the witch in the well is not per se a bad book, it is also not a brilliant one.

While i did enjoy reading this, I do not think it is something I would read again

The Witch in the Well by Camilla Bruce is a book that started off well then I really struggled with it.
It tells the story of Ilsbeth ,a young woman accused of Witchcraft and drowned in a Well in 1862 in a town only ever referred to as F- in the book.
It's also the story of 2 former childhood friends nearly 160 years later who become bitter rivals when both decide to write Ilsbeth's story. Local Teacher Catherine Evans has spent years researching Ilsbeth's story for her book when former friend Elena,already a successful author,returns to the town to clear and sell her inheritance,her late Uncle's house. While visiting the Well Ilsbeth had drowned in Elena feels the alleged Witch inside her and determines to give her a voice. When she hears of Elena's plan Catherine reacts very badly to put it mildly.
The book constantly switches between timelines and there were times when I was just baffled as to what was happening and had to flip back to the start of a chapter to re-read and see if I'd missed something.
From being hooked initially my interest kind of fizzled out as the book progressed, Catherine was just unpleasant and unhinged while Elena's witterings about "the soul" had me flipping pages.
I really enjoyed Camilla's book, "Trifler Need Not Apply", this one sadly was a disappointment.