Half a world away, the Chinese military has a target list of ten US cities in case of war. Most are obvious (DC, NY, LA) and some a little less so (Atlanta for instance has the CDC)…but one is an absolute mystery: Fenton, Colorado. Unfortunately for her, sixteen-year-old Mia Kish is about to find out what makes Fenton so special when emergency sirens start blaring and ritzy Westbrook Academy is out on lockdown. No students in or out until otherwise notified. For the rich boarders whose homes are safely states away, their concerns are missed vacations and trips home, but for the handful of townies, like Mia and her friends Jo and Rob, there’s no escaping the danger.
The situation becomes dire when students and faculty are stricken with a strange illness that ages them years in a matter of hours, the end result death, seemingly from old age. No one knows what to do, but Mia and her friends are not just going to sit there while their parents might be in mortal danger. They escape the school grounds in search of a cure and answers; answers they hope to find in the sealed off mountain bunker where her father supposedly runs Fenton Tech. but along the way, they discover that the military presence is not what it seems, and that the long buried secret of Fenton is a fabled object of myth and legend that may actually exist deep within the earth below.
The beauty of this story is that it actually lives up to its synopsis.
..in every way! "A high-stakes, fast-paced adventure with imagination and heart." The Well's End truly lived up to that tag line.
We start with Mia Kish, aka "Baby Mia" the girl who fell down the well. Mia is such a great character in this book. When we first meet her, she's this timid and scared girl. She's spent her entire life being afraid of the dark, small spaces, and other things but somewhere along the lines she becomes this strong and brave character that will do anything, including rsk her life, to save innocent people. What I love is that she isn't motivated by her feelings of love to her friends, she's does what she does to save everyone, including people that she
doesn't like, because it's the right thing to do, because her nature is to help people, even though she never saw that in herself. That, to me, is the sign of a great character. Throughout everything that she (and her friends) had to endure, she was constantly thinking of ways to save them, even if it meant giving her own life in the process, in the beginning of the book we see Mia as the "needy" girl who always needs to be "saved" or spoken for. So seeing Mia turn into this brave, kick-ass heroine was beautiful to watch.
I have to admit that I also loved her best friends, Jo and Rob, because they were always there for each other. Especially in Mia's time of growing, they "allowed' her to take charge and manage everything even though she had no "experience" in doing that. In fact, she was pretty much the exact
opposite of that. So seeing them fall back and trust her take charge was a great leap of faith on their parts. Also, I love that we see such a huge chance in Odessa and Jimmy. They both appear to be kind of
jerkish in the beginning but when everything is said and done they are actually pretty decent people...and Brayden...there isn't much I can say about Brayden other than, he disappoints is so many ways, but he also kind of redeems himself. So I'm torn on how to feel about him...but all in all, he is totally
swooooony!!!!!!!
The ending leaves me wondering so many things, I mean where are they? What's going to happen? Where is Mia's father? And so many more questions like that. Kind of makes me thing that there may just be a follow up *crosses fingers* :)
So overall, I
looooooved this story and where it took us, Not a sci-fi, but not a dystopian...not sure where exactly to classify this book other than
totally adored by me! Definitely a
MUST READ!!!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Seth Fishman is best known as a New York literary agent at the Gernert Company whose client roster includes ingenue National Book Award Finalist, Tea Obreht, Seth is also the recipient of an MFA from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. The Well’s End if his first novel.
Find Seth:
Find The Well's End:
I don’t remember standing up on my desk in elementary school
and shouting that I wanted to be a writer, but I do remember writing poetry in
the seventh and eighth grades. I remember reading them at talent shows at camp
(ugh, if I could take that back!). I remember starting awful books, rip offs of
whatever I was reading at the moment. But I also remember winning high school
competitions, getting published in small magazines, trying and not entirely
failing. I applied to Princeton University because, and this surprised me, it
has what is, in my mind, the very best undergraduate writing program in the
country. Amazing teachers, and you get to write a book for your thesis! What’s
better? Of course, I was rejected from two of the seminars, had to sit out a
full year while my close friends there got to write for their degrees, but I
didn’t give up and finally got in, kept writing, and even wrote my first novel
– a historical fiction set in France during the 100 Years War about a young
squire who finds the pinkie bone (a relic) of a saint. I'm a huge dork. After
Princeton, I didn’t want to stop, so I went to England, to an MFA program, and
kept going. I wrote a collection of interconnected short stories, SO CLEVER
that no one could understand them. I realized, after a time, that I wasn’t
writing what I wanted to write. It took me years to figure out what drove me,
what inspired me, but I always knew I had to do it,. I've had two agents at
four different agencies. I’ve written five books now (only two will get published).
I’ve been rejected plenty. But writing is like any activity: with practice you
get better, with understanding where your interest lies, you enjoy the process
more. It’s not easy, but it fulfils me in a way most things cant. If you’re
writing, don’t give up, be willing to admit you can do better, and then do
better. Best job in the world.
GIVEAWAY:
Thanks to the awesome folks over at Penguin Teen, one lucky winner will receive a finished copy of THE WELL'S END!!
Enter using the Rafflecoper below
Brighton Walsh spent nearly a decade as a professional
photographer before deciding to take her storytelling in a different direction
and reconnect with her first love: writing. When she’s not pounding away at the
keyboard, she’s probably either reading or shopping – maybe even both at once. She
lives in the Midwest with her husband and two children, and yes, she considers
forty degrees to be hoodie weather. Her home is the setting for frequent dance
parties, Lego battles, and more laughter than she thought possible. 
