The Well

by Jack Cady, Tom Piccirilli (Introduction)

Years earlier, John Tracker fled the insanity of his family and their house, a centuries-old monstrosity that his grandfather Theophilus rigged full of hallucinatory tricks and vicious death traps designed to capture the Devil. Now middle-aged, John receives word that the place is to be demolished to make way for a freeway, and he decides to revisit it with his girlfriend Amy Griffith before its destruction. But when a blizzard traps them inside the house, they will be forced to contend with the dangers hidden within: strange time-shifts, murderous traps, and something evil that stalks the halls in the form of John’s grandmother Vera. As the terror mounts, John and Amy will make the horrifying discovery that Theophilus’s mad ambition to trap the Devil may have worked only too well . . .

Jack Cady (1932-2004) has been recognized as a master American storyteller and was the recipient of the World Fantasy, Nebula, and Bram Stoker Awards for his novels and short fiction. This edition of The Well (1980), a classic of modern horror fiction, includes an introduction by Tom Piccirilli.

“[A] superior example of horror fiction ... a vision out of hell ... an original and awesome adventure that should be read in broad daylight, when one is not alone.” – Publishers Weekly

“It takes no special critical powers to recognize in Cady an exceptional writer, who is not just promising but has already achieved some remarkable feats.” – Joyce Carol Oates

“[A] haunted house story … intelligently written both in terms of concept and style … Cady develop[s] his horrors with subtlety.” – Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction

Genres: Horror, Audiobook, Fiction, Gothic

207 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Winner of Nebula, Phillip K. Dick, World Fantasy and Bram Stoker awards.

Obituaries:
in Seattle PI
in Peninsula Daily News
in Seattle Times
from Komo News

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review (1/29/17)


I first read this 1981 novel as a teen in the mid-90s, during the latter stages of my initial six or seven year-long love affair with horror fiction (the end of which happened to coincide with the total collapse of the horror market, which had still been hanging on by a thread before that point), and while I remembered enjoying it, I could recall next to nothing about it other than the fact that I really dug the setting: a gigantic, possibly haunted labyrinthine mansion filled with ultra-deadly booby traps everywhere. Which meant: time for a re-read.

John Tracker grew up in this insane house with his insane family, as generations of Trackers before him had. He's tried to forget his strange childhood there in that secluded place in Indiana, and in the decades since has cut off all contact with his relations and vowed never to return, but is forced to, as the house -- which is more like a castle really -- has been condemned to make way for a new highway. He's pretty sure his remaining family have since passed away, as there have been no records of electricity use or phone bills there for years, and there's no way they'd ever move. Still, John, along with (against his better judgement) his new girlfriend, heads back to Indiana. And to the house.

It's even more sprawling and maze-like than he remembered, laden with increasingly lethal traps and tricks at every turn, which previous generations of loony Trackers had built in order to capture or stave off demons and/or the devil himself. The couple are soon forced to hole up there when a severe snowstorm bombards the area. The mansion seems unoccupied, but something feels off, and they definitely sense some sort of...presence, one that's stalking them. Too bad they're stuck there, with no chance of escape.

This is an above-average example of horror from the era, with far above-average prose. Jack Cady, who also penned literary-type fiction, certainly knows how to write. Unfortunately, he's not as proficient at creating suspense, or even (at least here) characters to root for and sympathize with. Rarely did I feel scared for the safety of the main characters, because I didn't really care about them. The house itself is the main attraction, and (one could say) the main character. The endless halls, mazes, and "tricks" were what intrigued me, and what carried me through.

Overall, I wouldn't call The Well an absolute must-read for fans of 70s and 80s horror fiction, but it is well-worth checking out for connoisseurs that want to dig a little more deeply into the era.

Oh and in case anyone was worried, I did eventually find my way back to the genre after our little falling-out, and have kept my promise to remain loving and loyal ever since.

3.5 Stars.

[Char · Rating 4 out of 5]

"There are Things that do not love the sun. They weep and curse their own creation. Sometimes on earth a cruel shift takes place. Time splits. Corpses possessed at the moment of their death rise from tombs. The dark ages of history flow mindless from stagnant wells and lime-dripping cellars. The corpses, those creatures of possession, walk through ancient halls and rooms." So starts Jack Cady's The Well.

Extremely well written, this is an excellent haunted house story, but it's also much more than that. It's a tale spanning generations, sprinkled throughout with genius and madness alike.

"He thought he knew the look of greed, lust, envy; but he realized without question that he was now looking at the force that embodied them all. He was looking at absolute evil."

This edition from Valancourt Books features a touching Introduction from Tom Piccirilli, (who has since passed away.) In it, Tom speaks of the kindness Jack Cady showed him when he first started out, which is coincidental-because I recently read a piece by another author who said the very same things about Tom Piccirilli. Tom goes on further to talk about The Well and how it influenced him and his writing, and now having read the book, I can see why. I'm glad that I bought my very own copy, because I'm sure I'll be reading it again in the future.


Note to self: Check out more works written by Jack Cady, ASAP.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

"There are Things that do not love the sun. They weep and curse their own creation."

THE WELL, by Jack Cady, is based on the Tracker family and a house built over time to "trap" the devil....at least, theoretically. I loved the traps set into the house, the hidden stairways, rooms, and dangers inherent everywhere. The story itself was good, but the "family background" at the beginning of each chapter got a little confusing at times (especially when it would refer to the "great-great-great grandmother on his grandfather's side"). There were parts of the story that I couldn't stop reading, and others that just confused me further, and didn't seem to have any bearing on the main theme.

Due to the "unevenness" of the narrative, I'm giving a three-star rating. Good story, but some lost in the clutter of excess information.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had relatively high hopes for this one as I love a good haunted house story, but Cady really dragged this one out, which is saying something as it is a pretty small novel. The Tracker house, home of several generations of Trackers, each of which added and remodeled it hugely. Our protagonist, John tracker, grew up there but left with his mother when he was 10. Outside of a few visits to his father shortly after than, John had not been back there for 20 years.

John landed a huge contract to landscape a new highway, in part because the old Tracker house was in the way (eminent domain and all that). None of the Tracker family has been seen in years; meaning John legally owns the place. Originally, John hoped to visit the place, make sure none of his family were still kicking, search for a the family treasury, and then have the place demolished. Well, sometimes things do not go as planned...

The best part of this book revolved around the house itself. Monstrous, with over 250 rooms, four stories plus towers and such, with many basements and subbasements. While Cady gives us some stories about the Tracker family at the start of each chapter, John's great grandfather started the construction, building in many traps for the devil. Over the generations, the traps, tricks and such exploded, making the place like an evil funhouse. Open the wrong door and get blasted by a shotgun, rooms that trap you and fill with water or deadly gas-- you get the picture. John remembers the tricks/traps from when he lived there, but that was a few decades ago and the building never stopped, with his grandfather adding yet another story among other things.

The house has a hold on John, however, and does strange things to time and space. When he brings his girlfriend there, it does odd things to her as well. I loved the various surprises that filled the house and the shear madness of the place. My biggest problems involved the glacial, albeit erratic pacing, and deep introspections of John and May (his girlfriend) on the meaning of life, of good and evil, of love and hate-- again, you get the picture. This could have been really scary, but for me came off as a weakly existentialist, philosophical meandering. YMMV, as this is seen by many as a classic. 2.5 trippy stars, rounding up.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Well is a book that is so rich in atmosphere that a serious case of the creepies grabbed me from the very beginning. This may just be one of the most original haunted house novels I've ever encountered, and the story, like the house itself, takes several eerie twists and turns along the way as we weave our way through its darkness. Quite honestly, I'd never heard of Jack Cady before reading this book, but to my mind, he nails the whole haunted house concept here with the emphasis on haunted.

I realized this one was going to be something completely different even before I'd finished reading the first few lines:

"There are Things that do not love the sun. They weep and curse their own creation. Sometimes on earth a cruel shift takes place. Time splits. Corpses possessed at the moment of their death rise from tombs. The dark ages of history flow mindless from stagnant wells and lime-dripping cellars. The corpses, those creatures of possession, walk through ancient halls and rooms... Through endless halls are dusks gathering like the memory of screams. There is a concatenation. Presences drift toward combination. Darkness rises and takes shape behind the sound of footsteps."

When a book begins like this one does, you start to think that that this just might possibly turn out to be a fun, chill-producing ride, and that it did.

plot without spoilers (I swear!) can be found here for those who want to whet their appetites (scroll down a bit since there are two books being discussed there).

While there are spots in this book where the writing just grated, overall, it's one of the creepiest, darkest, haunted house stories I've ever read, certainly high on the list of most original. Sheesh! I read this one twice and even in the middle of the second read I was still freaked out enough that I had to put the book down and go do something else. It's not only the horrors that stand out though, since it is also a story about the people who'd lived in the house from its beginnings, so there's also plenty of insight into human nature. I won't say more, but seriously, there's a reason that this house is described as a "well of depravity."

This one I wholeheartedly recommend.

[Christopher Fulbright · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Tracker returns to his boyhood home after years of estrangement from his family, a family with a long and strange occult past. This is no average boyhood home -- it's a sprawling mansion in the snowswept rolling hills and forests, a cold river winding through the nearby valley. It's a house built by madmen and geniuses, added on to by generations of Trackers, and it's built on top of a well ... a well in which something sinister dwells. More than sinister -- something diabolically evil. And it has seeped into the home over the years, into the walls, the air ... and it knows John Tracker has returned.

This is the best horror novel I've read all year. It came out in 1981 or '82, I think. I bought a hardcover copy of it a few years ago and it sat on my shelf for a criminally long time before this fall. Now I'm kicking myself for having waited so long. This book is amazing. Frought with atmosphere, it's creepy, menacing, engrossing, and in places downright chilling. More than that, it's an awesome dive into the psyche not only of the main character, but the strange and broken history of an entire family -- all in about 250 pages. It's on par with the best work of Michael McDowell, Stephen King, or Peter Straub, without so many characters to make it seem overly long.

John Tracker is a flawed man. He's successful, but he's also someone who is acutely aware of his own shortcomings. He's actively coming to terms with himself and his past during the story, exploring grief and the reasons for his eventual leaving behind of his life in the twisted home of the Trackers that all the nearby locals fear and revere. The massive home through which he must journey once again to find out who, if any, of his family remains, is constructed with deadly traps and deceptions at every turn. It was built to thwart, contain, and ultimately control the evil presence in the well upon which it was built. This novel works on two levels -- it is a compelling journey of self discovery and a chilling horror novel that is neither pretentious, nor ever loses sight of its primary goals.

This is the first book I've read by Jack Cady, and it will by no means be my last. I was so impressed with this book that I immediately went online to see what else by him I could get my hands on. Stellar writing, amazing characterization, and a haunting story that resonates long after you finish it. Definitely recommended.

[Sarada · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book held a lot of promise, as its focus is a vast, diabolical house full of traps and tricks, created by a madman and designed to capture the devil. One can feel that the author intended to take a fresh new approach to the haunted house story, adapting it to a contemporary (1981) setting with a narrative style that borders on stream-of-consciousness.

The author's writing style undermines this excellent premise, however, as I think that Cady was trying to introduce some experimental elements to the genre, but the storytelling mode does not fit the subject matter. Although told in the third person, the narrative mostly consists of the internal monologue of the main character, John Tracker. The main problem with this is that Tracker doesn't have very much on his mind that is worth recording in moment-to-moment detail.

The characters in this book (there are really only two, Tracker and his girlfriend, Amy; the house itself and the phantom presences therein could be said to comprise the third main character in the book) are very flat and uninteresting. Tracker is a 40-year-old successful businessman and he reminds us almost constantly throughout the book that he is a 40-year-old successful businessman, who has immersed himself in his work to escape the memories of his childhood in this house. Meanwhile, the character of Amy so frustrated me that I almost gave up on the book multiple times. She is a 30-year-old secretary, and the book's author seems to have derived all of his notions of the internal world of a 30-year-old woman from the covers of magazines sold at grocery store check-outs. She is obsessed with the fact that she is 30, and "too old" to be an actress; otherwise she is pining over an old boyfriend, thinking about her current one, and thinking about her own attractiveness and desirability. She seems to define herself entirely in relation to the men in her life (of which, she reminds us several times, there have been very few). The blossoming love between these two characters is lifeless and appears to be grounded entirely on the fact that they are of the opposite sex, and worked together for a long time. She seemingly becomes hysterical and unhinged at many key moments in the book, and Tracker repeatedly expresses his own exasperation with having her along.

One never gets a clear idea of what the house itself looks like, as Cady only describes it in small, detailed areas, as though one is trying to describe a room based on magnifying-glass sized observations. Instead, the main character's incessant internal monologue continues, pondering the same two or three points throughout the entire novel.

I love labyrinthine passages, strange, surreal environments and magical realism, all of which it seems like this book could deliver. The touches of magical realism – for instance, the assertion that the house causes disruption in the flow of time – is handled awkwardly and creates no real sense in the reader that anything remarkable has happened. Even descriptions of the characters artificially aging at one point, are rather vague, so that I couldn't be sure what had happened.

The overall premise, though, is strong, and I don't regret having read it. The description of the well at the center of the house, from which all of the evil emanates, was very compelling, and the idea of a sinister "subcellar" was haunting and satisfying. There are some moments of genuine suspense and horror toward the end of the book. Perhaps if I had not been turned off early on, by the focus on these rather uninteresting characters, I could have immersed myself more fully in the atmosphere of the house. I would still recommend it to fans of house-based horror, and I do appreciate the author's attempts to energize the genre with a new approach. Ultimately I would have liked to have read something that took the extra step toward being completely experimental, surreal or steeped in magical realism, instead of constantly pulling us back from that threshold.

[Rodney · Rating 3 out of 5]

“You​ ​ain’t​ ​leaving​ ​until​ ​this​ ​trouble”s​ ​laid.​ ​They’re​ ​laying​ ​all​ ​around​ ​you.”
The​ ​setting​ ​of​ ​this​ ​tale​ ​is​ ​the​ ​Tracker​ ​house.​ ​It’s​ ​seemingly​ ​infinite​ ​traps,​ ​tricks​ ​and​ ​secret passages,​ ​built​ ​over​ ​three​ ​generations.​ ​For​ ​twenty​ ​years​ ​John​ ​Tracker​ ​has​ ​stayed​ ​away​ ​from​ ​the house​ ​and​ also​ ​tried​ ​to​ ​forget​ ​the​ ​memories.​ ​Now​ ​he​ ​must​ ​reconcile​ ​all​ ​that​ ​is​ ​in​ ​the​ ​house before​ ​it​ ​is​ destroyed​ ​to​ ​make​ ​way​ ​for​ ​a​ ​freeway​ ​that​ ​will​ ​run​ ​right​ ​through​ ​the​ ​middle​ ​of​ ​the space​ ​it​ ​now​ ​occupies.​ ​He​ ​doesn’t​ ​even​ ​know​ ​if​ ​his​ ​father​ ​and​ ​grandparents​ ​are​ ​still​ ​living​ ​within the​ ​place,​ ​but​ ​after​ ​a​ ​short​ ​first​ ​visit​ ​he​ ​realizes​ ​quickly​ ​that​ ​the​ ​is​ ​going​ ​to​ ​take​ ​a​ ​hell​ ​of​ ​a​ ​lot more​ ​than​ ​he​ ​expected.
The​ ​house​ ​is​ ​one​ ​of​ ​the​ ​more​ ​fascinating​ ​locales​ ​for​ ​a​ ​story​ ​I​ ​have​ ​read.​ ​While​ ​I​ ​reasonably enjoyed​ the​ ​book​ ​as​ ​a​ ​whole,​ ​it​ ​was​ ​hindered​ ​at​ ​times​ ​by​ ​the​ ​meandering​ ​and​ ​overly​ ​descriptive prose​ ​and​ ​would​ ​have​ ​been​ ​stronger​ ​with​ ​some​ ​of​ ​the​ ​excess​ ​trimmed,​ ​but​ ​then​ ​again​ ​this​ ​is early​ ​80’s​ ​horror.​ ​The​ ​characters​ ​weren’t​ ​ones​ ​to​ ​elicit​ ​much​ ​of​ ​an​ ​emotional​ ​response​ ​from​ ​me either.​ ​All in all I am undecided,​ ​but​ ​left​ ​curious​ ​enough​ ​to​ ​check​ ​out​ ​another​ ​book​ ​or​ ​two​ ​from​ ​Jack​ ​Cady.

[Graham P · Rating 3 out of 5]

In some ways, Jack Cady is reworking the haunted house motif, rewiring the core functions of a Gothic novel complete with the ominous stone building embodying a whole generational build-up of dysfunction, and perhaps in some cases, devil work. The Tracker House is one of the more intricate homes in horror fiction - hundreds of rooms, two towers, turrets, hidden stairwells, maze rooms, a cathedral-like mirror suite, and a subcellar housing both a museum of inquisition-era torture devices and the namesake well sourcing evil incarnate.

And that's not to mention the booby traps, the dropped floors and rotating blades, gunpowder apparitions and toxic gas leaks that seem to come at every corner. And there's also the reanimated body of a 82 year old woman, Grandma Vera, alongside her husband, Theophilius Tracker, running around the hidden hallways engaging the endless amount of nasty tricks that the house has to offer. And get this, on top of all the dangers within the mansion, there's a blizzard happening and it's showing no signs of ever stopping. (I know how familiar that sounds...but more than King's influence is the influence of Russell Kirk - re: his novella, 'There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding').

I found this haunted home far more interesting than the one in Matheson's Hell House, a novel I found tawdry and a bit anemic. And the true problem with The Well is the main character, John Tracker, alongside his beautiful administrative assistant / lover, Amy. They are mere ciphers to engage the trappings of the Gothic setting; one-dimensional game pieces that move through the maze bewildered and aghast, and trying to find a meaning in their rather posh lives. Perhaps Cady is trying to flesh out the cliches embedded in both Amy and John, but in the end, they're simply two vain people trying to find soulful epiphany, leaving us readers trying to figure out if Cady is aiming to one-up King's The Shining, or doing his best to re-imagine and modernize the Fawcett Gothic paperback with literary intent. A for Atmosphere, C for Characterization, a solid novel that could be so much more ***

[Faye · Rating 1 out of 5]

Imagine me making a farting noise and throwing this book over my shoulder. That's my review.

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the old-school and nicely flowing narrative and language of this book - and I absolutely adored the description of the old family house, that was built upon and expanded for many years. Not to mention "improved" with secrets, traps and mazes - I've always been fascinated with attics, basements, crawlspaces and hidden passages, fake bookshelves, fake panels, double walls - heck, a secret compartment in a drawer goes a long way for me. Unfortunately there's not a whole lot else.

The story is that John Tracker returns to this house, his family home after some years of leaving and having no contact with his family. Against his better judgment, he brings his colleague-cum-girlfriend and they spend 200 pages of stumbling around the house, avoiding the traps, but unable to avoid the time shifts(!) that occur therein. Thanks to the good writing this is enough to be a decent book, but the length of it is stretching it, really.

The book has a family tree drawn and stories about the ancestors preface every chapter - sometimes a page or two, sometimes just a paragraph. Surprisingly, these often contain the best stories in my opinion, such as this one:

Hildegard Schuder was Johan's mother. She was john Tracker's great great grandmother on his father's father's side. She left Berne at age seventeen for Darmstadt in unusual haste, the pressing reason being that Hildegard was ugly. She married Christian Traker, because there was no one else to marry. The casual vacation that Christian had taken returned him to Germany with a wife he never tried to understand.

A brilliant story told in five sentences!

Others are quite humorous - a welcome contrast to the sometimes dry main story and the stiff and not very likeable John Tracker:

To say that Miller was vain would be to misunderstand the word. Miller was vain when he was asleep. When awake, the vanity took a sort of Spanish Flamenco presence. Over the years an unusual number of blond-haired and blue-eyed children were born to his congregation.
To say that Miller was lazy would be like describing a dead turtle as indolent. [...]

Definitely read-worthy, not likely something that I'll ever read again.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this one on audio and Matt Godfrey nailed it. It’s difficult to say, but I think this was a solid 3 star work with 5 star narration that really elevated the story to a new level for me. I have listened to several Godfrey audiobooks and dude nails them every time. He has a great sense of pacing and his cadence and tone are always spot on.

The story itself had a great premise that took a bit of a slow burn to get into. I was confused a time or two trying to get the backstory straight in my head, but honestly it didn’t detract too much from the overall story of the Tracker house. Reminded me a bit of 13 Ghosts meets The Winchester Mystery House.

Overall, a very enjoyable tale. My first Cady too. Not my last however.

I was given a free review copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a good read. You really don't want to enter this house described here. The main character in the novel was a bit strange but otherwise quite a fine horror novel.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

The past isn't over. Sometimes, it isn't even past.
Someone important must have said that to Cady at some point, because it is a recurring theme in his work, never more so than here. Boiled down, a man has to go back to his ancestral home, intending to destroy it. Said home is filled with traps, memories, and something... worse.
That synopsis makes it sound like a cheesy thrill-ride, but that isn't what you get. This is a slow-burning, meditative work that dwells on memory, guilt, good and evil, and the bonds of blood that tie us to the rest. No shocking gore or cheap titillation here, just very strange people going mad in a house they created and then corrupted.
Cady's prose is always tight, and the characters are superb. Sadly, there isn't much happening here. It's a little dull, and even its fascinations are as academic as anything. It's good, but not for everyone. Those with patience may be rewarded.

[Lee Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Cady was an amazing writer. My favorite is still STREET, but this one is damn good too though it takes some patience because the pacing is very slow.

[Matt]

This book is one I could reread several times. It's fun, scary, and inventive. My rating may go up with some more thought and time.

[Hester · Rating 1 out of 5]

John Tracker is returning to his childhood home, house of the Trackers. John Tracker brought his secretary/kind of girlfriend Amy with him. John Tracker has to get house of the Trackers ready for demolition so a highway can be built on the property. John Tracker takes Amy with him to house of the Trackers. There's evil living in house of the Trackers. The evil in house of the Trackers makes Amy and John Tracker old before their time. Amy doesn't want to be old and this displeases her so John Tracker has to fight the evil to reverse the aging curse that house of the Trackers has put on Amy.

Okay, I can either keep going on like this or you can get the hint that Cady uses John Tracker and house of the Trackers so much it becomes mind numbing. And my mind went numb, so numb I honestly couldn’t grasp most of what I read. John Tracker’s great great grandfather (there could be another great in there but I’m not sure) was so afraid of the devil that he built a monstrous house with a bunch of traps in it so he could trap that rascally wabbit, Old Nick himself. After generations of paranoia his grandfather and grandmother invite that evil in and it takes over the house and his grandparents too.

John Tracker has to fight the evil in house of the Trackers in the most boring nothing happens at all battle ever! He walks! He mother fucking walks!

This book is all kinds of dull, nothing happens. Amy and John Tracker walk through the house, they have to find non poisoned cans of food to cook they walk through the house some more, rapidly age and then rapidly de-age, John Tracker find’s his father’s journals, Cady bores us with Tracker family history and finally they walk through the house some more.

The Well is like one long bad episode of house hunters.

[Brucifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this novel after having heard good things about it, but it was a disappointment. The setting is the protagonist, John Tracker's, family mansion, which he left at age 15, and which his great grandfather and grandfather had equipped with booby traps in nearly every room, in the hope of "capturing the devil." Now that the house is about to be torn down to make room for a highway, John has come back to what he assumes to be an empty house to face his childhood demons. This is an interesting premise, but unfortunately it isn't fulfilled in a satisfactory way. I was immediately put off by Cady's writing style, which constantly calls attention to itself and which only gets more ostentatious as the novel wears on. The booby-trapped and maze-like house is an interesting idea, but by trying to throw readers off balance, the author also never gives us a very clear picture of what the house actually looks like. Instead, we find ourselves moving with John and his girlfriend Amy from room to room, up and down stairwells, experiencing time lapses, and glimpsing one vaguely drawn supernatural vision after another. By the halfway point, all of this gets tedious and is never genuinely frightening. I'll give the author credit for some good ideas, such as trying to tell a haunted house story in a different way, and opening each chapter with a biography of a new member of the bizarre Tracker family tree. But the whole thing just never falls into place, sadly.

[Jared Walz · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one moves deeper into the house, one moves deeper into oneself. Not a shabby concept, and the psychological puzzles and traps John and Amy must evade in this clever novel are quite ingenious at times. Nevertheless, this enticing book never really comes to a head. Great journey, okay destination.

[Joey Shapiro · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very complicated 2 stars (really more like 2.5) because there is so much I love about this. I’m addicted to House of Leaves-core horror where architecture is impossible and scary, and this is dense with that kind of stuff. Tons of secret passages and tunnels and labyrinths inside a massive house designed to trap the devil— fun! But it feels like such a first draft of a great horror novel, and there’s just so many boring stretches meant to flesh out the most boring shallow characters that never feel like people. The protagonist is just A Business Man with a tortured past and his love interest Amy who is trapped in the house with him is so so frustrating. He yells at the sinister ghost of his grandma in front of her and Amy tells him she doesn’t like it when men swear… what. The reason she refuses to leave the house is that she thinks it will keep her young, because she is 30 years old and keeps insisting she’s too old to become an actress at her age. Okay. Anyway! Filled with cool ideas but both overwritten and too long. Would make an incredible movie if someone felt comfortable cutting it to pieces a little, lots of great images!!

[Ben Loory · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating book that’s a lot more interesting to think about than to actually read. The pace is weird and there are a billion characters described at the beginning of each chapter, almost none of whom ever show up in the story... long boring stretches and somewhat experimental in style, but not in a good way necessarily. But! The house itself is a fantastic creation! Just wonderful to consider.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

Absolutely bizarre. And not necessarily in a good way. The idea was so intriguing and a lot of fun, but the execution wasn’t for me. Cady is a good writer, but this missed the mark.

[Lissibith · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Tracker escaped his boyhood home, but now, with a new road coming through, he's been asked to tear the place down. Doing so means returning to the place he left so long ago - and with good reason. (Also, is this a thing that they can do? It's not like the road was running through the house, the officials were just worried it would cause rubbernecking accidents. Well, whatever).

So John goes back, determined to flatten the place, flatten his memories along with it, and move on with his life, but the house has other ideas. It's haunted by a lot of things, from the traps his family had built in generation after generation to the literal spirits of those gone before and trapped inside the walls.

It's a genuinely fascinating setup and setting, with the home both as place and as enemy. John Tracker's growing, changing relationship to the house can be great, and at times there was a genuinely spooky mood. But the book was let down by small things - by his girlfriend coming across as kind of an idiot, by occasional bouts of repetitiveness and an ending that I honestly didn't find all that satisfying.

Was it worth it? Oh, definitely. It was worth it just for the house, though I would have loved a better feel for what the place looked like overall. John was interesting, and the author made the great decision to lead every chapter with the biography of various members of the Tracker family, good and bad. If you like creepy books, it definitely gets in the right ballpark, even if it fell short in some ways.

[C C · Rating 2 out of 5]

A really creative premise and book in many ways, but I had to give it this low rating.
It's a vintage horror from valancourt, which I've been reading many of recently. Valancourt books specialise in republishing horror, sci-fi's, thrillers and queer fiction of the 20th century. Whenever I pick up a new Valancourt book I don't know what to expect, I'm either dumbfounded that the obscure book in my hands should have been a pampered classic (Elizabeth, Ken Greenhall) or gripped by weird, page turning fun (Worms, James R. Montague). The Well seemed to promise potentially both; Jack Cady's prose is really good, and the complexity of multi-generational family dynamics and secrets seemed to indicate more ambition than most horror novels, especially from the 70s and 80s (the well was published in 1980). But I honestly found this book a real slog in many parts. I loved the premise! A house possessed by demons and a father who built a labyrinth like maze of deadly booby traps to catch them, i also loved the figure of Vera, with her cutting judgements and is she or is she not possessed by a demon or just a evil grandmother, one you're obliged to be polite to even though you wouldn't let anyone else talk to you that way. There were scenes where I was gripped but mostly I found myself unclear about what the characters motivations were, and Amy (the girlfriend) was such a bland character, plus cady's misogynistic descriptions of her fading beauty, I just couldn't invest (oh my God she's sooo old and washed up she's THIRTY). I also found myself skipping past the italicized parts at the beginning of every chapter with long descriptions of family lore that didn't serve the plot.
All in all, cool premise, not exactly well executed. It's not a BAD book, it's just not the best place to start.

[Brent Legault · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first of the Valancourt Books of which I've read (about a dozen) that I've been disappointed by. Cady's story and narration cannot seem to decide whether they exist within a long lost Faulkner novel or a rejected Amityville Horror sequel (but no, there is no such thing as a "rejected" Amityville horror sequel!) In other words, did Cady imagine he was writing literary fiction in the Southern Gothic vein? Or did he want to spool out a haunted house tale? He didn't know, and neither do I. But I do know that he failed on both accounts. It is neither literary enough to be literary fiction nor horrifying enough to be a horror novel. And let's talk about that for a minute, shall we? His "haunted house," that, had it been located in a town or city, would have covered at least 6 or 7 blocks, is plagued by the corniest ruses and traps inspired by and only slightly more unsafe than a typical traveling carnival house of horrors. Not to mention that it's "inhabitants" are all sad, straw stuffed clowns who couldn't scare even a sensitive child. In other words, the house in which 90% of the story takes place is not frightening but cartoonish and cheap and despite that it could have been both funny and horrible had it been handled with the proper narrative tone. But Cady took his comical creation so seriously and his writing, despite the mismatch between story and register, is so competent, that I couldn't even take pleasure in its ridiculousness like I could in, say, a movie by Ed Wood.

[Michael Bruner · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.
This was a real slog to get through. The premise of the book was fascinating to me: a sprawling house filled with traps that may or may not have trapped the devil. Instantly hooked! And then the book doesn’t really go anywhere. There was so little suspense or horror, that it just felt like a chore to get through it. I would have dnf’d but I was intrigued enough to hopefully get some answers, which of course I didn’t. I don’t mind an ambiguous ending, but I didn’t find anything redeeming about the events that unfolded to be left with anything to take away for a satisfying conclusion.

I had a lot of issues with the pacing of the book. A walk from one room to the kitchen could take an entire chapter (with 0 traps being sprung), but then an entire floor of a disorienting maze and mirror maze are breezed through in a page. There were so many cool places this story could have gone and it didn’t go to any of them. I also didn’t feel any sort of way about John or Amy. We didn’t really learn much about them to really feel invested in their fates.

I don’t know, I could go on and on about my issues with this book. But to sum it up, 10/10 idea, 1/10 execution.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a strange story. I loved the time shifts and the backstory within the story. The couple exploring the house was a great pairing of personalities. One was exploring and attempting to expunge the past so he could move forward with his life and the other trying to get to know and understand the man she fell in love with. Madness and turmoil with magic and familial demons mixed in for good measure. I knew it would be odd, I was warned, but I could not wrap my head around where this novel was going. I only knew I was enjoying the ride. Matt Godfrey did the narration and I think he did a fantastic job balancing the flurry of emotions that filled the house of the Trackers.

This book was given to me for free at my request for my voluntary and unbiased review.

[Brett Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more. I think it suffered more due to my tendency to read before bed, and sleepiness made me miss details and not appreciate the signs and symbols that were surely present. Because of this, the book fell flat. I also had trouble using Cady's words to visualize the setting. That may just be my own limitations. I kept wondering why any contractor would even participate in making such a house, and the physics/logistics of the house as described was a fourth wall-breaking element that knocked me out of the book constantly.
I don't know what the point of Amy was. I don't know what she figured out about the house, and.i guess it didn't matter since she left anyway. Ugh, the more I think about it, the more disappointed I get.

[Ross McClintock · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Well is another one from one of my favorite genres: the haunted house book. However, this time, the fear is manifested in years of generational trauma instead of a standard ghost. Here, each subsequent generation pays for the misdeeds of the one before. It's an interesting twist on the haunted house, and nearly works. However, where it falters is when it gives the concept of "evil" a vessel to run amok with, and that diffuses a lot of the tension.

[Benjamin Bauer · Rating 1 out of 5]

What begins as a promising haunted house romp quickly morphs into a self-help weekend for an utterly wooden protagonist and his terribly sketched girlfriend. I pushed through to the book's end despite the temptation to throw in the towel and read something else...and I can't say that was the right decision. At its best, The Well is somewhat creepy. At its worse, it's like a Garth Marenghi novel, but nowhere near as fun.