The Well

By: Jack Cady

Narrated by: Matt Godfrey

Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

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 succeeded 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.

©1980, 2017 The Estate of Jack Cady (P)2018 Valancourt Books

Critic Reviews

 "[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 develops his horrors with subtlety." (Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction)

Winchester House meets H.H. Holmes Mansion

This setting is a twisted house that is a labyrinth of mazes with H.H. Holmes type rooms built on a more sinister version of the well from The Ring. This house reminded me a bit of the movie Cube. I always try to listen to older horror because those stories always set the foundation for current horror writers. Usually I can’t get into them as much as I would like, H.P Lovecraft for instance, but this one is definitely one to check out. Occasionally I got mixed-up on the timeline with all the different Trackers, but that is on me. Otherwise this was a haunted house story that was a unique and quite enjoyable tale.
I am not a huge fan of Tom Piccirilli and fortunately this audible book doesn’t include his introduction. Hearing that might have offered some insight into the story, but most likely would have started me out thinking negatively of the book. Having heard some of Piccirilli’s stories I can see how these authors are similar, but I definitely prefer Cady.
I enjoyed the story of John and Amy, discovering how they truly feel about each other while trying to survive the house. You get a lot of back story on the different Trackers and get to meet a few of them as well. I felt like the story got too wrapped up in the lineage of Trackers when I really just wanted to hear about the house. Given that the house is booby trapped at every step I wanted a little bit more horror. Instead of horror this provided a lot of anxiety and tension as the claustrophobic house continues on and on. Listening to this with headphones on I definitely felt trapped.
Been a fan of Matt Godfrey for a while and as always his tone of voice is set for specific books and he finds the right ones to narrate. I think he did great on this story. If very early 80’s horror is your thing I recommend this.
I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Creepy Creepy!

This is a blend of history and horror! The nightmare that transcends several lifetimes. Destroying families and haunting. Its a story that is narrated by man remembering his boyhood and the odd secrets of his family. The devoured lives! The boy that is successful and comes back to stand triumphant against evil.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great haunted house story

The house is the greatest character in the story. Full of deadly traps, made by a crazy family and with a deep evil animating it. It's a little annoying about the deus ex maquina like ability of evil to control reality in the genre, but it was a good setup here. The other characters weren't so defined, and I found Amy annoying most of the time.
I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

good premise but...

This book started off with a great premise and then slowly but surely slowed down to a crawl by the end.

The Well

This was a really good old fashioned haunted house book.It had many twists and turns.Matt Godfrey was a good narrator for this.I was given this book by the narrator,author or publisher free for an honest review.

An ambitious tale...

The Well is an ambitious tale by renowned horror writer Jack Cady. This is my first Cady novel and I enjoyed it...he had some real story telling skills. Personally, I would have liked to have seen more length to this story - he could have developed many of these characters in more depth. Additionally, more backstory/history would have been nice. The history he provided was so good and very enjoyable to read...the story would have had more substance/depth if even more history had been provided for us. It seemed at times that The Well was trying to fit too much into a too small package. That being said, it really was an interesting and highly imaginative story with some down right creepy parts that I quite enjoyed. I believe that one of the main reasons that I walked away from this reading feeling more positive about it than frustrated was the narration skills of Matt Godfrey. Godfrey is spot on when it comes to conveying nuanced character emotional states. In this particular story I felt that Godfrey carried the choppier somewhat disjointed parts of the story with his consistently good character narration. There are many good audio book narrators out there but there are not many who are as talented as Godfrey when it comes to conveying ambivalent emotions. This skill is of particular importance in the horror/thriller genre as the reality of difficult situations is that those experiencing them will often move through multiple emotional or affective states throughout said experience; fear (obviously), anger, confusion, the uncomfortable (but at times irresistible) paradoxical urge to laugh, pin point focus/determination, bravery, cowardice, and so on. For a narrator to convey these various states through subtle voice modulation (tempo, volume, voice shakiness, etc) without these techniques coming across as overly obvious to the listener...that's talent. And a particularly important talent when a story's plot reaches a weak point as the narrator may the only glue left holding the whole thing together. If good narration can move the reader past the bumpier parts of the story the reader may be more inclined to continue on reading the novel as opposed to just giving up on it altogether.

Good narration but could have been shorter

I was given this free review copy audio book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

This was very dark tale that seems to have taken inspiration from history stories like the black dalia or HH Holmes. The story felt pretty disjointed at times and could be hard to follow. The narration was fantastic which is the only reason I made it through the book. Honestly, this could have been much shorter.

Dull and disjointed...

For the positive, the narration was excellent and well-executed. Very engaging and great storytelling. But the story itself just wasn't for me. I would compare it to "House" by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker, which I also didn't care for, although the subject matter is something I usually enjoy. This novel felt disjointed and confused, and there was very little to the plot. Overall it was really a bit dull. ***This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.***

Great narration of a bad book

This novel had so much potential at the beginning. I felt that the story lost everything in the overdone telling of the family lineage. By the time that I finished with the family lines the book had lost all of its appeal to me. I received this book at no cost for a honest review

The Well

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.