The Well: A Haunted House Horror Novel

By: Samuel Small

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Fans of The Conjuring and The Amityville Horror will love this chilling new novel unraveling the tale of a family haunted by the ghosts of their malevolent ancestors’ disturbing past.

The decrepit well has been a fountain of terror for generations, an abyss of dread that emits tragedy and death like fog. Its darkness touched Jacob’s soul some twenty years ago, and since moving back to his ancestral home, the chilling feeling of being in front of the old well hasn’t left his troubled mind.

But this time, the shadows that creep from the well have taken on a malevolent sentience, whirling a storm of terror as it wreaks havoc on the house. His innocent niece Melissa is ensnared in its vortex, leaving Jacob with no choice but to delve into it once again.

He is thrust into a nightmare he thought he had escaped. Can he muster the strength to confront the maddening horrors that lurk beyond his shattered memories? Or will the ancient evil lurking in the depths of the well swallow him whole?

Fans of bone-chilling horror, spine-tingling tales, and hair-raising scares will love this novel from acclaimed indie horror author Samuel Small as he drags you through the twisted woods and into the terrifying darkness in the well.

Praise for Samuel Small:

"Do not read this in a dark room." ★★★★★

"Would highly recommend it to any horror lover." ★★★★★

“Highly recommend if you're into Twilight Zone horror, and anything of this vein!” ★★★★★

"My nerves got a serious workout reading this." ★★★★★

"Will scare the pants off you." ★★★★★

“It will definitely keep you up at night” ★★★★★

"Like a modern day Poe retelling." ★★★★★

"I read the book in two days I couldn’t put it down!" ★★★★★

"Checked off everything on my wishlist for a scary story." ★★★★★

"Will keep you turning the pages right to the very end." ★★★★★

“Definitely scary! Recommend it highly.” ★★★★★

"Blood chilling story." ★★★★★

"It's hard to put down." ★★★★★

“Good creepy read.” ★★★★★

“Very descriptive storytelling!” ★★★★★

“In a few pages, Small manages to describe a situation which would take others whole chapters to convey. Absolutely wonderful!” ★★★★★

"Gave me chills" ★★★★★

"This is a super scary story." ★★★★★

"It is now on my list of favorite demonic/possession books." ★★★★★

"The book has everything I want from a horror novel! Highly recommended!" ★★★★★

"You want scary and creepy, read this!" ★★★★★

"I absolutely loved this book." ★★★★★

"Well worth the read!" ★★★★★

"Once I started it I did not want to stop..highly recommended!" ★★★★★

"You may never look at another art museum the same again." ★★★★★

"I realized towards the end of the book that I had been slowly curling into myself." ★★★★★

Unexpected

I did not expect the direction this story took. It had interesting moments. It was worth the read.

AI reading is just not it

While the AI voice wasn't intolerable, it made it hard to keep engaged with the story. There were times were the inflection either wasn't there, or didn't make sense for the scene. Sometimes hard to tell who was talking as the voice was pretty much the same for all the characters. I think the story is probably pretty good, but like I said, I had a hard time keeping engaged because of the narration. Glad this was free and I didn't spend money/use a credit

Surprisingly good

There are a lot of books out there anymore. A lot of sub par ones too, and I’m especially suspicious of the ones without a human narrator. I like people reading to me. I don’t want that to end, but I tried this book because it looked intriguing and it was good. I listened to it straight through. The computerized voice was ok, they aren’t ever perfect but it wasn’t bad and wasn’t too distracting. I’ll look for more by this author. But get a real narrator!

The AI voice killed this for me

The AI used to read this book aloud did not use the proper speech rate for any punctuation, so having to listen, then figure out the punctuation, it was just too much for me. But I enjoyed the story; makes for a nice, quick listen

Best horror freebie yet

While I don’t like the computer voice reading, it didn’t bother me as much as some live narrators have - the conversation part of AI was terrible but the rest was pretty dang good.

I love a good horror book, so this was right up my alley. In fact, I’ve blown through what feels like every horror book out there, so I’m excited to see what other books are available from this author.

Not scary at all…

Poor character development, poor story line, and even worse narration. It seemed more like a coming to God book (which is an awesome thing). Is this this author’s first story; was he just trying to get his feet wet with writing and the horror genre?? That’s how this book reads. If you’re looking for truly scary stuff, I’d look elsewhere. And I’m going to steer clear of virtual voice narration!!!

Story is OK but AI reading it is not

The story itself is OK. The use of AI to read it really took away from the story since there was no difference in the characters voices. It certainly did not help a story that is just ok to begin with. I will not be listening to any other books that use AI to read them.

Mixed Feelings

The story was middling. The climax and hidden reveal at the end were good. The storytelling was so-so except during most, but not all, of the danger. The child’s perspective wasn’t believable. Jacob’s feelings toward Tammy upon their second meeting were also not believable. Jacob’s past was interesting.

I almost turned it off for two reasons - 1) Jacob’s reading the Bible in a single day (he must be the world’s fastest speed reader if he managed that) along with his thick praise of that book; 2) The narration was abominable. I almost didn’t even get to the Christianity in the book because the narration was so bad. I don’t care about it being AI, but there was no inflection or emotion, no attempt at doing Papi’s way of speaking (which is definitely needed because the way he talks is completely different from a computerized voice). I figured I had nothing to lose by speeding it up as much as I could. I ended up at 2.5 speed. Once, during the climax, I slowed it down back to the default speed and it was awful. It should have been filled with fear and suppressed excitement but there was nothing. The voice sounded dead and automatic.

Narration is everything with audiobooks. This book was too weak to stand on its own. 3 stars for the story was me being generous because the exorcism and ghostly parts were interesting. And that final reveal at the end was good too.

can't replace real people

the story was disjointed, old and well used. the characters were just there, no background, no development. I couldn't sympathize or get involved with any of them, not even the little girl. there was no continuity within the storytelling. there were gaps in the recording for no reason and worse no emotion in the voice. they will have to do better if they are going to stop paying people like Bray and synder.

Awful

The narrator ruined the story. I couldn't even finish the story. It was that terrible.