THE DEEP WELL

Years after a tragic incident at the New Mexico copper mine where her father was a foreman, a teen finds herself at the center of urban legends.

April Fischer was just 4 when she followed the voice that told her she could fly. She rode her pink bicycle with training wheels from her family’s workers’ housing to the open-pit mine. In the subsequent explosion, 19 people died, and her dad vanished. Some believe that she was the supernatural catalyst for the tragedy. Members of the threatening Deep Well cult assert that mine owner King Steenkampf slipped into another dimension that day and that he’ll return on April’s upcoming 17th birthday—if April reopens the portal in the now-abandoned mine. Upon his return, they believe, Steenkampf will “reveal the secrets of health and eternal life to his followers.” Determined to get to the bottom of what actually happened, April relies for help on her younger sister, her best friend, and her love interest, Zach Hernandez. They read through old journals and documents, piecing together the bloody past. The central mystery—whether the mine is truly supernatural or the tragedy had a human cause—will keep readers eagerly turning pages up to the very end. April and the characters who orbit her are likable and originally drawn, and April’s fear, grief, and confusion are real and believable. April reads white, and Zach’s surname cues him as Latine.

A fresh take on horror with a compelling premise and intriguing characters.