Book Review: Dark Well of Decision by Anne Kimberly
Thursday May 8, 2008
Anne Kimberly's Dark Well of Decision is a captivating, inspirational fiction novel for young adults that's not only packed with adventure, but also carries a gospel message for teens. 
Image Courtesy of Highland Press PublishingThe main character, 13-year-old Zoe, wants to believe in the God of her grandmother, but like any adolescent, she's focused on her own awkwardness. It's not until she finds herself in a desperate situation, lost and struggling to get out of a well, that she realizes Christ is the answer. The story is loaded with biblical truths that Zoe's grandmother has shared with her prior to her fall into the well. Zoe will draw upon these truths, as forces of good versus evil battle against each other.
Image Courtesy of Highland Press PublishingDark Well of Decision is Anne Kimberly's first novel, and the work does leave room for improvement. You'll have to look past its amateurish cover and sometimes confusing, sometimes too surreal story line. Yet, the tale is inspired with good biblical messages and the debuting novelist shows strong potential. Guest writer, Venice Kichura gives it 3.5 stars:
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I am on my second time reading Dark Well and find its message one for all ages. It is an easy read with beautifully written details allowing the reader to fully emerse themselves in the story. You truly feel God’s love and real message of salvation in a real, relate-able way. The price is fair and I recommend it highly. Kudos to Anne on her first book!
This book is just amazing! It is beautifully done – the writing is excellent, and the story is done in such a way as to really touch you. Today’s children face grave issues and harder decisions than ever before. Gang warfare, violence, drugs, alcohol, smoking, pregnancy, depression, and suicide have found their way into middle and elementary schools. Divorce splits apart families every day. These issues make kids feel as if they must understand and accept all the troubles of the world. Now more than ever, children want and need the inspiration and hope that Anne’s book provides. Young readers will find empowerment and encouragement to love and accept themselves, believe in their dreams, find answers to their questions, and discover hope for a promising future.
Read this book with your heart. It stimulates your imagination as you read how the adventures of a teen and makes you review your own life. Reaching adults as well, I find Biblical truthes are revealed in such an exciting way that truly captures your interest. Sal-vation is presented as an open invi-tation for all who recoginze it’s encouraging voice. I am looking forward to a sequel and I hope it’s soon coming. For such a small book, it packs a powerful whallop!
The book is well written and the cover art is beautiful. Just a note to the first reviewer, the Author does not get a say in the cover art.
Young Adult is really gaining popularity in the market and that is an exciting thing. Hope the book does well for you. Sounds wonderful.
I Don’t think the cover is amateurish at all. This is a comment from some one who hasn’t even written a book! I was just on her web site, and she writes short stories and articles. The writing is fine for YA and I am going to buy it for my church library.
I thought the book was great! I have read a lot of books in my day and thought that the way it was written was really captivating and made it easy to imagine the world in which Noachs and his people lived. It relates to all ages and passes on great Biblical truths in a unique way. I give it 5 stars *****
I agree that Anne Kimberly is an awesome writer and I expect many, many more books from her for my reading entertainment. This book is also a wonderful gift since it’s a high quality trade-sized paperback with a very attractive cover.
Anne Kimberly has a way of making you feel as if you are right in the story with the characters. Great first book.Looking forward to many more to come.
Jo –
I felt the objective reviewer gave a very positive evaluation of the book. As the host to this site, I do have to agree that the cover art is amateurish. One does not have to have written a book to be qualified to critique a work, especially regarding the look of the cover. I feel it is important for my readers to receive honest evaluations from the reviews featured on my site. The review encourages readers to look past the cover and discover a great book for young adults.
Sounds like a terrific read! I love the cover,
Good luck with sales!
Victoria
Sounds like a great book! I’ll definitely have to read that one! I didn’t see anything wrong with the cover, though. I think it’s rather nice.
The books sounds like a wonderful YA read. Looking forward to reading this!
Haven’t read the book so can’t comment on that, but have seen the cover. What’s amateurish about that? It’s terrific. Jean
You can’t judge a book by its cover–it’s what’s on the pages that count!Having said that, I found this book to be an exciting, page-turning adventure toward a real truth. I was routing for Zoe all the way through. The author has a wonderful way of explaining the concept of God to young people & showing how He is always with us. It was imaginative & truthfully informative. I think it was a great first novel and can’t wait for the sequel!
As an occassional visitor to this site, I have been reading through this thread of an unusually large number of comments about a book review and it makes me question if there is some underlying relationship between many of comment posters and the author of this book.
I know Anne only through her book. Since I am a first time author as she is, we swapped books. Last month I volunteered to judge a contest for a web site. After reading the five books that were sent to me to rate for the contest, I can truthfully say that Anne is not the same kind of writer those authors were. She is much better. Anne has a natural talent of weaving and interesting story with textured characters that are unpredictable and held my interest. That is not an easy thing to do. She gets two thumbs up from me!
Elaine Littau
Author of “Nan’s Journey”