Winner of Book of the Year, 2020

Silver Medalist of The Flying Turtle, 2020

Selected by the International Youth Library for The White Ravens Catalogue, 2019

This is where the world of stories meets history, human feelings, impossible choices, and relatable characters. Hamid Reza Shahabadi has done his magic once more: he entangles human fears with hopes and presents to the reader a rollercoaster of adventures, excitements, twists, and a final huge surprise.

In The Well of Darkness, each loose end is tied up so perfectly that all of a sudden, his narrative world makes more sense. Characters finally find their due representation. It has all the elements of a good story, which haunts not only the readers’ minds but also their hearts and for a long time after finishing it, their memory.

This is a great example of an Iranian horror story, which is narrated in alternating times. The protagonist is not just one persona; there are at least two. The book picks up what book two left off, however as the author has mentioned, it can be read as an independent historical horror story. we know that Shakour is not the only one who comes to the world of living; Razi is one of those lost souls who cannot find solace anywhere. He is up to something and here is where Reza’s role become bolder. At the present time, the other protagonist needs answers, if he wants to save the life of an innocent man.

Hamid Reza Shahabadi has clearly put a lot of effort in creating an everlasting work of literature that is appealing to both Iranian children as well as young avid readers from around the world. The Vertical Graveyard has been published in Egypt too.