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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
mysterious
slow-paced
Not what I was expecting in the slightest, but still pretty good. The characters had personalities, which was refreshing.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
pretty good but it's not like it was super noteworthy. good enough to recommend.. i read it quickly
I wish I could give half stars because while I don’t think this book deserves the full 5 stars it’s definitely worth more than 4.
Blythe is what you’d call a goodie 2 shoes, she always has to do the right thing. But what if the right thing is also the wrong thing? When her best friend starts having a mental breakdown Blythe is determined to figure out what’s going on and in doing so she accidentally falls down the biggest rabbit whole of lies that she’s forced to unravel.
To be completely honest this book had a kinda slow start and it took me a few days to get into it but when I finally hit the plot twist I couldn’t put the book down. I was convinced I knew what was going to happen and then Kelly Armstrong would pull the rug out from under me. This book does a good job working on the concept of what makes a person who they are and how nature v. Nurture affects us. Definitely worth a read!
TW: there are a few mentions of some heavier topics that may be triggering.
*arc review*
Blythe is what you’d call a goodie 2 shoes, she always has to do the right thing. But what if the right thing is also the wrong thing? When her best friend starts having a mental breakdown Blythe is determined to figure out what’s going on and in doing so she accidentally falls down the biggest rabbit whole of lies that she’s forced to unravel.
To be completely honest this book had a kinda slow start and it took me a few days to get into it but when I finally hit the plot twist I couldn’t put the book down. I was convinced I knew what was going to happen and then Kelly Armstrong would pull the rug out from under me. This book does a good job working on the concept of what makes a person who they are and how nature v. Nurture affects us. Definitely worth a read!
TW: there are a few mentions of some heavier topics that may be triggering.
*arc review*
This one got to me, I'm not going to lie, it freaked me out and had me questioning every time I had that feeling of what might be a memory but not quite remembering.
Blythe, Gabrielle, Tucker, Tanya... they're all students at the same private school owned by the company where all of their parents work, sounds convenient right? Well for these kids there's so much more to it than that.
Part of a program they never signed up for they have to work together to figure out what happened to Gabby that made her snap, where she went, and how to keep it from happening all while trying to stay alive and out of jail.
Twisted and dark with a story that drew me in all while keeping me guessing this book quickly showed me why people kept telling me I need to read Kelly Armstrong.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada Tundra Books and NetGalley for providing an advance digital copy of this book, I have voluntarily read and reviewed it and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Blythe, Gabrielle, Tucker, Tanya... they're all students at the same private school owned by the company where all of their parents work, sounds convenient right? Well for these kids there's so much more to it than that.
Part of a program they never signed up for they have to work together to figure out what happened to Gabby that made her snap, where she went, and how to keep it from happening all while trying to stay alive and out of jail.
Twisted and dark with a story that drew me in all while keeping me guessing this book quickly showed me why people kept telling me I need to read Kelly Armstrong.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada Tundra Books and NetGalley for providing an advance digital copy of this book, I have voluntarily read and reviewed it and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Listened to the audiobook. Maybe more of a 2.5
I hadn’t read a Kelly Armstrong book in nearly 10 years and I have to say I was quite disappointed starting this. I don’t know if it was the choice of voice actors but it sounded like someone trying to be cool and edgy. I was real close to just exiting out but I stuck with it..it was fairly predictable but I ended up enjoying that last 60% of the book.
I hadn’t read a Kelly Armstrong book in nearly 10 years and I have to say I was quite disappointed starting this. I don’t know if it was the choice of voice actors but it sounded like someone trying to be cool and edgy. I was real close to just exiting out but I stuck with it..it was fairly predictable but I ended up enjoying that last 60% of the book.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Someone Is Always Watching is a young adult novel focusing on a group of students at a magnet school for STEM. Blythe, the central character, has a close group of friends, though she is forbidden from seeing Tucker, the boy she likes best. Everyone seems to expect Tucker to fail at life, to do something heinous and wrong. She knows he dared her to do something bad and when she did, she enjoyed it so much it scared her.
A lot of things are scaring her, she’s having waking dreams of being covered in blood. Her younger sister is having nightmares, and her good friend Gabi is acting out, as though she is seeing hallucinations. When Gabi was sent to the principal’s office after a hallucinatory event in class, Blythe followed behind to eavesdrop. She sees the principal murdered. Did Gabi do that? She doesn’t remember because she passed out, hit in the head, she believes.
These are smart kids whose sense of reality is being distorted, but by real forces or trauma? That’s the question they are trying to figure out. Is Gabi a murderer? Who else among her classmates has killed someone. What is everybody hiding?
Someone Is Always Watching takes completely normal adolescent egocentrism and turns it up a notch. In other words, just because they are egocentric adolescents, it doesn’t mean someone isn’t watching them.
I liked Someone Is Always Watching but occasionally wanted it to hurry up and end already. A part of this was the flatness of several of the characters. With Blythe providing the point of view, it’s possible she just didn’t get to know her friends well enough to make them interesting or the author simply didn’t put in the time. At time it reminded me of a Charlie Brown special showing adults talking to Charlie and the Peanuts gang. Too much of the story relied on the efforts of people who were not in the book. I also think the story would have been better if Gabi were hidden by Blythe so she had that moral quandary. It’s frustrating that one of the more interesting and pivotal characters spends most of the story out of the action.
- Someone Is Always Watching at Tundra Books | Penguin Random House
- Kelley Armstrong author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2023/08/22/someone-is-always-watching-by-kelley-armstrong/