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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love the concept and it kept my attention
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I finally decided to stop reading at 60%. I really should’ve stopped at like 15 or 20%. I wasn’t taking in anything and when I stopped reading I basically forgot about everything that was in the book – names, whatever the plot was. What I do remember is a very, very confusing plot – that even after looking at spoilery reviews – I don’t understand.
The cover and the synopsis made me see it as a simple YA mystery/thriller book. I got something very more confusing and because I wasn’t interested in any of it I didn’t want to take the time to properly try to understand the book. I don’t remember any of the characters? None were memorable at all – I only remember some names because I looked at the synopsis when I started this review.
Further on than not just remembering anything, I didn’t want to know more about them or read their dialogue with each other. That also made me decide to stop reading it because you shouldn’t really try to force yourself to care about characters, you know?
The cover and the synopsis made me see it as a simple YA mystery/thriller book. I got something very more confusing and because I wasn’t interested in any of it I didn’t want to take the time to properly try to understand the book. I don’t remember any of the characters? None were memorable at all – I only remember some names because I looked at the synopsis when I started this review.
Further on than not just remembering anything, I didn’t want to know more about them or read their dialogue with each other. That also made me decide to stop reading it because you shouldn’t really try to force yourself to care about characters, you know?
Thank you to netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.
I'll admit first that I have not read many of Armstongs books. Although I did not jive with her other series. This being my second. But it was solid, I enjoyed it. Although if you read the summary it gives pretty much the whole thing away and then you don't get to see it unfold. So it's probably best in this situation to go in blind and enjoy the ride. As far as thrillers go, I would recommend it!
I'll admit first that I have not read many of Armstongs books. Although I did not jive with her other series. This being my second. But it was solid, I enjoyed it. Although if you read the summary it gives pretty much the whole thing away and then you don't get to see it unfold. So it's probably best in this situation to go in blind and enjoy the ride. As far as thrillers go, I would recommend it!
The plot was interesting and the romance was cute, but the writing fell flat. Not enough descriptive language, it was mostly dialogue. Not bad, just unusual for this author.
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Thank you Tundra Books, NetGalley, and Libro FM for the ARC and ALC of Someone is Always Watching! All opinions in this review are my own.
I found this to be a mix between Don't Worry Darling and Divergent. While the concept is what drew me to the book, there are times when it fell flat. I was expecting a fast-paced book with a lot of twists. There are some but this wasn't as consuming as I thought it would be and I struggled to get through the audiobook.
I found this to be a mix between Don't Worry Darling and Divergent. While the concept is what drew me to the book, there are times when it fell flat. I was expecting a fast-paced book with a lot of twists. There are some but this wasn't as consuming as I thought it would be and I struggled to get through the audiobook.
**ARC provided by NetGalley, Penguin Random House Canada, and Tundra Books in exchange for an honest review**
I have never read a book by Kelley Armstrong, I’ll be honest. It isn’t because I haven’t wanted to, but because her works have never come across my radar up until learning about NetGalley. I would like to preface this by saying I wrote this review in two stages whilst reading, so some opinions *did* change towards the end. I want to be clear on that to avoid any confusion going forward with this review.
I tend to stay away from YA novels as a whole, as I often find them a bit 50/50 in terms of keeping my interest. However, this book is well-written and decently paced. I don’t feel like the plot line was dragging, and the thriller/suspense aspects didn’t feel convoluted (or conversely, watered down). What I initially liked most about the book was that Blythe felt very relatable, which is always something that I like to look for in a book. A fair amount of people have had falling outs with friends and getting to learn about the causes of Blythe’s was pretty interesting and didn’t feel predictable in my opinion, which was extremely refreshing when it comes to the suspense aspect of the plot. I don’t want to be able to sniff out what’s going to happen by the time I get to the fourth chapter. Thankfully, this book did not do that. I didn’t read the synopsis that was posted, so I essentially went into the story blind, and after reading some reviews by others: I’m glad that I did. I was able to maintain the mystery and suspense without the synopsis clouding my mind.
I’ve marked this as containing spoilers, but I don’t want to talk in too much detail about the plot and give anything away, but the sinking feeling that I felt when certain characters were brought into the mix made me feel like I was watching a series or a movie for this book. That anticipation made me want to keep going, it kept me well hooked.
To begin, the reader is confronted with a mystery pretty much right off the bat. The first line that stuck out to me was from the third paragraph of the first chapter: “The incident last spring taught me I need to do better. Hold tighter. Stay in control.” I was immediately trying to speculate what could have happened last spring. I kept wondering what could have happened that ended up making that period the catalyst for the crew ‘breaking up’ for lack of a better term. The incident is referenced multiple times in the book and it is eventually discussed in detail later in the story. We’re given a look into Tucker briefly, and then we’re introduced to Gabrielle, Blythe’s closest friend. She’s exhibiting behavior that is unlike herself from what we’re told through Bylthe’s concern, which we then witness in the second chapter when she kills Mr. Meeks, and Blythe is there to see it.
That’s when things started to get interesting to me because we’re then introduced to the non-consensual memory erasure. Blythe starts experiencing what she chalks up to be auditory hallucinations of Gabi saying off-the-wall things: her real parents are dead, and her parents aren’t her real parents. She doesn’t tell anyone about what she thinks she hears when she’s asked, instead opting to lie about it due to a suspicion that she won’t be believed. This thought is something that is overarching throughout the book: the kids think the parents aren’t going to believe what they say, so they keep a lot to themselves and handle it that way as well.
I did feel like Devon’s character was a bit... odd. He was part of the initial friend group, moved, and came back a completely different person. It was kind of reminiscent of the movie Disturbing Behavior but reversed. He came back to the school as the bad boy and I feel like that route can be overplayed and unoriginal. It didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story though.
When we’re introduced to Veritas, I initially felt like it was just someone trying to make Blythe scared. But then I had a few characters in mind for it: Callum, Devon, and Andre. Veritas was bought in and dropped off a little quick, to where it kind of felt like it wasn’t completely thought out. There were only a few interactions so at one point I was questioning the necessity for the role. Why give a name to it? Why only a few interactions? Why not more? We could have leaned into the -A and Gossip Girl route... given Veritas its own chapters, maybe.
Chapter 14 is where I felt the pieces were finally starting to come together. The reader is given more information regarding what is going on with everyone and their memories and memory erasure.
I’m currently writing this portion (the first half) of my review as I sit and reflect on the last bit of Chapter 18 and all that led up to it. I had my suspicions about certain people (especially after Chapter 14) and the twist that was revealed was not one that I saw coming; it wasn’t something that I wanted to see happen. I wanted my suspicions to be just that and proven wrong. I wasn’t and I wasn’t sure how to deal with that, to be honest. It made me question the reliability of everything else I had read up to this point in the book, around 56% finished. I wanted Callum to be who he was presented as through and through. But going forward, I don’t know who or what the ‘real’ Callum is.
After hitting Chapter 19, I felt like my interest was captured even more. We start to dive deeper into the crew’s origin stories, which are all shocking in their own right. In Chapter 24 we get to see whose files the group was able to retrieve. Only five are mentioned outright in the files that they were able to get: Tucker, Devon, Gabi, Tanya, and Sydney. We go through all but Devon’s and their involvement in the experiments is outlined for us and we see the real reasons they were ‘selected’ for participation. Blythe learns some shocking truths about her sister that I think in any other circumstance, would rather not know and remain blissfully ignorant for the most part.
About five or so pages into Chapter 25, my jaw effectively dropped again. I wanted to believe that Blythe was an innocent party, just there because she needed to be to help Sydney with her involvement with CMT, but we learn that prim and proper Blythe, the do-gooder and rule follower extraordinaire has dirty laundry just like the rest of them. Her memories weren’t just wiped because of Gabi and Meeks, she played a role in someone close to her unfortunately passing. She quickly realizes that the memories she had of her early childhood with Sydney are memories of another person. Rightfully so, she has a bit of a breakdown about it and what comes from that is a line that stuck out to me concerning Blythe’s character development: “The point is that I am not special.”
It sticks out because up until this point, it had felt like Blythe was being presented as sort of the ‘main character’ (she is in the grand sense of the book but in the modern social media definition of it/being the main character). While I found Blythe relatable for myself, I also found her frustrating due to her tendency to make things circle back to herself sometimes, and I wanted to yell ‘it’s not about you, Blythe, look at the bigger picture!!’ And she did, and I’m glad that she did. I’m upset for her that she came to that realization in an arguably horrible way, but I’m glad that she got that... reality check, I guess you could say.
The remaining eight chapters... fell a bit flat compared to the beginning of the book, but they were still decent. I don’t know who I wanted to be the big culprit. Part of me had an underlying thought that it was Andre, as he was left out of pretty much the whole story except for a few moments where he didn’t bring much to the table regarding himself. He felt like he could have been a very good ‘right under the nose’ kind of character. But I was not expecting it to be Devon; however, as I’m skimming back through for specific references to add to this review, he did seem a bit too helpful and forthcoming in some areas.
I think I would have given this a 5-star rating had there been more at the end... I can appreciate the young love addition, but it felt a wee bit unnecessary at the end. I would have liked a look at what exactly happened on the back end after Tucker was released from custody. What happened to Tucker and Tanya’s mom?
I’ve noticed a few reviews that say that the title doesn’t match the overall feel of the book and that no one was watching the kids as they had zero issues going about doing what they were doing. I would like to offer the argument that they were being watched from the inside of the group. The adults were watching them from a distance, they couldn’t tell the kids they were part of an experiment. If they did, they wouldn’t have continued like normal. Sure, the watching aspect was never definitively mentioned outside of Gabi’s breakdowns in school regarding the cameras (which readers learn is the reason for her paranoia). So I get the augment. But they had their parents keeping tabs on them, it was implied by their involvement and knowledge of the experiments (in my opinion), and they had Devon and Callum to watch from the inside. Callum was tasked with getting close to the crew and would report back to his mother. That constitutes ‘watching’ in my eyes.
I do agree with the disappointment of Andre’s involvement, or lack thereof. I would have liked to see his character developed a little bit more instead of him being classed solely as the control subject in the friend group.
All things considered, I’m looking forward to picking up more books by Armstrong, and I’m very pleased that Someone Is Always Watching was my introduction to her catalog.
TL;DR: The first 75% of this book was written pretty well. The twists weren’t predictable to me, and when I thought I had it figured out I was proven wrong. The last 25% felt a bit repetitive and lackluster in terms of the wrap-up. I closed the document wanting more. Even just an epilogue would have sufficed. Some of the aspects feel a bit Pretty Little Liars adjacent, but if you liked the PLL show or the books, I think this would be something you would enjoy.
**This review has been cross-posted on Goodreads and NetGalley, and will be posted to (a currently in development) IG and blog at a later date**
I have never read a book by Kelley Armstrong, I’ll be honest. It isn’t because I haven’t wanted to, but because her works have never come across my radar up until learning about NetGalley. I would like to preface this by saying I wrote this review in two stages whilst reading, so some opinions *did* change towards the end. I want to be clear on that to avoid any confusion going forward with this review.
I tend to stay away from YA novels as a whole, as I often find them a bit 50/50 in terms of keeping my interest. However, this book is well-written and decently paced. I don’t feel like the plot line was dragging, and the thriller/suspense aspects didn’t feel convoluted (or conversely, watered down). What I initially liked most about the book was that Blythe felt very relatable, which is always something that I like to look for in a book. A fair amount of people have had falling outs with friends and getting to learn about the causes of Blythe’s was pretty interesting and didn’t feel predictable in my opinion, which was extremely refreshing when it comes to the suspense aspect of the plot. I don’t want to be able to sniff out what’s going to happen by the time I get to the fourth chapter. Thankfully, this book did not do that. I didn’t read the synopsis that was posted, so I essentially went into the story blind, and after reading some reviews by others: I’m glad that I did. I was able to maintain the mystery and suspense without the synopsis clouding my mind.
I’ve marked this as containing spoilers, but I don’t want to talk in too much detail about the plot and give anything away, but the sinking feeling that I felt when certain characters were brought into the mix made me feel like I was watching a series or a movie for this book. That anticipation made me want to keep going, it kept me well hooked.
To begin, the reader is confronted with a mystery pretty much right off the bat. The first line that stuck out to me was from the third paragraph of the first chapter: “The incident last spring taught me I need to do better. Hold tighter. Stay in control.” I was immediately trying to speculate what could have happened last spring. I kept wondering what could have happened that ended up making that period the catalyst for the crew ‘breaking up’ for lack of a better term. The incident is referenced multiple times in the book and it is eventually discussed in detail later in the story. We’re given a look into Tucker briefly, and then we’re introduced to Gabrielle, Blythe’s closest friend. She’s exhibiting behavior that is unlike herself from what we’re told through Bylthe’s concern, which we then witness in the second chapter when she kills Mr. Meeks, and Blythe is there to see it.
That’s when things started to get interesting to me because we’re then introduced to the non-consensual memory erasure. Blythe starts experiencing what she chalks up to be auditory hallucinations of Gabi saying off-the-wall things: her real parents are dead, and her parents aren’t her real parents. She doesn’t tell anyone about what she thinks she hears when she’s asked, instead opting to lie about it due to a suspicion that she won’t be believed. This thought is something that is overarching throughout the book: the kids think the parents aren’t going to believe what they say, so they keep a lot to themselves and handle it that way as well.
I did feel like Devon’s character was a bit... odd. He was part of the initial friend group, moved, and came back a completely different person. It was kind of reminiscent of the movie Disturbing Behavior but reversed. He came back to the school as the bad boy and I feel like that route can be overplayed and unoriginal. It didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the story though.
When we’re introduced to Veritas, I initially felt like it was just someone trying to make Blythe scared. But then I had a few characters in mind for it: Callum, Devon, and Andre. Veritas was bought in and dropped off a little quick, to where it kind of felt like it wasn’t completely thought out. There were only a few interactions so at one point I was questioning the necessity for the role. Why give a name to it? Why only a few interactions? Why not more? We could have leaned into the -A and Gossip Girl route... given Veritas its own chapters, maybe.
Chapter 14 is where I felt the pieces were finally starting to come together. The reader is given more information regarding what is going on with everyone and their memories and memory erasure.
I’m currently writing this portion (the first half) of my review as I sit and reflect on the last bit of Chapter 18 and all that led up to it. I had my suspicions about certain people (especially after Chapter 14) and the twist that was revealed was not one that I saw coming; it wasn’t something that I wanted to see happen. I wanted my suspicions to be just that and proven wrong. I wasn’t and I wasn’t sure how to deal with that, to be honest. It made me question the reliability of everything else I had read up to this point in the book, around 56% finished. I wanted Callum to be who he was presented as through and through. But going forward, I don’t know who or what the ‘real’ Callum is.
After hitting Chapter 19, I felt like my interest was captured even more. We start to dive deeper into the crew’s origin stories, which are all shocking in their own right. In Chapter 24 we get to see whose files the group was able to retrieve. Only five are mentioned outright in the files that they were able to get: Tucker, Devon, Gabi, Tanya, and Sydney. We go through all but Devon’s and their involvement in the experiments is outlined for us and we see the real reasons they were ‘selected’ for participation. Blythe learns some shocking truths about her sister that I think in any other circumstance, would rather not know and remain blissfully ignorant for the most part.
About five or so pages into Chapter 25, my jaw effectively dropped again. I wanted to believe that Blythe was an innocent party, just there because she needed to be to help Sydney with her involvement with CMT, but we learn that prim and proper Blythe, the do-gooder and rule follower extraordinaire has dirty laundry just like the rest of them. Her memories weren’t just wiped because of Gabi and Meeks, she played a role in someone close to her unfortunately passing. She quickly realizes that the memories she had of her early childhood with Sydney are memories of another person. Rightfully so, she has a bit of a breakdown about it and what comes from that is a line that stuck out to me concerning Blythe’s character development: “The point is that I am not special.”
It sticks out because up until this point, it had felt like Blythe was being presented as sort of the ‘main character’ (she is in the grand sense of the book but in the modern social media definition of it/being the main character). While I found Blythe relatable for myself, I also found her frustrating due to her tendency to make things circle back to herself sometimes, and I wanted to yell ‘it’s not about you, Blythe, look at the bigger picture!!’ And she did, and I’m glad that she did. I’m upset for her that she came to that realization in an arguably horrible way, but I’m glad that she got that... reality check, I guess you could say.
The remaining eight chapters... fell a bit flat compared to the beginning of the book, but they were still decent. I don’t know who I wanted to be the big culprit. Part of me had an underlying thought that it was Andre, as he was left out of pretty much the whole story except for a few moments where he didn’t bring much to the table regarding himself. He felt like he could have been a very good ‘right under the nose’ kind of character. But I was not expecting it to be Devon; however, as I’m skimming back through for specific references to add to this review, he did seem a bit too helpful and forthcoming in some areas.
I think I would have given this a 5-star rating had there been more at the end... I can appreciate the young love addition, but it felt a wee bit unnecessary at the end. I would have liked a look at what exactly happened on the back end after Tucker was released from custody. What happened to Tucker and Tanya’s mom?
I’ve noticed a few reviews that say that the title doesn’t match the overall feel of the book and that no one was watching the kids as they had zero issues going about doing what they were doing. I would like to offer the argument that they were being watched from the inside of the group. The adults were watching them from a distance, they couldn’t tell the kids they were part of an experiment. If they did, they wouldn’t have continued like normal. Sure, the watching aspect was never definitively mentioned outside of Gabi’s breakdowns in school regarding the cameras (which readers learn is the reason for her paranoia). So I get the augment. But they had their parents keeping tabs on them, it was implied by their involvement and knowledge of the experiments (in my opinion), and they had Devon and Callum to watch from the inside. Callum was tasked with getting close to the crew and would report back to his mother. That constitutes ‘watching’ in my eyes.
I do agree with the disappointment of Andre’s involvement, or lack thereof. I would have liked to see his character developed a little bit more instead of him being classed solely as the control subject in the friend group.
All things considered, I’m looking forward to picking up more books by Armstrong, and I’m very pleased that Someone Is Always Watching was my introduction to her catalog.
TL;DR: The first 75% of this book was written pretty well. The twists weren’t predictable to me, and when I thought I had it figured out I was proven wrong. The last 25% felt a bit repetitive and lackluster in terms of the wrap-up. I closed the document wanting more. Even just an epilogue would have sufficed. Some of the aspects feel a bit Pretty Little Liars adjacent, but if you liked the PLL show or the books, I think this would be something you would enjoy.
**This review has been cross-posted on Goodreads and NetGalley, and will be posted to (a currently in development) IG and blog at a later date**
