Reviews

The Watchers by A.M. Shine

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bloodymargie's review against another edition

slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

I wanted to DNF this multiple times but especially after the first 2/3 of the book. I pushed through and wish I hadn’t, so if you’re not enjoying it by that point just save yourself and be done with it. There were a few plot holes that really bugged me, the characters were pretty flat and barely had any personality, and the book EASILY could’ve been 100-150 pages shorter and would’ve lost nothing. I really didn’t vibe with the author’s writing style, it was overly wordy and EVERYTHING had to be a metaphor or simile. The writing got extremely repetitive with the author explaining the same things over and over again. And if I have to read “the yellow one” one more gd time…give the bird a name if you’re going to refer to it that much!!! Also there was literally NO point for Jessica to exist. They barely revisited her at the end and nothing came from her relationship with Mina. I didn’t feel like her existence had any impact on Mina’s actions whatsoever. This book would’ve greatly benefitted from more editing. Also, Mina gets to the house in the woods and doesn’t immediately start asking questions?! The characters just weren’t realistic and made shit decisions and it drove me crazy.

I did like the descriptions of the watchers, that was the only spooky thing in the book.

coinstar4cheese's review against another edition

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3.75

I really enjoyed this book right up until the end, which just felt weak compared to the rest of the novel.

herewecaitlinagain's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

bitchnbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

stephanieluxton's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I have been meaning to read this for awhile and now that the movie is coming out, I finally got to it.

This book is about Mina, a young woman who's car breaks down while she's driving out of town to deliver a parrot to someone. She decides to walk through the woods and shortly before dark, a woman ushers her into a bunker then locks the door before some scary sounds happen. She's one of 4 people in the bunker who have to be inside every night so the "watchers" don't get them.

It's a simple storyline with fairly simple characters and that's not a bad thing. I like that things aren't over-explained. I grew very emotionally attached to the bird, although the bird isn't as important to the story as I expected. The ambience and isolation of the forest was well written. It's horror without being ultra violent/gory. Since the actual story is quite straightforward, I don't want to spoil anything.

This book is fun to read. The pacing is good. The characters are interesting enough. It ended almost exactly how I'd hoped it would. It's definitely worth the read. The last 50 pages had me absolutely hooked.

Content Warnings