Title: We Watch You
Author: N S Ford
Publisher: N S Ford
Genre: Thriller
Book format: Digital pre-publication copy
Sweet Strawberries:  Sweet StrawberrySweet StrawberrySweet StrawberrySweet StrawberrySweet Strawberry

Description:  FOUR FRIENDS. THREE ENEMIES. TWO TRAGEDIES. ONE TERRIBLE TRUTH.
A small English town is rocked by the disappearance of a local woman, Tina. As the search continues, someone is targeting her former best friends for revenge. Lauren, Jess, Claire. They all hide secrets. Who knows what they did? Who’s watching them? The truth is stranger and far more sinister than they can ever imagine.
A dark, twisty thriller which will grip you until the very last page.

*Free copy provided by author for review…

Review:  Wow, this was such a good thriller and with a brilliant twist I just didn’t see coming!  Lauren is in her flat when she hears the news that her old school friend named Tina has gone missing.  Lauren feels like Tina’s disappearance is her fault, because of what she and her friends did.  When she meets with Jess and Claire, they decide to keep quiet about what they know.  But soon bad things start happening to Lauren and her friends, someone’s out for revenge, but who is it and why are they doing it?

I really loved this book and what happens with all of the characters.  The book begins with an eerie chapter about being watched before moving onto Lauren and her hearing the news of Tina’s disappearance.  The story has a good fast pace but I have to admit that I when I started to read this I wasn’t sure if I’d really enjoy the story or not as I thought I could spot what was coming before the story showed us.  But like all brilliant thrillers, it was soon clear that I had no idea and the plot became more and more twisty and exciting,the further I read on.

The majority of chapters focus on Lauren as she narrates what is happening to her and her friends.  I liked Lauren’s character, she was a little naive but I like how she reacted to the things happening and it was interesting to have a main character who was a little different, having autism.  This made the way she responded to certain situations interesting and I like how the story developed and how she coped with all that was happening.  Some of the chapters are short blog post entries from Tina while a few other chapters are from a few other characters and their point of view, and some of these are quite creepy!

As the story progresses, some bad things start happening to the Lauren’s friends.  At first it seems a little too easy and obvious who is behind things but as the story progresses you realise it’s more complex and I love how more and more things were revealed keeping me constantly guessing as to what was happening.  I love the atmosphere in the story, the book is short but the atmosphere and ambiance of the place is easy to feel.  Even though I’m sure Becksley is a made up place, I feel like I may have lived there before, the descriptions of the place were really good.

As the story nears the end it becomes more and more intense and I have to say it was not only engrossing but also eerie too.  A scene with a certain character felt quite spooky and I love what happens at the very end.  The ending is so brilliant with a big twist I just never saw coming!  The twist was so good and different and I love what ends up happening and how shocked I was with that last chapter when I’d finished it.  It may not be a twist that everyone reading it will enjoy as it’s a bit different, speculative, but for me it was just so good and made the whole book feel so brilliant and eerie too!

I love how this book kept me so engrossed, I just couldn’t stop reading it and read it all in almost one day (with real life getting in the way being the only reason I had put it down).  The story isn’t too long but a lot happens and it’s so exciting.  There’s an interesting and different feel to the book than some thrillers I’ve read, and I particularly enjoyed Lauren’s character and the representation of autism was done well (I have autistic family members and some scenes reminded me of how they respond to things).  It’s such a compelling story and one which gets more and more exciting the further you read into the book, and the build up and that ending are just so brilliant that I just couldn’t stop thinking about this book for a long time after putting it down.

I’d recommend this story to anyone who likes a good thriller with a different feel.  There are a few uses of the f and s swear words as well as some interesting surprises and a few shocking moments.  But there’s nothing too difficult to read and overall it’s just a really interesting story with a final twist I don’t think you’ll ever manage to guess!

–We Watch You is published on 1st October 2021!

What do you think of this book?  Do you like speculative stories?  What about thrillers?  Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂

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