Are You Still Watching? - an atmospheric dystopian YA thriller about reality TV and social media for fans of Black Mirror and Severance

by Kelechi Okafor, Scholastic Inc. (Illustrator)

'A high-concept speculative thriller that takes the
best of BLACK MIRROR and SEVERANCE to explore surveillance, capitalism,
AI ethics and social inequality.' The Bookseller, best
of Black Publishing 2026-2027


The anticipated YA debut from Kelechi Okafor. Perfect for fans
of Black Mirror and Severance.


The year is 2032. Dorcas has her whole life ahead of her - university,
career, escape from her suffocating small town. There's
only one she has no idea who she wants to be. Then something
impossible happens. A being from another world brings a terrifying
her entire life is a reality show broadcast across
the galaxy ... and she's bombing. The audience is bored. Unless
she does something extraordinary - anything - she'll be cancelled.
Permanently. Now Dorcas has one chance to figure out what makes
a life worth living. Before her time runs out.



A highly unique, darkly atmospheric dystopian thriller, perfect
for fans of Black Mirror and Severance.

Themes of surveillance capitalism, AI ethics and social inequality.





Kelechi 'I want this book to be a story that explores our
interconnectedness within the cosmos, and raises the question
in the technological age of social media and reality television,
who do we actually exist for?'

307 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 10, 2026

About the author

I am Kelechi (Ke-leh-chee) Okafor and I'm a lover of words. I act, I direct and I write. I tweet and I dissect bits about society one podcast episode at a time.

When I am not doing all of the above, I teach pole dance and twerk at my studio Kelechnekoff Fitness in Peckham.

Society teaches us that we must fall into categories somehow. All I know is that I'm just a Baby Girl.

Thank you for visiting my page, and I hope you find what you are looking for on this page and in this life (profound, I know).

Reviews

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

YA? Check. Futuristic? Check. Reality TV? Check. Robots are going to kill us all? Check.

Was there ever a more fitting book right now.

When I first read the synopsis of this one, I knew I had to read it and it actually wasn’t anything like I expected it to be. I do love when a book surprises me and throws me for a loop.

So many other people have said it already, but it really was like a black mirror episode, and also so close to reality that it gives you the fear a little bit.

I enjoyed Dorcas as a character, and I feel like her, and this book, are a good YA introduction to important topics that definitely affect our tiny little world right now. And we all love a book that can start conversations and debates!

If you’re a curious and nosy person like me, you’ll want to pick this one up!

Thank you to @kelechnekoff & @scholastic_uk and @instabooktours for the copy of the book!

[Jerri Bosley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm so disappointed with this book sadly, and hate that I have to mark it 1.5 stars!

I read my ARCs in publish date order, and after reading the blurb of this book I was looking forward to it for weeks.

Sadly, the blurb describes about 0.5% of the book. I expected futuristic dystopian Truman Show. Maybe like the Big Brother Doctor Who episode?! What did I get? A book about racism and anti-racism protests.

The blurb depicted such a cool, fun premise. There was so much that could have been done with it and I'm kind of mad. I kept reading hoping to get what I was promised, but it never delivered.

Was it a good story? Yes. If the blurb had said what it was actually going to be about, I probably would have rated it 3*.

But it wasn't futuristic or dystopian in the slightest. 2032 is not far enough to call dystopian.

All in all I am sadly just extremely disappointed.

[Chiara Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting something entertaining and original, and I got that, plus an inspirational and hopeful story with a beautifully vulnerable character.

This is a sci-fi aimed at young adults, that I thoroughly enjoyed because it is underlined by a poignant social commentary that will give you a hard shove to action, and inspire you to become better and do more in your everyday life!

I loved the story, which although purely fiction, manages to convey a credible narrative due to the parallelisms with current societal problems. The themes at play are so relatable, each one of us having dealt with who they are and want to be, or with how to develop your own voice in a world that keeps silencing everyone in exchange to fake and fabricated entertainment.

I have found the writing very easy to read, and I loved those pearls of wisdom at the beginning of most of the chapters, urging me to take a moment to reflect.

The story of Dorcas, although remarkable, is not dissimilar to that of any of us, just trying to survive and trying to identify what we really care about amongst all the societal noise. In a world where we’re not only exposed to an insane amount of information (not all based on the truth), but we’re also always on show and urged to be transparent and have our privacy for all to see, I found this book timely and utterly thought provoking.
It’s not a depressing read though, but quite the opposite. Through Dorcas’ arc the reader finds inspiration and by the end of the book a flame that might have seemed lost is suddenly burning bright with possibilities to become an active agent in the story of our lives.

Thanks to Scholastic and Insta Book Tours for a copy and this is my honest opinion.

[Sifa Poulton · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a review copy from the publisher in preparation for a UKYASpotlight interview. It has not affected my opinions.

1.5 stars

This book felt like several colours slapped onto a canvas with no attempt at blending them together.

It is a book, at least according to the marketing!, about listlessness in life - not being the main character. It is also about (and way more focused on) systematic racism in technology (and how that then translates into justice). To me at least, there are clear ways to link those ideas, make the discussion feel more rounded, but that never happened. It felt like to separate ideas shoved together, rather than enriched by looking at the ways they connect. Not least, how does providing all this information to corporations in order to alleviate boredom and remove friction make us complicit in feeding the algorithms used to perpetuate and feed these systematically flawed institutions?

This disconnect between ideas made the entire premise (girl finds out her life is televised on another planet and will die if she does nothing) feel deeply forgotten at times. It was not the focus - the story line around justice and activism was the focus. Which isn't mentioned at all in any of the marketing copies. Instead, it looks like it'll be a sci fi dystopia about social media and reality TV. It's very much not and I wish that there hadn't been this massive disconnect between the two. It felt like a lot of wasted potential in the set up.

The world build was so jarring. It's 2032 and I'm supposed to believe that there can be a closed off city in the UK where no one remembers the outside world? It took forever to get answers (which were deeply unsatisfying and only made the "this doesn't make sense" feeling worse.) It could have been solved by simply not having a date. Let it be the vague future and I won't be wondering how these adults don't know about the outside world.

Also Dorcas just accepts this person telling her about the TV show and the consequences at face value? She never asks for proof? There's no real sense that this is real (made worse by the fact that literally the scene before they're talking about AI holograms!!) It completely undercut all the tension for me because the stakes were never proven. You had to take it on trust without that trust being earnt (and it made Dorcas look deeply naïve).

There are answers about aliens and TV show - which undercut the entire premise (in a similar way to how the world building reveal was unsatisfactory). It made everything beforehand feel very pointless and Dorcas feel like even more of a foolish character. But oh no, that was all OK because it made her an activist? Also I yelled "that's not how quantum entanglement works" at the explanation. It was so frustratingly a "I barely googled this topic" use of science.

Dorcas' mum watches a lot of reality TV and that becomes a key moment about halfway through, but the show in question is never set up. For all the time spent around reality TV, the all important show is not mentioned once before it bursts into the scene. It made that whole sequence feel like a very obvious "change of pace and addition of stakes at the midpoint" moment, which was so jarring. It didn't feel earnt at all and so a very clumsy "new act" transition.

I have no idea if this is a series or not. The last chapter would appear to be so but the epilogue says maybe not. I don't feel any need to read further (I would not have finished this if it wasn't a UKYASPOTLIGHT book.)

[Jessica Juby | jesshidesinbooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

A copy of this book was sent via InstaBookTours in exchange for an honest review.

I felt there was something special about this book trying to come through but it got muddled in a mash of messages and themes. There was a lot going on for a YA novel in around 300 pages and I feel it needed to be a longer adult novel to fully explore everything.

I felt the out-of-this-world element added a complexity that was never fully explored to make it a necessary layer to 90% of the story. Reaching the end and reading the author's note, I get it, and it's a beautiful addition, but it didn't quite fit right in the narrative for me. Dorcas' uprising felt too manipulated and I would've preferred for her growing community to be the key driver behind her development. For example, her mother could've played a bigger influence from the beginning, rather than being completely absorbed by reality TV.

The majority of the supporting characters were frustrating to read, not questioning enough about the world they're in. We have conveyor walkways, travel pods, embedded chips, memory uploading... but also Post-It notes. I wanted more insight into the world and how it worked. I liked the concept of the wall that's enclosing them and the need to get a permit to travel outside it... but it's not discussed early on enough as to why it's there or how it got there. People have just accepted it and never think beyond it. It was stretching my disbelief suspension too much to believe that people would just allow it to be built without pushback... because we don't currently have a great experience with border walls right now.

I felt there should've been more immediate repercussions in their relationships following the dad reveal without this, the mother's character was weakened further by letting him stay around for a while after.

I think all the parts for a great story are there, it just feels a bit of a heavy lift to get to the last few chapters for everything to come together, without enough tidbits woven through the rest of the story

[andshe.reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know that feeling when you open Tiktok for 5 minutes & all of a sudden an hour or more has disappeared? You're sat scrolling through the lives of complete strangers, seeing inside their routines, relationships, homes, drama & listening to their opinions. & like me probably never stopped to think how strange it is that we know so much about these people we have never met.

Are You Still Watching really made me think about this in a completely different way. It actually made me feel quite uncomfortable how 'normal' watching other people has become.

We will sit & scroll, observe & form opinions on people who have no idea who we are.

Watching others is one thing but how would you feel if you were the one being watched... 👀

This feeling runs right the way through this story & really gave off an unsettling atmosphere. It really made me think about how much of our lives we put out there on social media, about the privacy we willingly give up. It's also kind of creepy wondering who actually is on the other side of the screen.

This is the kind of book that turns something ordinary into something that really made me think differently after. If im honest I'm actually a lot creeped out.

Thank you to InstaBookTours & Scholastic UK for a copy of the book.

[Bernie Groves · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

This book was not what I had been expecting, but I found it so interesting and the messages within it are so relevant to today’s world.

Dorcas is living her life quietly, making herself as small and as compliant as possible. But one day she is told that her life is actually being watched by beings on another planet and she is about to be cancelled, unless she can turn it around and start living.

Dorcas starts to grow, she begins to value herself and she also opens her eyes to actually see the reality of the world around her. As her confidence grows she starts speaking up and begins taking chances. Her character arc is wonderful and seeing how her growth impacts the people around her is fascinating and really well done.

There are so many important topics in this book, including racism, police violence and social inequality and they are covered in an accessible way that will be great for
YA readers and to start bigger conversations.

[Georgia's lilblogofbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s the year 2032 and Dorcas is visited by a being from an unknown planet with the news that her life is being broadcasted live across the galaxy, and she’s failing. Unless she thinks of something exciting for the viewers, she’ll be cancelled permanently. Dorcas has one chance to find out what makes life worth living.
This was a really intriguing read from the blurb, and something that sounded so different, especially for a YA book. However, I feel as though the blurb was only about 15% of what the book actually consisted of, and was mostly about race and activism. This was an extremely important topic to be writing about, and I really appreciate that it is targeted at YA, I just feel it fell a bit flat for me and I wasn’t the right audience for this.
I really enjoyed Dorcas’ mother character, despite her initial flaws and did really enjoy the ending.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Insta Book Tours and the author for the ARC!

I know, I know, don't judge a book by its cover, but I do, and I think this one is fab. As for what's inside, that is also pretty blooming good! The sci-fi aspect of the book was not the main concept at all; it's quite a realistic story, but it blends dystopia with that reality very well.

This is a book about racism and standing up for what matters; it's about finding your voice and using it for good; it's about doing what you can with whatever situations you're dealt.

This book is about systems of oppression and those who uphold them, wilfully or ignorantly. This book is about murdered black women and the need for society to damn well do better. This book is about hoping, believing, knowing that things can change.

And it's a novel.

[Mia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book last night & had it signed by the Baby Girl Kelechi (aka Muvva of London) 🤩
I finished reading this in under 5 hours today as I couldn't put it down. While it’s framed as YA fiction, the parallels to today's world are wild. Such an amazing way of showing how things like state surveillance, media manipulation and misogynoir/racism aren't just isolated issues. It’s also painfully accurate about the digital age we’re living in and heading towards.

[Chimandbooks · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

3.25⭐️
Thank you, NetGalley and Scholastic UK, for this free ARC.

I requested this book because I found the blurb very interesting. A dystopian YA thriller on the effects of social media and reality TV? Sign me up!
However, as soon as I started the book, I felt a disconnect. I was a bit confused about Dorcas as the main character I’m following, the city/ country and the year. It kind of picks up and, I definitely get more interested in the story especially seeing Dorcas just going through the motions of life. I related to that feeling.

The plot about another planet and Xelia was definitely interesting. It definitely helped with Dorcas’s character growth by taking her life into her own hands. In my notes I wrote: ‘what’s the point?’ I was expecting it to be more intriguing and really bring about how everyone in Cowrie Hills is probably going through the same thing of likely being erased (after finishing the book, I think that is also the point). I didn’t feel that while reading and I did question Dorcas trusting this other world being. Where it got really interesting for me and I started theorising was Sandra Taylor’s death. I thought that was connected with her life being boring and being erased. Spoiler alert: I was wrong!!

I found the conversations at her internship at Vesta very interesting and important. Especially their meetings and where race, specifically black people and how they aren’t relatable with relation to the app. It kind of combined with how Sandra Taylor’s death was being brushed aside. I definitely liked the themes of race and activism but they did feel a bit disjointed from what I thought the book was going to be about. It takes up so much of the book too. With all the protests, Toby’s major role and their eventual relationship. I also really liked this sentence from the book:
“If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention”
So while I was invested in the plot and how it actually tied into the people of Cowrie Hills actually seeking justice and finally paying attention, I still felt like there was something missing.

The faithfulness and foolish reality tv plot really came out of nowhere. It felt very weird! I hated her father even more and I didn’t want a ‘redemption’ because he was worried about Ivana instead. I was so happy with how Dorcas confronted Ivana especially since she joked about Sandra Taylor’s death. The good part was it made her mother realise that their family and how they were living was shallow.

Overall, I really liked Dorcas as a character and her growth throughout the book. The ending was confusing for me but I think I got the gist👀. Also this did not feel like a thriller; nothing was thrilling🙂 I don’t know; I have mixed feelings about everything😅

[Adaliareads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The idea of having your life unknowingly broadcast as a reality show across the galaxy is scary enough. Imagine then finding out that if you don’t make your life more entertaining, the show and in turn your existence will be gone forever.

I did want to take Dorcas and kind of shake her by the shoulders at first because it definitely felt like she was a spectator in her own life. I was frustrated by her character in the beginning because I think she should have confronted her Dad and told her mum about what she saw.

The reveal behind the intention of the ‘alien visitor’ and why she’s encouraging Dorcas to live her life puts a lot of the narrative into perspective.
It’s so important to remember that you are in control of your life and you can choose to live it and stand up for what is right and call out what is wrong.

For me, the black mirror vibes kicked in more towards the end when the protests come to a head and the plan for Cowrie Hills is in a way revealed.

I do wonder if there will be a sequel because there’s more than enough story to expand on. I think the epilogue was left open to interpretation, however I’d personally like to see a second book. I need more answers!