The Watcher

by James Howe, Betsy Imershien

A mysterious girl, dubbed The Watcher, spins tales of rescue from her lonely perch above the beach. She closely observes the actions of two people she has never met: a fourteen-year-old boy whose family seems perfect and a handsome eighteen-year-old lifeguard. Their lives become intertwined -- and their troubling truths are revealed.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Abuse, Teen, Contemporary, Mental Health

184 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1997

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

James Howe has written more than eighty books in the thirty-plus years he's been writing for young readers. It sometimes confuses people that the author of the humorous Bunnicula series also wrote the dark young adult novel, The Watcher, or such beginning reader series as Pinky and Rex and the E.B. White Read Aloud Award-winning Houndsley and Catina and its sequels. But from the beginning of his career (which came about somewhat by accident after asking himself what kind of vampire a rabbit might make), he has been most interested in letting his imagination take him in whatever direction it cared to. So far, his imagination has led him to picture books, such as I Wish I Were a Butterfly and Brontorina (about a dinosaur who dreams of being a ballerina), mysteries, poetry (in the upcoming Addie on the Inside), and fiction that deals with issues that matter deeply to him. He is especially proud of The Misfits, which inspired national No Name-Calling Week (www.nonamecallingweek.org) and its sequel Totally Joe. He does not know where his imagination will take him in the next thirty-plus years, but he is looking forward to finding out.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Tzipora · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful book (a painful, dramatic, yet at its depth very real, book). And one I so wish I could’ve found at 13 because I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my 13 year old self so perfectly depicted in a novel before. Reading it was like a fever dream.

[Josiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's difficult to know exactly what to say about this book. As an author, James Howe is frequently in prime position on the literary vanguard, trying daring new things and writing books that are uniquely built to very unexpected endings. In this, his first bona fide young adult novel, we are given something like a cross between authors Kevin Henkes and Robert Cormier, a combination that I never expected to ever see.

As unique as all of James Howe's writing is, The Watcher is probably the most unusual story that he has ever written. It proceeds with all the visceral haze of a dream, yet at the same time powerfully thrusts itself into the reader's heart and mind, hardly allowing one time to ponder what is happening. In fact, through most of the book's plot the reader probably won't understand what is going on in the shadowy depths beneath the mysterious surface. All that is completely evident is that the ostensibly unrelated lives of these young beach goers are bound together by the ties of pain and loneliness, and there is no better writer at empathizing with and sensitively rendering that kind of pain than the inimitable James Howe.

The Watcher is, through and through, like a silent explosion in the heart. The story is simple and meandering yet so crucial in its drive that I felt as if I couldn't put it down. These lives on paper become more than just creations of a beautiful mind; they are tangible, real, and the circumstances that they face matter. I'm not sure I can pinpoint just why, but they do.

The last fifteen pages or so are almost like an entirely new story, yet somehow are a perfectly logical result of all that comes before. The narrative begins to race at such high speeds that I was simply holding on for the ride, everything rushing and screaming with no room even for ordinary punctuation, and set pell-mell on a collision course for an end to the story that I could not foresee in the slightest until my eyes ran across the final few words.

This book is powerful, and resonates deeply, even if it goes about the task of doing so in a different way from every other novel that I have ever read. James Howe has a profound understanding of the human heart that few writers will ever even know that they can hope to achieve, and The Watcher, like his other novels, is a treasure of humanity that I would not give up easily.

[StarMan · Rating 4 out of 5]

[YA/juvenile book, Adult reader]

VERDICT: 4 YA/juvenile stars.

A short but memorable read, with some dreamlike parts I liked. The story revolved around a mystery girl who watches people at the beach. I can't say more without spoilers, except you should stick with it to the end.

If I had to nitpick: Some of the kid & teen dialogue (spoken & internal) didn't seem authentic to me. This may partly be an artifact of the story having been published in the late 1990s. It was not distracting enough to deduct any stars.

[Annika · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book "The Watcher" is an excellently written book that has to do with the life of a young girl- Margaret. This young girl is only know for sitting on the wooden steps that lead down to a beach, no one knows who she is or where she comes from. All they know about her is that she writes in a journal and watches the people on the beach. The book is actually a mixture of poetry and a normal narrative story.

Some of the things the I liked most about the book was how as you read on you were able to piece together what the poetry meant and how it connected to the text. It almost gave you a small sense of accomplishment when you put the pieces together. I especially loved how the poetry portrayed one of the characters in the story- Chris, in the poems he was portrayed as an angel, a savior. In the book he was a confused lifeguard that had a loose tongue and a spit fire attitude and was yearning for something more in his life. He is also a major factor in one of my favorite parts in the book, the end, and when the true background of the girl is revealed, in the end he truly became Margaret's savior. There is only one thing that I disliked about the book, which would be the fact that it ended almost too soon. I would have loved to know more about the outcome of the Margaret's life and how she overcame and grew stronger because of what she went through.

In summary, this book was a great book that picked at your brain and made you open your eyes more to what people can be going through and really drove home the message that you should never judge a book by it's cover. I highly recommend this book for an enjoyable quick read.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Page 69:

Sarah: Why are they getting a divorce?

Callie: They're tired of each other, I guess. You know how you have a favorite doll and you think if you ever lose her you'll die? But then you get a new doll for your birthday or something?

Sarah: Christmas.

Callie: Or Hanukkah. Anyway, so now this new doll is your favorite and you don't care about the old one anymore ad you could even give her away if you had to.

Sarah: I could never give one of my dolls away. I don't care if she wasn't my favorite anymore. I just couldn't.

Callie: Oh, I know. I could never either. But just say you could, okay? It's like that with my parents, see? Understand?

Sarah: I don't understand. How do you know the old doll isn't going to be your favorite again? I mean, you never know, right?

[Celine Annika · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's interesting, but put in the worst way possible. The storyline is interesting but very cliché teen angst. The formatting of the novel was different, something I kind of liked but also found kind of obnoxious. It was an interesting approach to a novel, but had very clichéd storylines which made took away from the interesting approach

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading YA lit can sometimes feel like playing a bizarre game of bingo where instead of someone calling numbers, each page displays a different common YA trope.

This is a short and easy read for the most part, but many kids will probably struggle with the first thirty pages because they are a bit abstract. Also, it was written in 1997, and specific details are dated enough that I could see modern kids feeling lost. Honestly, they're not missing much though.

The fairy tale between chapters seems lame. Maybe I'm just a grouch.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Watcher is about a girl who just moved to a beach house on a popular beach. She usually sits on the steps, that lead on to the beach, and watches the people there. She takes interest in the chiseled lifeguard, Chris, and a family of four. She watches the children of the family, Evan and Callie, the most. Chris tries to talk to her a few times, to try and figure out why she watches everyone, but she doesn't respond.

The girl breaks into Callie and Evans summer home without reason at first, but as she looks around she finds Callie's family photo. The girl cuts out a picture of herself, tapes the cut out on the photo, and leaves taking to photo with her. Later on, after the family realizes that their house was broken into. Later, Evan travels to Chris's house to ask him for advice about his friends; Evan looks up to Chris as a role-model. Evan, by chance, passes the girl's house and looks through an open window.

Evan witnesses the girl being assaulted and verbally abused by her father. He hears the girl's father screaming at her about a photo, Callie's photo. The girl's father is unaware that Evan witnessed this abuse and continues to abuse his daughter. Evan takes off like a shot after witnessing that and gets Chris. They call the police and manage to stop the girl's father from abusing any further. The police arrive and arrest the father, and the girl reveals her name, Margaret.


The book has four main characters: Margaret, Chris, Evan, and Callie.
Margaret is a small quiet girl, who normally sits on the beach steps and watches people from afar. She was given the nickname 'The Watcher' because she watches people so much. Margaret mainly watches Chris, Evan, and Callie throughout the book. Later in the book, you find out that she is verbally and physically abused by her father.

Chris is a lifeguard who works at the beach. He is a nice person who generally cares more about other people than himself. Chris notices Margaret a lot more than other people because he always catches her staring at him. He does try to reach out to her because he is worried that she is sick or troubled.

Evan and Callie are siblings from a family of four. Evan is a caring older brother who often questions his actions and looks back at the past. Callie is a playful little girl who makes friends easily. She also makes up stories to get attention. The siblings are very supportive of each other and usually go hand in hand together.



I would recommend this book for anyone who is 13 or over the age of 13. I would say 13+ because there are death mentions and abuse. The book has four points of view throughout the story, so it can get pretty confusing. The reading is not difficult, but the book does not tell you whose point of views you are reading from in the beginning of the chapter.



I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars. I gave the book that rating because I found the plot predictable and the characters boring. The only thing that interested me was the little side story, which eventually connected to the plot itself. It was an okay read, but I would not read it a second time.

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Margaret is a watcher. She likes to go to the beach and watch people, doesn’t say anything, just watches which starts to creep some people out as there is no words escaping from her lips, no changes in her facial expression, she just watches. Margaret does grab her pad of paper putting her thoughts and feelings down on paper. Then we have Evan who hangs out with his younger sister, Callie. Evan would rather be with people his own age but he feels safer with his sister. Chris is a lifeguard who is haunted with an incident that happened even before he was born. His father is an empty shell who cannot get over a tragic accident that claimed the life of Chris’ younger brother, leaving both of them dead to the world. Margaret is looking for something and the two boys might just be the answer she needs.
I loved the cover of this book and I myself am a watcher. I could sit all day at the beach, the mall, the airport, just about anywhere where there is an abundance of people and watch. People are amazing at what they do, what they wear, what they say and how they communicate, they entertain me. I myself could not be silent. That would literally kill me. I am a smiler, a gesture, a talker, and a facial expression person, so Margaret amazed me. If I met Margaret, I would be staring back and watching her. She had issues and later in the book, I figured out those issues where but it wasn’t until I was bored with the whole book. I thought the book was rather slow and it wasn’t until the last third of the book did it start to pick up the pace. I’ve read James Howe before and liked his work; this just wasn’t working for me.

[Tiffanyy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book consists of three different perspective of the three characters. One is Chris, a local lifeguard on the beach, another is the "watcher", she's a teenage girl that sits in the beach alone with her notebook and she would write in it and stare at other families in the beach, yearning for a picture perfect family like theirs because she gets abused by her own family. And the last character is a guy named Evan, a thirteen year old boy that hangs around with his little sister, Callie but Evan does not like playing with her very much but does not show it on the outside, he wants to hang out with the cool guys that he always see on the beach, other than hanging around his little sister. From the outside, they may have a happy life and that they are comfortable with how their life is but looks can be deceiving. Chris may look happy since he always have women surrounding him but yet, his daydreams of the memories are killing him inside, the "watcher" may seem like just a girl that loves to write but yet, at home, she gets abused by her own father and lastly, Evan may look like a picture perfect family but past the smile, he does not want to stick around with Callie, but venture out and have a life with friends that are his age. This story is about everyone having their own difficulties and show different perspective but then, at the end come together. I did not really like this book because it is really confusing with all the switching of perspectives and there are some parts where it is so boring that i abandoned this book for awhile.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting novel when I saw the title at the first time. “The Watcher.” First thing I think of the book is about a girl which just judge by its cover. And that girl is being a watcher because she’s alone, and she doesn’t have the things other people have, she just can watch other people’s happiness. I was kind of right by judging its cover page. However, the more interesting of this novel is it talks about three characters, although they are not connect to each other, but they all share something in common.
It is about a girl called Margaret, who is an abused, and lonely. Always watched people playing around on the beach, and she never play, just watch them and write it in her notebook. Evan is a boy who worried the divorce will happen to his parents. And Chris is trying to fit in his family. All of these three characters have sharing the common teenager problem in the book. People try to get in the society, try to protect their family and continue their lives.
There’s one thing special of this book is every chapter; it will first tell you a relative little story then talk about the story in the book. Its cover is good that can hook the reader in, and help them better understand the story by judging its cover. Lots of the books do that in order to make the readers get into this book.

[Jessica Ng · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book from Alexandra when I went to her goodreads profile. The book seemed pretty thin and the cover sort of attracted my attention, but I thought it was kind of creepy. I would recommend this book to anyone in my advisory.
This book is about a girl, Margaret who is very shy and quiet. She just sits on the beach everyday and watches the people live their life. I thought it was interesting how the book cover is of a girl, but then its told in the point of view of a boy named Evan who sees her watching him on the beach one day when hes with his family. Evan goes on an adventure to see who this girl is. The girl uses the people she sees in real life and makes them into fictional characters in her own story. Chris is the real
I thought it was very odd on how the girl would just sit there, observe, and write. But for some reason, it kept my focus. It makes me see how if you stop and take a look around, you can see so much on the other people- how they act, their personality, etc.

[Hui Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a girl who has a very woeful life. Instead of going out and enjoying her ownlife, she would go to the beach continously to observe other people's life. Then she would write down what she saw and start to write about her own ideal family. It is obvious that something had happened to her. And from her actions, it is also clear that she really wanted to have a happy life with her family, but yet, she is unable to do that.
I enjoyed reading the different perspectives of the characters in this book. And i think the author did a really good job putting the point of views of different characters together and at the end, made everything come together.

[Doctor Doom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book mistakenly thinking it was "The Giver" - some classic sci fi book. I kept expecting something sci fi to happen, but instead I was treated to brutal, disturbing scenes of child abuse. Read this book if you love reading horrific, detailed descriptions of sadistic violence and depression.

[Ms. Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit depressing. There is a story within a story. I like the inferring you do as you read both stories. Even though this is dark and depressing, I really like how the three main characters come together.

[Laura Obscura · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books ever! It was touching to read about a girl lost on the beach, unable to ask for help but secretly screaming for it. This is a quick, powerful read.

[Patty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I

[Chris R · Rating 3 out of 5]

She silently watched the people on the beach. She never interacts with anyone; she only watches. She really liked to watch families. Families with mothers, fathers, and children. This is what she did for hours each day. She pretended no one saw her, like she was invisible. It was easy for people to not pay attention to her and to just ignore her. There was nothing about her that would make someone actually notice her, nothing that stood out or made her special. Evan paid attention and noticed her. Evan was a fourteen year old boy who was vacationing with his family. He was close to his seven year old little sister, Callie, and spent time with her. He felt uneasy about this girl who he called “the watcher”. He could tell something was not right with her as she watched his family each day. He really didn’t know what, but he wanted to find out. He started asking some of the lifeguards and regulars on the beach about her. They called her “the flake“ and thought she was strange even calling her “crazy”. Evan tries to learn more about her, but becomes sidetracked dealing with his own family trouble. Chris the lifeguard doesn’t know much about her, but sees her in the same place every day. Chris is dealing with his own family trouble. Chris was a lifeguard because his older brother drowned at the age of four, and his brother’s death changed his father forever. Evan also asks Shane about the girl. Shane is one of the “boys in black” a regular that hung out at the beach. Shane bullies people and steals. Basically, Shane thinks “the watcher” is too unusual to be concerned with. When things are missing from Evan’s vacation house, Evan immediately goes to confront Shane knowing his history of stealing. Chris also had left the beach early that day. On his way to Shane’s house, loud music gets Evan’s attention, and Evan sees “the watcher” through the kitchen window with her father punishing her severely. She is close to death. Evan steps in to help her, and Chris also tries to help. The try to save “the watcher”.

“The Watcher” by James Howe was not what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be a suspenseful book, but it was about family problems, abuse, divorce, and death. It was sad. I don’t know how I feel about the book. It was a good enough book to read, but I don’t think I would have picked it if I knew more about what it was about. I just wanted an exciting book to read, and this was not like that. It was about how people are dealing with their own problems. Bad stuff is happening in families all around, and people don’t even know. Even when someone looks like everything is fine, like with Chris in the book, there can be a lot of sadness you don’t see. Even Evan was dealing with his problems of his parent’s separation and Callie’s fears. It seemed to be that each of the teenagers had some bad stuff going on in their lives. “The watcher” watched people and pretended to be a part of a different family. If someone would have noticed her they could have seen that she was really in trouble. Her own home life was so bad that she invented a fantasy world to escape. Her mother and her were both abused by the father. She was dealing with something that was terrible. The conflicts in the story are good vs evil, happy vs sad, and fantasy vs reality. I would give this book three stars. It was a good book to read, but just not my kind of story. The topic were very serious, and I didn’t expect it. I like to read fun and interesting books, not something this tragic.

[Rin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this up at my school library, wondering why it hasn't been read since 2009.

I see why now

It's hollow, it feels like a first draft to something you'd write for your middle school social studies class. I initially thought it'd be some sort of thriller.. Some short horror story. Damn right I was, it was a nightmare trying to read this thing. 2.5 hours of my life, stripped and torn away from my body.

The writing was odd to me-- Sometimes it felt like a first-person account of the story, such as this quote from the final few pages:

"She always deserved it. Even now. Even now. Especially now, hadn't he told her this was the worst thing she'd ever done to him hadn't she sent him into a rage this time didn't she deserve it? Oh God she couldn't breathe but he would not lif her head he would hold it there until..." It made me feel like i was reading the mind of someone in distress, that's how it was for half of the book...

And sometimes it would feel like a normal, well-structured third-person view.
...
That's something I definitely don't like. There's absolutely no warning for when those switches happen. When they do, it throws me off.

There was very minimal character development, too. I mean-- Yeah, what should I expect from a 173-paged size 14 font YA novel that takes place within the span of a couple weeks of summer?

There's Chris, a 19-year old hunky guy with daddy issues who drinks and parties his "miserable" life away.

There's Evan, a 13-year old twink boy who -------- I can't even lie this book is so bad I can't bother to write a review for it.


TL;DR : PREDICTIBLE, WRITTEN LIKE AN EDGY MIDDLE SCHOOLER'S PRIVATE STORY, WASTE OF TIME.

[Lizzie J · Rating 2 out of 5]

My disappointment doesn't stem from there being necessarily anything "bad" about this book. Mostly, I just thought it was going to be something else entirely. I was expecting it to be really more about the "watcher-girl", but most of the book followed Evan's family and Chris. This might not be so bad, except for the fact that...like nothing comes about from that? We never really find out what's going on with Evan's family, and Chris's problems are equally vague. Their narratives are given to us, but then taken away with no resolution.

And then, the conflict that does have a resolution, the "watcher-girl's," is one that wasn't introduced to us until the last 10 pages or so. And then it's over, but again with no real resolution that we get to see. At that point, the book just ends.

Just from the description and the cover, I was really excited about this book. Unfortunately, it wasn't what I was expecting. It started off okay, but now that I've finished it, I have a difficult time understanding why I should really care.

[Arianny · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Book Review
The Watcher
By James Howe

This suspensing and jaw-dropping story doesn’t have a film in the making or in the theaters yet but just because it isn’t’ in the theaters doesn’t mean it isn’t a thrilling story. Interestingly “The Watcher” was the very FIRST young adult fiction book that James Howe has published. Secondly coming in place is the book “The Color of Absence: Twelve Stories About Loss and Hope. When Mr. Howe himself was responding to interview question by Scholastic Students they asked him …“Have you written other books for older kids?” “Yes, I’ve written a young adult novel called The Watcher, which is without a doubt the most serious book I’ve written.” When I was viewing this response it left me in shock. He reflects to the book by saying it’s one of his “most serious”. In my opinion this is absolutely true. Now in order for readers to find out the seriousness and that mysterious suspense of “The Watcher” your eyes should be glued to this Book Review and I’m not demanding it, no… NOT at all! The Watcher is, so be AWARE!

The main characters in “The Watcher” are Chris, Evan and lastly that girl known as “The Watcher”. Each of these characters in this novel can be known as dynamic. They change throughout the entire story. Beginning, MIDDLE and even the end! Each teen goes through a different conflict in this novel. Chris who is a lifeguard is going through the type of conflict called person vs. person. Ever since his baby brother passed away it has been causing tension between his father and himself. He let his own son drown and wasn’t even paying attention and didn’t’ do anything about it at all. Sadly all that is left is his dad’s apologies and a five-year-old brother in heaven. The conflict that Evan is going through is person vs. society. He has to deal with watching his parents argue every time an they debate on if they should get a divorce or not. Destroying Evan inside and also ruining Evan’s vacation completely! These struggle with the conflicts while she sits down and writes about everything. She consumes the perfect families by the shore and these teens to create her own fairytales in which she can use to escape from what she’s going through. The conflict that “The Watcher” is facing is person vs. person. Margaret has done a huge mistake and now the beast is out to get her. She went into Evan’s home utilizes her own image to affix it onto Evan’s family picture. She wants to be a part of that family but now the beast knows about this and he is out to get HER!

My favorite character in this novel is “The Watcher”, Margaret. Margaret is such an interesting person both internally and externally. She is known as the bony girl with loose brown hair but now she isn’t. I thought she was going to end up being one of those weak characters because of physical appearance but she really is a strong person. She went through abuse from that unintelligent beast her dad and had the braveness to confess. Her confessions took place at the end of this story after she is getting beaten over and over and over again and also receiving help from others like the police but in my opinion this is what made Margaret my favorite character in “The Watcher”. “The Watcher” sure is one brave soul.

The theme of this novel in my opinion is conflicts make you who you are. They certainly go in and out of your life but they reflect upon your identity. I personally think this is the lesson readers should take from this story because when you read “The Watcher” you realize your reading exactly that conflict after conflict. Once these conflicts occur they play a huge part in the characters lives. When just reading the first few pages of this book that’s something to take in consideration. In each character you will see a change and how that conflict will later on affect or influence this character later on in this novel. This influential and affection is what later on makes up the characters identity.

My opinion on the book was fascinating. Dealing with that mood of I have to keep on reading was all I felt when picking up this book from the starting point to the ending point. Some of the strengths of this books that James Howe provides to make the reader feel like there actually in the story will be the use of description. He uses such abstract nouns and makes the story come to life. He uses them constantly like floating, drifting and dreaming. It’s a constant repetition but that amazing kind of repetition because this author uses it to make you feel like you’re actually in the story. I didn’t really find any weaknesses in this book. James Howe in my point of view didn’t want readers to uncover weaknesses from this powerful novel and so that’s why I personally didn’t embrace myself with unsatisfying parts while reading “The Watcher”. If I could change something it would certainly be the amount of abuse that Margaret went through. She was one of my most favorite characters and it hurt me seeing that such an innocent girl suffers and never receives the peace she needs. The only peace she finally feels is at the end when suffering through everything the angels came and where there for her. They where finally there wrapping her wings around her and making her feel with PROTECTION.

I would only recommend this book to readers who think fiction novels are their specialty. If not I could suggest the complete opposite perhaps autobiographies or biographies. If fictional novels are your thing for sure keep your eyes on “The Watcher”. Every time you flip the page of this book you will be able to detect the enriching details in each event of this book. Page after page anticipation awakens just waiting to come after you. So if your that type of reader who wants to be on the edge of their seat waiting for something juicy to occur “The Watcher” is that one book waiting to be read by you.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Watcher by James Howe is a mystery about this girl named Margaret watching these two boys on the beach everyday. She writes about them in her journal. One of the boys is Evan, from far away you see his family as perfect but once you see what's actually going on you realize the family is broken. The other boy is Chris, he's a lifeguard at the beach who lives alone and whose parents believe that he has made a mistake with his life. Margaret realizes that both these boys have problems going on in their lives just like her. She refers to her dad as "the beast" because he hurts her every time she does something bad. In the end she is freed from her prison-like life. This book is based on broken people with broken families, it shows you that not everything in life is perfect. That many people can hide the mysteries and the pain that is going on in their lives. I would definitely recommend reading this book because it's intriguing, mysterious, and emotional.

[Library Noelle Noelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t my typical read. I found this at a little library and was very intrigued by the cover, and assumed it would be a thriller of some sort. Although I found this book to be good and have a good ending. I feel like it was halfway through the book before things started to really pick up, I thought also mention it’s only a 160 page book. I love the overall premise of this book and the storyline, but overall feel like it had a lot of filler content to stretch it a bit longer. Overall I enjoyed the story once finished, but would probably not read again. 3/5

This book is FOR YOU if ..
✅ you like books that make you think
✅ you want an easy read
✅ you like stories under 200 pages

This book is NOT for you if…
❌you don’t like a slow pace
❌you don’t like more than 2 POV’s
❌ you are triggered by childhood abuse

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is soooo Sarah-Jason-Delaney-the-Intrepid coded in that it's about a girl who mentally escapes her bad home life by observing the world and writing thinly-veiled fairytales about it in her diary. This is another book I vaguely remember from my childhood, and let me tell you that the fantasy of a couple of kind, handsome boys coming to rescue you is a lot more believable when you're thirteen or whatever the target audience for this book is. When you grow up you figure out that you will either get out or you won't, and it's a choice that's entirely up to you. Our protagonist does "find her voice" but not until after her knights in shining armor came to save her at her most perilous hour of need. In real life there are no knights, ever ever ever.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found the book super interesting and unique, but I have some problems with it. The first is probably by how prididable it was, each character felt like a trope. Another problem was that there are four main characters with pretty interesting problems, but in the end it didn't have a nice satisfying ending for the rest of the cast. And I was still wondering if the characters problems mattered. Even with all the cons this book was super fun to read, and the writing in this book is fantastic. So that's why I rated this book 4/5.

[Kelsey Doll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mesmerizing from the very beginning. It had a very "girl on the train" vibe to it...main character Margarat inagines herself a part of a perfect family that she spies on at the beach...only the family isnt as perfect as they make themselves appear to be. I read this book in two sittings. Excellent writing, especially for the length of the book (roughly 180 pages). So good, totally reccomend.

[Arielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. I'm writing this immediately after finishing the book, and wow.

I spent much of the book not really sure what the book was about. Was it about these people on summer vacation? How their lives came together. Yes, the answer is yes. But the true answer is so much more. I didn't expect everything that it was about. I do my best to not do spoilers, so just read the book. It won't take you long.

[A. Mickey Perkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way the different plot threads come together here is really interesting, but I feel like it could be a bit more polished, particularly the side plot with the surfer guys Evan meets on the beach- it doesn’t feel as seamless as the rest, and it doesn’t fit into the watcher herself’s in-story narrative, so it seems out of place. Very worth the read, and very poetic.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things are not always what they appear to be. A young girl watches the lives play out of those around her, but what about hers? The observations of those who watch her back in wonder. This sullen girl writing in her notebook always alone. The story unravels intricately -weaved and the truth is revealed.

[Melissa Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the author did a good job piecing the characters and their teenage struggles into a unique puzzle. The book made me think about the way we should consider our words and actions and how they should be used to benefit others. We really never know what someone is dealing with in life, and everyone is dealing with something.