Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A mysterious monster hunts teens hiding personal secrets in this harrowing horror novel by Crespo (Saint Juniper's Folly). After the Watcher, a local Oregon cryptid, attacks secret girlfriends Shay and Lauren, Shay manages to escape unharmed while Lauren is admitted to the hospital in critical condition. Suddenly, Shay and her troublemaker BFF Jack become the prime suspects in Lauren's assault. Hatching a plan to prove the creature's existence--and their own innocence--the pair enlists yearbook photographer Zoe, who agrees, hoping to use the photos to spice up her college admissions portfolio. But to get the perfect pic, the trio must learn everything they can about the Watcher, including its history, its attack patterns, and its motives. Along the way, the teens form complex bonds, uncover one another's deepest secrets, and plumb the depths of their own hidden truths. Via an omniscient POV, quippy dialogue, and whirlwind action sequences, Crespo explores the shame and terror that can come from hiding one's true self from the world, even during a literal life-and-death situation. Characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 14--up. Agent: Mary Moore, Aevitas Creative Management. (Oct.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up--Crespo's book introduces a new cryptid, the Watcher, a creature with many eyes that feasts on secrets in Pine Cove, OR. Once it's drawn to someone's secret, its prey can feel it watching them, stalking them, and hunting them, until it either succeeds at its hunt or the truth is told. Awakened by Shay and Lauren arguing in the woods about their secret romance, it attacks Lauren. Shay gets away, but she can still feel it continuing to hunt her. In an attempt to prove its existence to the police, Shay approaches aspiring photographer Zoe Ramos for help capturing a photo of the creature. Angling for a photography scholarship, Zoe agrees, and together with their friends Jack and Parker, they launch a full-scale investigation to hunt their hunter. Full of mystery, tension, and action, this queer horror thriller is a uniquely fun ride that explores themes of shame, identity, and the cost of secrets. All four main characters are queer. Zoe is Latinx, and Parker uses they/them pronouns. VERDICT Recommended where horror is popular.--Kayla Chamberlain
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Four teens try to capture a photo of the monster that's stalking them. In Pine Cove, a small town on the Oregon coast, something has lurked in the woods for decades--a monster that locals call the Watcher, who "hunts people down because they're keeping secrets." After Shay and her girlfriend, Lauren, have a fight in the woods about their closeted relationship, the Watcher fixates on them as its next target, attacking and injuring Lauren. When the police react with skepticism to their story, the girls feel sure no one else will believe them either. Shay teams up with Zoe, an aspiring photographer who needs to make her portfolio more distinctive if she's going to snag the competitive college scholarship she's competing for. Together with Shay's best friend, Jack, and Zoe's best friend, Parker, the girls try to find proof of the monster's existence before it can hurt them--but doing so may mean revealing the secrets they've kept from each other. The prose is gripping and readable, and while the main romance that grows between Shay and Zoe falls a little flat, the vibrant supporting characters and strong themes make this suspenseful work a thoroughly enjoyable read. The primary and secondary cast members are diverse in ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation. The queer cryptid thriller you've been looking for.(Supernatural. 14-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
