Title: Are You Watching?
Author: Vincent Ralph
Genre: Mystery YA
Format: Paperback
Length: 371 pages
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 19th December 2019
My Rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars)
Goodreads | Storygraph
Synopsis:
A page-turning new YA thriller for the social media age, perfect for fans of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and One Of Us Is Lying.
Ten years ago, Jess’s mother was murdered by the Magpie Man.
She was the first of his victims but not the last.
Now Jess is the star of a YouTube reality series and she’s using it to catch the killer once and for all.
The whole world is watching her every move.
And so is the Magpie Man.
My Review:
This novel takes social media to the next level and uses it in a new and interesting way.
This story follows Jessica, a girl who plans to use social media to catch the Magpie Man; a serial killer that took her mom’s life and a dozen others. The premise was what got me speed-walking to the counter to buy it in the shop. I was hooked from the first chapter, and I didn’t want to stop reading it. This story takes a classic thriller and throws in social media to add a unique touch. It shows just how powerful the web can be to catch a killer.
The chapters are short, which helped the pacing of the story, and helped to drive the action. It’s a quick book to read because the short chapters make you want to read on.
The relationships within this story are well-constructed. We get to see her relationship with her father and how his grief consumed him. Her interactions with her best friends Hanna and Emily were refreshing and added some light to a dark story. Another huge bonus for me is that it didn’t have a YA romance, this story focuses on Jessica and her hunt rather than throwing in a romance that would detract from the storyline.
Jess is a determined protagonist. She had one goal, and that was to catch the man that took her family from her. She wasn’t perfect but that made her real. Her growing fame put her at risk as she begins to attract the attention of some nefarious users, who may or may not be the Magpie Man.
The plot is well-developed, face-paced and exciting. It has a few twists in store. This story will keep you on your toes, and the reveal of who the serial killer was, wasn’t something I expected. This is a fantastic well-written first novel from Vincent Ralph and I will definitely read more of his novels in the future.
