Watch The Girls by Jennifer Wolfe

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book for free in exchange for my honest review.

Title: Watch The Girls

Author: Jennifer Wolfe

Pages: 320

Genre: Thriller, Horror

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Publication Date: July 10, 2018

Rating: 4.5/5

I’ve been watched all my life. I’m used to being stared at. Observed. Followed.

Fame and obsession collide in this darkly twisted novel from an incredible new voice in suspense.

SOMEONE IS WATCHING
Washed up teen star Liv Hendricks quit acting after her beloved younger sister inexplicably disappeared following a Hollywood party gone wrong. Liv barely escaped with her life, and her sister was never heard from again. But all this time, someone’s been waiting patiently to finish what was started…

FOUR MISSING GIRLS
Now fifteen years later, broke and desperate, Liv is forced to return to the spotlight. She crowdfunds a webseries in which she’ll pose as a real-life private detective–a nod to the show she starred on as a teen. When a mysterious donor challenges her to investigate a series of disappearances outside a town made famous by the horror movies filmed there, Liv has no choice but to accept.

FOLLOW THE WHITE WOLF
Liv is given a cryptic first clue: Follow the white wolf. And now a darker game is about to begin. Through social media, someone is leaving breadcrumbs to follow. As Liv makes increasingly disturbing discoveries, her show explodes in popularity. A rapt internet audience is eager to watch it all–perhaps even at the cost of Liv’s own life…

Filled with provocative twists and turns as the line between plot and reality blurs in this inventive tour-de-force from breakout writer Jennifer Wolfe.

Goodreads

***I try my hardest to make my reviews spoiler free and so I feel like to give any specific trigger warnings would give some major spoilers. Just know that this book deals with adult themes and goes to some dark places. If you would like to know specific trigger warnings then please check out the Goodreads page that I have linked just above this paragraph and if you scroll down to the reviews I believe the third review or so gives trigger warnings at the beginning of their review.

I loved this book and the whole concept of the story is right up my alley. Watch The Girls is the dark thriller that I have been craving. I had such a hard time putting this book down and I read the whole thing in 2 days. I love how real and flawed the main character, Liv, is. She is so broken and messed up and realistic. The setting of the story perfectly captured what the world we live in now is like and I loved the use of social media in this book. A tiny portion of the story is told through gossip sites and Youtube and Twitter are a huge part of the story. Part of the reason that this book was so engrossing was because it felt like something that was currently happening.

Another reason that this book was so engrossing is that I love books where I get to play detective along with the main character. The reader and Liv find out things at the same time so I was trying to formulate theories and ideas of what could have happened to the girls. Most of the twists in the story I could see coming but there were some that really shocked me. I was also shocked by how violent this book could get but in a good way. I remember thinking that I can’t believe this book actually went there. But it didn’t feel exploitive. Everything that happened fit very organically with the story and the writing.

One of my favorite things about the book is that most of the story is based in a town close to LA that a famous horror director lives in and filmed his movies in. The movies the director, Jonas Kron, make are extremely dark and graphic horror movies that have a large cult following. Being a huge horror movie fan I loved this aspect of it and what a huge part of the plot he and his movies have.

For me there were only two downsides to this story. The biggest one being that at times it felt preachy and that is one of my biggest turn offs in a story. That reason alone is why I knocked half a star off my rating. I do agree with what the book was saying about women and how men view them and a woman’s sexuality but it just kept being brought up. The other thing that rubbed me the wrong way was that I don’t know if the book handled the Olivia Hill/Liv Hendricks thing the right way. Olivia Hill changed her name after her sister went missing to Liv Hendricks and the ending gives a different reason for why she changed her name. I feel like it was a good reason but at the same time I don’t know if it was a good representation of what was happening. Sorry to be vague but I definitely don’t want to spoil the ending. If you read this book (and you should!) please let me know what you think.

As you can tell, I really enjoyed this book. If you are in the market for a dark horror triller novel than this is for you. This book can get pretty graphic so just keep that in mind. Another interesting part of this book is the behind the scenes look into how Hollywood works. I feel like this book has so much going on but it all works so well together to tell the story. I feel like this book would make an excellent movie and I hope that it happens one day.

~Cassie