Helpful Score: 2
I've read Steven's first two books, Still Missing and Never Knowing. I enjoyed both books immensely so I was delighted to get my hands on an advanced copy of Always Watching, which is being released in June.
In the previous books, Dr. Nadine Lavoie was the psychiatrist who tried to help the two main characters. This time, she gets her own book and Stevens takes her time telling Nadine's story.
After a brutal attack, Nadine moves to Victoria and takes a job at a hospital. It is there that she meets Nicole, a woman who has just tried to kill herself. After a few talks, Nicole mentions that he is always watching and that if she doesn't go back to the commune, something else bad will happen. Upon further discussion, Nadine realizes that she knows the commune, she spent eight months there as a child. And with that realization comes dark thoughts, but she can't remember why.
After Nadine begins her own side investigation into why she can't remember, and what is really going on at the commune, she starts receiving threats and odd occurrences happen at her home. She also spends a lot of her down time trying to find her daughter, who lives on the streets and is a drug addict. As some of the memories begin to come back, Nadine realizes that she's in more danger than she thought and so are others.
A steady unfolding of the past and the present, Always Watching is a tense suspense that kept me riveted. I enjoyed getting glimpses of the past, parallel to the present and how they connected. Although the story is not as raw as Steven's previous books, Always Watching is still gripping and page-turning I can't wait to see what she writes next!
In the previous books, Dr. Nadine Lavoie was the psychiatrist who tried to help the two main characters. This time, she gets her own book and Stevens takes her time telling Nadine's story.
After a brutal attack, Nadine moves to Victoria and takes a job at a hospital. It is there that she meets Nicole, a woman who has just tried to kill herself. After a few talks, Nicole mentions that he is always watching and that if she doesn't go back to the commune, something else bad will happen. Upon further discussion, Nadine realizes that she knows the commune, she spent eight months there as a child. And with that realization comes dark thoughts, but she can't remember why.
After Nadine begins her own side investigation into why she can't remember, and what is really going on at the commune, she starts receiving threats and odd occurrences happen at her home. She also spends a lot of her down time trying to find her daughter, who lives on the streets and is a drug addict. As some of the memories begin to come back, Nadine realizes that she's in more danger than she thought and so are others.
A steady unfolding of the past and the present, Always Watching is a tense suspense that kept me riveted. I enjoyed getting glimpses of the past, parallel to the present and how they connected. Although the story is not as raw as Steven's previous books, Always Watching is still gripping and page-turning I can't wait to see what she writes next!
Helpful Score: 1
I did not like this book as well as her previous books. All of her books keep me in knots as I'm reading them, though, and this was no different in that aspect. I think some of the decisions of the protagonist (who is a Dr. in a psychiatric hospital) were lacking in judgement and shouldn't she have better insight of the people around her? It is a good read, it just missed the mark on what I have come to expect from Stevens.
