Cracks in their friendship, as well as in their own memories, start appearing, threatening to expose long-forgotten secrets which could change the group’s lives forever. How can Blythe and her friends trust each other when they can’t even trust their own memories?” – Goodreads

This exciting psychological thriller was a great way to end my week last night! I stayed up a little too late to finish it, but the pacing at the end really drew me in. If you love a good YA full of twists and turns, you’ll love Someone is Always Watching. I will say, however, don’t read the summary. Not only does it kind of reveal a lot, but it’s actually wrong or misleading about a few things. I’m trying my best not to spoil it 😉

If you can suspend your disbelief, you’ll be fine. There’s some crazy plot points (as usual with a thriller) but they’re easy to get past. The plot progression was strong and well-organized, starting out slow and increasing in intensity. My one issue was that I felt like the “big reveal” happened too early. Most of the “mystery” bits were figured out quickly, but the author made it seem like there were a lot of huge secrets left that just ended up falling flat when finally revealed. I guessed early on some of the biggest things the characters were trying to figure out, but the ending was still satisfying and tied up smoothly.

I would’ve appreciated a more balanced and thematic story centered around mental health and diagnosis, but the main “threat” was painted out to be an organization that actually didn’t do too much an mostly existed in a moral gray area. The disappointing “villain” could have been remedied by focusing more on the characters having to fight their own minds, pasts, and traumas rather than forcing in outside threats. There was definitely a strong focus on this, but I kept forgetting about the “villain.”

The characters did a lot of stumbling into secrets that a top-secret organization would definitely not make so easy to find, but again – suspend your disbelief for this one.

I really want to include a spoiler, so I’ll be as vague as possible and skip to the next section if you don’t want to read it – SPOILER HERE: The “experiment” didn’t make a lot of sense. Was the scientist’s plan to just wipe their memories of something bad happening and change nothing else? If they actually thought these kids were psychopaths and antisocial, wouldn’t they try to raise them differently or give them medicine or something? I just thought the premise seemed useless for the scientist’s original hypothesis. Okay, spoiler over.

The writing style and quality was flowy and well done, perfect for this genre. Chapters are generally from Blythe’s point of view, but every once in a while it’ll switch to a random different character’s for a while. I guess that created plenty of dramatic irony, but the POV switches didn’t seem very intentional until the later half of the book.

The characters were definitely my favorite part of Someone is Always Watching. Listen, I’m not one of those r/DarkPsychology101 enthusiasts, but I took AP Psych in high school and I’ve always been so interested in the way our minds work and different disorders. One of the main themes of this book was characters dealing with “diagnosis,” the public image of those labels, and the actual manifestation of those disorders. I loved the way Armstrong represented that struggle while still portraying realistic characters. Tucker, for example, was my favorite. He was always treated as if he had done something horrible or he had something wrong with him that he could explode any moment, so he was really careful about everything he said and did. He was very sweet and thoughtful without being some kind of perfect manly love interest. He’s one of the best male characters I’ve read recently. He truly cares about everyone he loves and will protect them to the end, but he’s also not crazy like the adults around paint him out to be. Tanya was also a really awesome character. At first I was upset because I thought the author had used the name of a certain diagnosis incorrectly with her and Tucker, but as certain information became clear, her diagnosis made a lot more sense. It was a very interesting take on a super complex character and a super complex disorder. I really loved that portrayal. Blythe was also very sweet and she and Tucker were very cute together. At first she seemed like the classic “good girl” with built up frustration, but she actually handles everything really well and has her own unique personality.

Despite some crazy plot points, this thriller is not only exciting and high-stakes, but explores some tough and important topics such as mental disorders and justice. The characters were three-dimensional and so sweet – for once the author didn’t rely on snarky boss girls or a morally gray love interest to make the reader root for them. If you’re a fan of high-school thriller writers like Karen M. McManus or Jennifer Lynn Barnes, you’ll love Someone Is Always Watching.