This was such a fun and unique read! I loved the story line and the characters. It was heart pounding suspense that I couldn't put down. Loved it!

They're watching you is a YA novel set in an elite school. Maren's roommate Polly goes missing and no one seems to care or think anything strange about it. Soon Maren comes to know that Polly was a part of a secret society on campus and inflitrates it to find out the reason for her disappearance.

This was a twisted plot and I loved the boarding school setting with a cult, underground crypts, puzzles and creepy games. This totally gave me The Truly Devious vibes and kept me engaged from the start. The twists were easy to see and the ending was predictable. Yet it was a fun and super quick read.

This is my second Chelsea Ichaso book and she managed to create well developed, fleshed out characters that were relatable as private high school teens that come from money and power.

Thank you @netgalley and @sourcebooksfire for a digital ARC to read and review.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an e-ARC of They're Watching You!

3.5 rounded up!

I got so into this book at some point, I ended up going through it fairly quick; it's been awhile since I've been that invested in what I was reading. It wasn't necessarily the ~mystery~ that pulled me in, and it definitely wasn't the characters (I trusted absolutely nobody & didn't care about what happened to anyone), but the cult vibes and the idea of a secret society playing deadly games had me. I'm a very simple girl who just likes a silly creepy time.

First off, I LOVE anything set in the boarding-school-thriller scene, so this was already a match made for me. Throw in cults, secret societies, sadistic games and a missing girl and you've got yourself one twisted little mystery to unravel. I did pretty much predict the twits as well as the ending, however, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend to anyone!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publishers for my advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

As much as I wanted to like this, because I am a sucker for boarding school mysteries, I just found this so genuinely ridiculous. SO MUCH happens in this book. It is all over the place, and it felt like none of it really went together in a satisfying way. It just tried to do too many things at once, and I didn't really like any of the things that it did. I also thought the whole secret society was kind of insane, because I genuinely do not understand why any of them did what they did. It wasn't justified enough for me and I kept waiting for the story to tell me why these people were doing such bonkers shit.
Overall I think this is an interesting premise, and not a badly written book, but it just had waaaay too much going on.

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of They're Watching You by Chelsea Ichaso. While I enjoyed the general premise of the story, and I was hooked from the beginning, I found it lagged a bit in the middle. I wasn't as invested in the mystery as I thought I would be. I also didn't feel much connection to the characters.

DNF at 50%. After trudging along for half of the book, I have to call it quits, as I am struggling with how bizarre the plot is and am unable to care about the characters or the outcome.

This was a good YA mystery/thriller novel, that I enjoyed reading!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

I am so thankful to have gotten an early copy of this book. As soon as I heard that there was a dark academic book about secret societies I was all in. This book got to me. I love the atmosphere of the secret society and the games. There was so many twists and turns, and it seems like everyone’s out to get you in this book. I loved it. Definitely going to start reading more from this author.

They’re Watching You is a fun, but often predictable YA dark academia story that is perfect for young readers just getting into the genre. It follows Maren, a scholarship boarding school student whose best friend mysteriously disappears. In order to find her, Maren infiltrates a centuries old secret society where she must participate in a series of deadly games. Oh! And there’s a love triangle.

This book was wildly entertaining. It was always intense and I was glad for the romantic drama. Still, it felt like a very basic dark academia/secret society story. It reminds me a lot of Kit Frick’s recent novel, Very Bad People. The difference is a total lack of explanation as to why the society members go as far as they do. It’s never fully explained. One character in particular has a mind-boggling arc that left me both disappointed and confused. The only character I did find interesting ended up having a predictable journey. So while I had fun, I also had questions.

That being said, this has all the marks of a compelling dark academia story. It’s a great starting point for the genre and I will be happy to recommend it to young readers. This books knows what it is and I respect that. It’s dark without being fully inappropriate, and all the violence/trauma serves a purpose and isn’t just there for shock value, which I find to be rare in the genre. I’m glad I read this, not because I adore it but because I believe the students I work with will.

DNF at 61%.

Maren’s best friend, Polly, disappeared without a trace after she got involved with one of the popular girls, Anabelle. Maren doesn’t believe that this is a coincidence, so she sets out to get herself invited to a secret society that Polly was a part of, sure that the reason Polly went messing lies within this secret society, and that Anabelle herself has something to hide.

I’m really sad to be dnfing this book because it had so much promise. When it comes to mysteries and secret societies, I can usually suspend my disbelief. But not with this one. It just got so ridiculous and melodramatic that I was constantly laughing at everything Maren did, cringing because of the way she jumps at clues and thinks the worst of people before she’s even had a chance to get to know them. I also couldn’t bring myself to believe that such a society had ever existed. There was just too much to it that could never have flown under the radar. Catacombs? Poison? Students going missing? Students going killed? It was just too much and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I wasn’t a huge fan of DEAD GIRLS CAN’T TELL SECRETS, so I had hoped to enjoy this one more. It seemed promising at first. Maren’s character seemed stronger and smarter than the mc of DEAD GIRLS, but then by the time she got into the secret society it all started to spiral, and she started to do the same thing that the mc of DEAD GIRLS did, which was follow leads with no evidence, take anything she’s told as fact, and jump to conclusions with no logical reason as to how she got to that conclusion in the first place.

I’m sad about this. Maybe next time I’ll like it?

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This kept me on my toes! I loved it! Dark academia is one of my favorite genres, so when I saw this was about a secret society within a boarding school, I was sold. This delivered exactly what I wanted; flawed characters, juicy plot, and lots of action that wasn’t too confusing. I flew through this!

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

They're Watching You is a phenomenal YA thriller from start to finish. Filled to the brim with twists and a captivating plot, this one is sure to keep readers hooked. The characters are well-developed. The story is incredibly fast-paced. This is one not to be missed! Highly recommended! Be sure to check out They're Watching You today.

Maren's former best friend Polly, who lived with her at a prestigious boarding school, has disappeared and Maren is convinced she hasn't just run away. Maren infiltrates the weird secret club Polly had joined in an attempt to find out what happened to her, but it goes darker and deeper than she could ever have realised...

This is a wildly outlandish YA thriller and if you don't mind that the plot is frankly preposterous, you will have a great time with this book, as I did. There are kind of dark academia vibes with the boarding school setting, mixed with a secret society that meets in underground catacombs and forces the MC into dangerous challenges to try to save her friend's life.

The plot moves steadily forward and this quickly became my main read as I was always eager to pick it back up again.

If you need your reads to be super realistic, then you might struggle, but as a fantasy reader, I'm always ready to suspend disbelief in the name of a fun and engaging story and I was totally hooked on this one.

I have to say, the ending was a little abrupt to me after all that build up, and some aftermath in the final chapter made no sense to me. Still, I had a really fun time reading this book, it was great for an easy, fast paced read.

Side note: I feel like the title is boringly generic for this book. I reckon "Victory or Dust" would have been a great name.

This book was okay. I enjoyed the “dark academia” vibes and the elite, private school setting. Our main character, Maren, discovers a secret society on a quest to find her missing roommate. Before she knows it, she’s thrust into the world of this secret society. While it started out pretty strong and had me intrigued, it never really took off for me. Maybe I just was not the right audience for this book, but it ultimately fell a little flat. There was a lot of potential, but it didn’t really work out.

A great read by this author. I definitely recommend checking this one out!
Thank you NetGalley for providing a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

I was so excited to read this. It was a fast pace thriller that kept you on your toes as the book went by, but, (there is always a but) I just couldn't get myself invested in it.
I'll be honest, the fact that Polly was missing just didn't seem urgent to me. Some of it story line was a little unbelievable. Which is what made me a little disenchanted with the book.

A solid 3-star read. Maren didn't have much of a personality and it was hard for me to really get invested in her like I wanted to, but this isn't that type of book. You don't pick this up for the character work, you pick it up for a fun boarding school mystery. Lots of twists and turns kept me guessing; I didn't see the reveal coming at all! If you're looking for a fun, fast-paced mystery/thriller, They're Watching You is a good choice.

I received an ARC copy of this book via the publisher and NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

When Maren's roommate Polly goes missing, everyone writes her off as another runaway. She has apparently done it before so what makes this time any different? Just another rebellious teen who's run away from home. But Maren doesn't believe that Polly would have just run away. She had big dreams that include being a movie star. Dreams that until a couple weeks ago, Polly and Maren would spend hours talking about while lounging around. Polly was Maren's best friend. There was no way she would have just ran away. The day before she went missing Polly begged Maren to meet her at their fountain so that she could tell Maren everything that was going on. Only when Maren went to the fountain later on that evening, did she realize that something was terribly wrong. Not giving up on her search to find her best friend, Maren uncovers a secret society who are playing for more than just bragging rights. The stakes of these games are a lot higher; losing one game can cost you your life. The main rule? Don't tell anyone about the society. And they are always watching you.

The book follows Maren as she attempts to compete in games for clues regarding her friend Polly's whereabouts. Maren has been led to believe that Polly is being tortured for the sake of some sick ritual. Same goes for Remington's ex girlfriend Jane. Together they will stop at nothing to save their friends from torture. Only, are they actually being tortured? Or is all apart of the game too? Who can Maren trust? Gavin, her accident prone lab partner? Or Remington, a guy she shared a brief moment with in Form 1 but haven't so much as spoken to since? Not to mention her attraction to both boys. What at the faculty? Or even the headmistress who is supposed to be all about student safety? Who can she turn to when it seems everyone is involved in the Society?

I really enjoyed this book. I was not expecting the twist of who the Gamemaster was. That was unexpected. Though the more I read, I waited for another twist to come. That when everything ended, nothing had ended. That it was only just begun. Don't get me wrong, I love happy endings but I wanted more. I wanted more twists and turns. I gave it a four as it felt like there were times I just glossed over some of the information. Sometimes the timeline jumped too quickly, as in moved from one place too another too quickly and I had to look back to see if I had missed some pages. But overall, I really enjoyed this book and would be willing to check out more of Chelsea's work.