Watchers, in theory, had it going on, well on track to be the novel to watch. A creepy setting in the Irish woods, a creepy as all get out take on faeries, a genuinely nice claustrophobic mood throughout and a couple of really excellent plot twists.
And yet, lamentably, it didn’t work. Specifically, it all but collapsed under the weight of its own writing. Weird thing to say about a book, but there it is. This novel was just overwritten into tedium, no consideration for pace, it dragged and lagged quite strikingly for such a reasonable page count, making it seem like a much longer read. The narrative was dense and slow rolling, barely giving itself any rest with dialogue. It just made you sleepy. The main adjectives that come to mind are ponderous and soporific, which is obviously far from ideal.
So yeah, however well intended, there’s just no character or plot twist or narrative surprise in this book that was worth the plodding slog of reading this book. Unless you’re into that sort of thing. Pass. Thanks Netgalley.

Stop. This was INSANE. I DEVOURED this in just one sitting. A creepy sitting, might I add. This story will be well worth the purchase and I cannot wait to see this on the best seller list.

I devoured this book.

It is hard to put into words what this book was to me, but it was just so classic-ly horror. Just perfect. It was oh so creepy and eerie, the entire time I read it i had goosebumps and was looking around my room.
The characters I found to be really engaging and well as very well developed.
This was truly an addicting and dark read.

3.5 stars

As someone whose ultimate fear is someone watching them through the window at night, someone who avoids looking at the windows when it gets dark or opening the door, I thought I was being brave requesting The Watchers. But unfortunately I wasn’t as scared as I expected to be.

The opening prologue is brilliant, it’s tense, heartbreaking, menacing, as the woods claim a victim. But when the book cuts to the present story, with Mina trying to deliver a conure and her car breaking down, forcing her to enter the woods, it doesn’t quite maintain the threat. As Mina is walking deeper into the woods and the sunlight starts dipping, she hears an awful, inhuman scream, and a woman suddenly appears from a bunker shouting for her to run inside for safety. The story then follows Mina, Madeline, Daniel and Ciara as they are stuck in this glass walled bunker, with a mysterious light inside, and deadly Watchers outside trying to get in.

This (short) book works in various ways. There are some genuinely suspenseful, tense moments on the page as the group tries to survive and/or attempt to escape. You get a real feel of the claustrophobic, suffocating atmosphere inside the bunker, where limited resources, a constant bright light all night and 4 stressed people in cramped conditions start to effect the characters. The characters are (mostly) likeable enough, even if you don’t support their actions you may understand them, and the addition of the conure (spoiler for the animal lovers: he’s ok by the end of the book!) is an interesting touch.

What didn’t work so well for me was that the actual ‘trapped inside a glass room stalked and watched by these creatures who are trying to get in’ wasn’t really covered enough for me. You don’t see these creatures enough, you don’t endure them watching enough or the traits about them that are revealed. There’s a ‘big reveal’ later in the book and that feels more the intention of the book. The premise is good but it didn’t feel committed too enough for me unfortunately.

Thank you NetGalley for the review copy

This review will go live at the link below on 22 September:

Hi and welcome to my review of The Watchers!

I can’t tell you how happy I am to have stumbled across The Watchers on Twitter! I fell in love with the cover, the premise drew me in further and a hop and a skip and a click later I found I had requested it on NetGalley. I was in that awkward phase when you’ve just finished the book you were reading and you have no clue what to read next while your whole TBR is glaring at you menacingly so when I got approved, I dove right in.

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t make it easy for this book to grab me. I started it when I was really too tired to read, and then I fell ill and I had to make my paracetamol-addled brain comply with my reading needs. Still, grab me it did. The Watchers made me want to stay awake when all my body wanted to do was sleep, and trust me when I say that is no mean feat.

Set for the larger part in a remote ancient woodland, the atmosphere in The Watchers couldn’t be more chilling. Every night the light goes on, every night the door locks, every night the watchers come. They shriek, they screech, they scratch the door and rattle the windows. Who are they and will there be an escape for the four people caught in a coop that is both a safe haven and a prison?

As soon as I discovered that A.M. Shine is Irish, I had certain expectations, or rather hopes perhaps, for The Watchers. Ireland is so rich in folklore and fae lore, that I really hoped The Watchers would have a folkloric element. I was not disappointed, the folklore is there, adding to the chilling atmosphere.

With its Bird Box kinda vibe, The Watchers is a truly impressive horror debut that might remind me of existing stories but is still wholly its own tale. I enjoy a good slasher as much as the next gal but I do love it when an author doesn’t need to spill a drop of blood to scare the bejesus out of his readers.

The Watchers is a positively terrifying story, subtle yet dark and disturbing and truly unnerving. I can’t wait for whatever A.M. Shine comes up with next.

The Watchers will be available in eBook and hardcover on 14 October, add this one to your Halloween shopping lists, guys! The paperback will follow in May 2022.

Massive thanks to Aries Fiction (Head of Zeus) and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

If you go down to the woods today….

The story of Mina, who’s car breaks down on the edge of a woods in Connemara in the West Of Ireland, where she is forced to continue on foot and enter the forest.
As the light dims, she hears a woman’s voice urging her to run and join her in a “coop”. Slamming the door shut when she reaches it, she hears the howls and screams as the Watchers surface from below ground for the night to watch their subjects though a glass wall. No one escapes. Venture outside at night and you will be devoured by the Watchers.
It’s only safe to go outside during the day when the Watchers are back below ground. Enough time to forage for food and collect water from the stream but, the seemingly never ending and confusing woods are too big to escape in a day. The Watchers are hunters and will find you in the woods no matter where you are, unless you make it back to the safety of the coop.

What is the coop? How did it get there? What are the Watchers and why are they watching Mina and the three other people trapped in the coop?

I enjoyed this one. A little too close to home as I’m recently back from a holiday in Connemara haha.
The story is pretty interesting and a nice gothic dark take on some Irish folklore. It feels a bit like a mixture of The Body Snatchers, A Quiet Place and Lost. A well thought out and structured story and it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome at 240 pages.

Not particularly scary but an enjoyable and interesting read.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

Thank you Netgalley and Author A.M. Shine for this ARC.

The characters in this tale were complex and fully engaging. Even the non-human ones lurking, creeping, watching in the forest. They are the stars of this classic horror story. But the language bogs down the spoon knees and suspense. It also confuses the story a bit. It's atmospheric purple prose where it shouldn't be. Without the poetic wording this book will surely haunt your dreams for many nights to come. Prepare to gobble this up in one night. I did.

Well, thank you A.M. Shine for spoiling the woods for me, as well as some childhood memories. Using Irish folklore, the author writes a truly creepy story. The plot is full of twists and the pace is so fast that it’s impossible to put down. One of the chapters nearly gave me heart palpitations. But the breakneck rhythm doesn’t take away from the character development. The author delves deeply into the personalities of the four characters stuck in a bunker in the middle of the woods. Nothing is easy for them so their reactions can’t be normal but somehow, they feel organic. The environment is also carefully described, so that you feel like you’re there, in those woods. At first, I thought that this would be one of those novels where the author doesn’t know when to stop writing, but no, it went in surprising directions into a masterful ending. This story will stick to my brain for a long time.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/ Aria & Aries, Head of Zeus!

1.5 stars

Is there an original and interesting idea here? Yes.

But there just isn’t enough of substance to sustain a novel here, even one this short. This book should have been a short story, a short novella at most. Unfortunately, it was inflated with meaningless purple prose. This concept and even these characters, who in the framing of this novel feel stretched-out and uninspired, could have been so impactful in a shorter format.

Much like the flat characters, time didn’t feel ‘real’ in this novel. There was little difference between the passage of days, weeks, or months.

I think in a short story, the ideas of this world would have been allowed to play center stage. In the novel, it all feels cheapened by the amateurish prose and the clear lack of research. The text is meandering and inconsistent; I’m frankly shocked that it’s about to go to print in this state. This reads like a first draft; it needs significant revisions to have the impact it needs. It’s especially disappointing, I think, because I can just see how good it would have been had the fat been hacked away.

😱😱😱😱 -my face when I've just finished the last page of The Watchers. Oh my god, I need the the next book.
So, the main character is Mina, and she needs to deliver a little bird to some client. Her trip ends in the middle of the road. No telephone no car, nothing is working here, so she take the cage and goes into the woods hoping to find someone's help. After some time in the woods she finally finds a little house, and at the door there is a woman who desperately encourages her to run and hide in the house. Mina finds, that in the house is living Madeline, who saved her life, Ciara and Daniel. Madeline explains her to stay always in the house at night, and only go out with the first light of the morning. The woods are dangerous. The woods are filled with watchers. They watch you, and they will kill you if you go out through the night.
So, this is my first horror fantasy book. I love this kind of movies, but never read something like this. It was a very nice read. I didn't feel a lot of emotions reading it. It was pretty interesting though. it's very good paced, and I loved the way it was written. The most interesting thing comes in the end. I think it would be an amazing story, if the author decides to make a sequel.
I would love to know more about watchers, the folklore, how the looks, their story. I've missed some tension here, I didn't feel fear, and I would love to. But at the end the book turned on something really really good. Those last pages are wonderful .
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with this marvelous story.

Oh, I realllllly liked this. It was much more chilling than I'd initially anticipated, The plot was definitely nothing special, but the writing style is really great.

I really loved this novel, it has been added to my favourite books of this year. Each chapter is intriguing in itself, the right amount of horror and suspense. I really liked how the characters were portrayed. I started this book at late and night and finished in the early hours of the morning; it was very hard to put down. At times it had me looking over my shoulder, it is very fast paced and has you questioning each dilemma. Very good plot which engages you in and keeps you feeling on the edge of your seat. A really good must read for fellow book readers. Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and A.M. Shine for letting me be able to read and review this amazing book. 5* and would recommend.

I love a good horror story and this is a classic one! A.M. Shine is an Irish writer that sets him characters in an unmarked forrest, hard to find, and even harder to leave.

Mina is a hard up young woman with few connections in the world. She volunteers to drive a special bird to a new buyer for a bit of cash. On her way, her car breaks down without notice in the forest near Galway. She comes across a small group of survivors who break the news to her quickly - the forest is filled with "watchers" and they can never leave.

If you like the classic horror story (with an Irish twist!) and survivor type books, this is a great novel for you. Creepy and scary and great for a late night read. Thank you to #NetGalley and Head of Zeus Books for the ARC in exchange for a fair review.

In a dark dark wood ★★★☆☆

When her car breaks down outside a dense forest in Connemara, Mina finds herself in a twisted nightmare.

In the forest monsters roam after dark: the eerie Watchers with their claws and their screams. The only sanctuary is the mysterious cabin with the mirrored window. Once the warning light comes on, they must remain inside until dawn.

With little food and no escape tensions fray between Madeline, the leader, and the weaker Daniel and grieving Ciara. What secrets is Madeline hiding and can she be trusted? What are the Watchers and who built the cabin?

The language is overly literary and obscure at times which gets in the way of the raw horror of the story and it was also difficult to get a sense of the timeline and of the bonds which supposedly form between the characters. However, the story is strikingly original with multiple twists and the ending left me with goosebumps.

A spooky and literary horror steeped in myth and folklore.

The Watchers is a good Halloween read! The first few chapters are intriguing enough to keep you reading. The setting, also, is definitely spooky and the writing is brilliant.

This was such a creepy and chilling read that I loved even more as it is set in my home town and where I still have family living. It was atmospheric, Gothic and had everything that a spinechilling Irish tale should have. I loved this book

I did not finish - I have tried reading this book on multiple occasions and just could not get into it.

The plot here had promise. Who are the watchers? What’s this coop place? Who built it? But the story fizzled out for me. From the beginning it was too clear where the plot was going and I was disappointed in the predictable ending. Not much scary or creepy here either. The cover gives too big of a clue.

Thank you Aria & Aries, NetGalley and Author for this advance ebook copy in return for an honest review!

The Watchers is such a fast paced, compelling read, I relished every moment!
With its excellent plot and comfortable pacing, I had difficulty putting this book down between chapters!
Prodigious character portrayal and suspense is well-maintained throughout the story I wanted to finish this book at 2am to see how this book ended! I sure hope there is a second book!
An absolute must read!
5 stars very well deserved here!

Thanks again NetGalley, Publisher and Author for the chance to read and review this amazing book!
I'll post to my Social media platforms closer to pub date!

I literally read this book in one sitting one morning . Impossible to put down, this is classic horror, beautifully written and seriously creepy.

Imagine if Quiet Place and Body Snatchers had a more terrifying baby and you might get a sense of this. It has all the feel of an original Grimm fairytale, not the Disney version but the deeply disturbing kind, where monsters are real and life is a battle for survival against the coming of the night.

The characters are layered and engaging, the story itself unnerving and clever. I was so happy when I'd finished that I read it in daylight, fairly sure I would not have been able to sleep in the immediate aftermath.

If you like a genuinely disturbing read that is also addictive, intelligent and gives you a knockout ending then The Watchers will be for you.

Highly Recommended.