A Feast for the Eyes follows aspiring photographer, Zoe, as her world turns upside down when a classmate winds up in the hospital and claims the Watcher did it. The local cryptid has haunted their dreary Oregon town for decades and no one has gotten a photo. Zoe will be the first. With the help of her friend Parker, and Shay and Jack, two classmates who saw the Watcher, they’re going to get proof the Watcher exists and stop it from terrorizing their town.

I love a cryptid haunting a small town kind of story. This one was really fun and the concept of the Watcher was super interesting. I really liked the ending and how everything came together. It was a bit slower and more focused on the teens and their problems than I was anticipating. I think I wanted a bit more horror and thriller. It was still very good and had a lot of conversations and topics brought up about gender and being queer that I think a lot of teens will be able to relate to and hopefully find inspiration or comfort in.

I quite enjoyed the main four characters. They felt very found family by the end . Jack had great humour and I loved how protective he was. I really loved Zoe and Shay’s relationship. It was so sweet. Both girls were great main characters and I really loved their growth and where their story ended. They were very realistic and relatable. Parker was so great too and what they going through was crazy. I really liked how strong they were and what they overcame.

Overall, if you love coming of age stories with a cryptid haunting a town, I’d definitely recommend this one!

Thank you to Netgalley and Peachtree Teen for the arc!

👹📷🌲🌊🌈 When someone describes something as being like Twin Peaks, I'm there for it. A Feast for the Eyes has all the makings of PNW teenage noir: drizzly fall days, danger lurking in the forest, supernatural beings, secrets beyond secrets on top of secrets...

😶‍🌫️ In addition, Alex Crespo's second novel digs into the social and emotional minefield of coming out (or not) in high school. Characters encounter supportive friends -- or are they more then friends? -- along with equally unsupportive school staff and teammates. The twin pressures for characters to be true to themselves and to not stand out weigh heavily throughout the book.

🌚 Unfortunately, this book didn't really do it for me. I still have plenty of good things to say about it (NB representation! Friends supporting each other through hard times! Young people taking care of business when adults refused to do anything!) but it felt slow to me. It was also hard to suspend my disbelief at some elements of the setting (a high school where people can peace out of class without getting chased down by admin/security? A northwest coastal town where most families are incredibly wealthy, including teenagers driving literal Bentleys? Low taxes in Oregon?!) I know some of these complaints are nit-picky, but they still distracted me. Nonetheless...

👍🏻 Would recommend to young people looking for tales of non-Bigfoot local cryptids, navigating gender/sexual identities, or generally looking for lightly spooky autumnal ~vibes.~ Target audience is high school, but this could totally play in middle school as well. Will be getting a copy for my high school library.