Watching Edie by Camilla Way

THERE ARE SOME FRIENDS YOU’LL NEVER FORGET… NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY 

BEFORE Edie is the friend that Heather has always craved. But one night, it goes terrifyingly wrong. And what started as an innocent friendship ends in two lives being destroyed. 

AFTER Sixteen years later, Edie is still rebuilding her life. But Heather isn’t ready to let her forget so easily. It’s no coincidence that she shows up when Edie needs her most. 

NOW Edie or Heather? 
Heather or Edie? 
Someone has to pay for what happened, but who will it be?

Watching Edie is one of those books that once you have finished reading you can’t help but sit there in utter disbelief. It was a sick and disturbing storyline but my curiosity made me keep turning the pages and although I knew something sinister lay ahead it still shocked me when the events were revealed.

The storyline alternates between Before which is told from Heather’s point of view and After which is told from Edie’s point of view which was a first for me but I think it worked really well in keeping the suspense and suspicion throughout the storyline as well as allowing us to build a picture of each of the girls from their own telling as well as through the eyes of each other.

In the BEFORE chapters we are taken back to when Edie and Heather first became friends when Edie starts at Heather’s school in Fremton. Edie is a natural beauty whereas Heather is one of those girls who never quite fit in anywhere but the pair strike up an unlikely friendship. Trouble begins when Edie meets Conner and falls head over heels for him but Heather is not happy about the new relationship.

In the AFTER chapters we fast forward sixteen years and after the girls having no contact Heather turns up on Edie’s doorstep but her arrival isn’t a welcome one as it brings back awful memories to the tragic event that happened all those years ago, but what does Heather want from her all these years later?

I was totally absorbed by the storyline and I ended up reading the whole book in one sitting having not been able to find a safe place to put the book down. It was one of those books that you just had to read one more chapter which soon lead to another and another as I desperately wanted to uncover what had happened between the girls to have kept such close friends apart all those years. Although it was quite obvious that something awful had happened it was in no way predictable what had actually occurred had me feeling equally shocked and disturbed. 

The author has such a clever way of creating characters who are very intriguing but also very callous even if I didn't realise the characters awful traits from the off. It seems wrong for me to say I enjoyed this book because I don’t think anyone could say they enjoyed such a sinister, dark and twisted storyline but yet it was thoroughly addictive and compelling almost like driving past a crash not wanting to look but being unable to stop yourself.

This was a really well written twisted psychological thriller that will have you sitting there with questions rolling around in your mind afterwards, I think this one will play on my mind for a while and will certainly get book groups something to talk about.

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