I was a HUGE fan of Searcy's The Truth Beneath the Lies, but this book didn't meet my expectations. I found it difficult to get into the story, and early on, I could not connect with the main character. This made it hard for me to stay invested, and thus, I DNFed.

I found myself enjoying this thrilling roller coaster of a ride. I do with there weren’t so many characters, but because of the story line I enjoyed this one.

"Watch You Burn" by Amanda Searcy is a gripping young adult thriller that takes readers on a rollercoaster ride of suspense and mystery. Searcy masterfully weaves a narrative around the protagonist, Jenny, who stumbles upon a dangerous secret while working at a local library. As Jenny gets entangled in a web of arson, secrets, and intrigue, the tension builds, keeping readers on the edge of their seats.

Searcy's storytelling prowess shines through her well-crafted characters and the eerie atmosphere she creates. The book's exploration of themes such as trust, obsession, and the consequences of one's actions adds depth to the narrative. "Watch You Burn" is a thrilling page-turner that will keep readers guessing until the very end and is a must-read for fans of young adult suspense and mystery novels.

Watch You Burn follows a teen arsonist who is kind of on the run. This was a weird premise and I really was not a fan of it. It dealt with some pretty heavy topics in uncomfortable ways.

I didn’t dislike this book, I simply had no feelings at all about it. The story had potential but was convoluted with too many characters. Ultimately, it’s not something I can recommend.

I enjoyed this , though not as much as I had hoped. While the story was at points suspenseful, I was looking for just a little bit more. Jenny was likable enough as a character but something still put me off about her. TW for self harm in this book. Overall an ok read

This book was absolutely fantastic. I've already added it to our library collection on preorder and will recommend it to students.

I couldn’t get into this book. I tried multiple times and it just didn’t grab my attention. I skimmed through hoping something would grab me but nothing ever did.

WATCH ME BURN is exceptional! I was riveted from the very beginning. Ms. Searcy develops character in such a way that we simultaneously empathize but also ponder their attitudes and personalities. In other words, just as in real life, when we can't presume to truly know anybody, including ourselves.


The writing impels; the author's handling of the emotional roller-coaster of numerous characters, the secrets, suspense, and mystery; the big issues (abuse, abandonment, arson, pregnancy, emotional and psychological disorders, issues suffered by the homeless population); all combine to a story I couldn't put down. Generally I read multiple books simultaneously but not so here: my full concentration focused on WATCH ME BURN.

Watch You Burn started out decent and interesting enough, but it took a complete turn and lost me. I struggled to finish.

On the one hand, the way this ends is pretty true to life. No neat and tidy packages. Escape rather than resolution. Sometimes that's how it goes. THe bigger problems is that the whole plot feels pretty far removed from reality. We're not really making close connections with characters. They aren't people. They're a couple of traits thrown together. No one has clear motivations. It feels like "throw together a couple of dangerous, irrational people and see what happen"s.

I live unreliable narrators and anti-heroes but this...was just a mess. I managed to finish it because I couldn't seem to look away. I liked the writing but the plot and characters were too unstructured for me to actually love the book.

I don’t know how I feel about Watch You Burn. On one hand, I really enjoyed it. I stayed engrossed in the story for the first quarter of the book. The other hand? It fell flat and I wasn’t really shocked.

The only reason I continued reading is because I really liked Jenna’s character. She’s that unreliable type. Let’s hate her because she likes to set things on fire and isn’t to be trusted! I wanted to see her growth.

Many things in this story were very predictable and unbelievable. We can pretty much guess Jenna’s back story right away . . . the same goes for the male side characters, with their names escaping me.

The who-done-it was pretty obvious. This is one reason I rarely read psychological thrillers, because it’s always right there in my face. Most are never well done — although I have my favorite go-to authors.

I liked that we follow an arsonist. That’s a new element I’ve not seen in any young adult novel. It’s not an over done concept and I think that part was done well. Everything else, not so much.

I have no idea what this book is about. At all.

Nothing about the plot, the characters, or even the twist is worthy of mentioning. Oh, wait, in fact, there's only one special feeling I've never experienced when reading this book and that is: my very first time being so incredibly, unbelievably, amazingly oblivious towards everything happening in Jenny's story. Truth be told, Watch You Burn is definitely the most uneventful story I've ever came across throughout my bookish life so far and I'm seriously amazed by that. I mean, I tend to feel something while reading and this book successfully turns me into someone devoid of all the emotions ever existed. *shrugs*

Anyway, it's such a disappointment since I actually had a good time reading Amanda Searcy's previous work, The Truth Beneath the Lies. There's no way I'd recommend this book and I don't think I'll give her future works another chance anytime soon. #sorrynotsorry

The premise of the story is okay. I was curious to know where the story heads on somehow the pace is quite slow and I get distracted from my reading a few time. Jenny's character as I don't know, she just doing the same thing again and again. I try to like her but I couldn't but I don't hate her either. It's just a neutral feeling.

I loved the premise of this book and the beginning was really promising too. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.

I started this book and got about halfway through and just really couldn't get into it. It was well written and there wasn't anything wrong with the book per say, it just didn't draw me in enough to make myself want to finish it. I couldn't relate to the main character, Jenny, which isn't a dealbreaker, but it just didn't entice me.

For the most part this book had a really engrossing plot. The plot was so intriguing that I couldn’t put the book down! I felt that the book had some really interesting characters and I liked how developed they were and I liked how the book turned out. It was a really good mystery with some twists I didn’t see coming and it certainly kept me on my toes!



However, I did feel that the book was really hard to get into and it can be offputting for some readers. I think that the main difficulty of the book is that it’s really slow paced and stuff is draw out unnecessarily long in my opinion. I felt that the this book didn’t have a lot of reread potential as well and the book didn’t make sense for in my opinion for some of the things that occurred in this novel.



Verdict: Twisty windy mystery galore!

This book is a mixed bag of feelings for me. Jenny is a highly unreliable character with a taste for fire, lies to cover her tracks, and danger follows her everywhere she goes. It took me awhile for to get into due to the fact nothing really happened till almost halfway through the book which was disappointing.

This story had a lot of promise due to the fact Jenny was trying to get a new start with her father in a new town after causing trouble in her former hometown and causing a police investigation because of her love of setting fires. Despite the fresh start, Jenny is a pure brat. I felt no sympathy for her whatsoever. The fact murders begin to occur around her new home were connected to her past crimes - I was anxiously awaiting the reveal of who was behind it all. Although, for me, it was predictable at midpoint and I wasn't interested in going much farther.

I'm into YA Thrillers, but this one needed work. I didn't fully believe Jenny wanted a fresh start. A character wanting to change will try harder to do so. Instead, she didn't change, not really. She kept her fire addiction at bay, yes, but she needed to change her whole attitude. I can't get behind a character like Jenny, I can't and for that I didn't give this a high rating. The whole story needed help. I didn't feel it like I normally do with thrillers.

Try it if you wish, but I don't think I'll be re-reading this one anytime soon....

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am aware this review is very late, and I apologize for that. I had some difficulties in late 2018 that resulted in a backlog of read and unreviewed ARCs that I am working through right now. I take full ownership of this, and I sincerely apologize.

Watch You Burn started off with so much potential. I had high hopes for the mystery, and I was intrigued by Jenny’s background and pyromaniac tendencies. However, about a third of the way through I began feeling the disappointment.
⭐⭐⭐
Synopsis:
Jenny didn't want to move to the creepy, possibly haunted town with her dad. But the cops are on to her, and the only way she can protect herself is by moving as far away from her hometown as possible and staying out of trouble.

But even after she moves, Jenny still gets the itch. The itch to light a match and then watch it burn.

It's something she hasn't been able to stop, ever since an accident years ago. Now, in a new town, Jenny has the strange feeling that someone is watching her every move. Will her arsonist ways be exposed? Or is the burning truth deep inside her a greater danger?

The Good:
Introductions were great! The tension between Jenny’s new life with her father and the regret for some unclear past actions was there, and I liked it.
Characters had potential. The family structure was there, and Jenny got a friend, great.
Jenny was immediately an unreliable narrator, which I liked in the beginning. The thing is, that has to be done well for me to connect with the characters, which brings me to...

The Bad:
After a while… the whole book started to feel disjointed. Jenny’s problems suffered from a lack of connection, and her actions in the present weren’t always clear enough for me to feel properly sorry for her or sympathetic to her case.
Lack of plausibility was another problem. There’s a bit of a mystery for Jenny which gives her a paranoid edge, except the clues leading back to her were obvious, and there were even witnesses to some of the things she did. That complete lack of observation from multiple people means that it’s not a funny coincidence or character trait anymore, it’s just boring and ridiculous.
All this just added up to a mildly enjoyable read. Points for creativity and a fun read, but not a book I could love immediately. 3/5 stars.