Skywatchers by Carrie Arcos was pitched as historical sci fi perfect for fans of Stranger Things and I was immediately intrigued. Set in California in the summer of 1952, it follows a group of students in a volunteer school program known as Operation Skywatch. The Skywatchers meet every week and watch the skies for Russian bomber planes and call in anything that they see. One night, they spot a strange green light that they follow into the woods. A couple of days later they come stumbling out one at a time, disoriented and unaware of how much time has passed. None of them can remember what happened, but they each have a strange bump behind their ears and unexplained skills they didn’t have before. Despite not really being friends before going into the woods, the four of them feel inexplicably drawn to one another. I do not want to provide too much detail and spoil this one but just know that it is SO GOOD. I stayed up way past the point of exhaustion two nights in a row to race through it because I had to know what was going to happen. Skywatchers is out next week and I highly recommend it. The biggest thanks to @penguinteen for the advanced review copy.

***I was granted ARC of this via Netgalley from the publisher.***

Skywatchers by Carrie Arcos is a story about a group of teenagers that encounter something strange in the sky one night while participating in the Skywatchers program which in the midst of the Cold War was a way civilians kept an eye on the sky for Russian threats. Investigating the strange lights 4 of the group disappear and when only 3 of them return with no memory of what happened to them questions abound. The story then follows the reuntied group as they try to piece together what happened and find their missing friend. This book was an ok read. The characters were interesting enough for me to care about their progress throughout the story and their backstories were interesting too. However, I felt like there wasnt enough tension in the book to have me worried enough about the characters to turn this into a page turner of a read. Still a book that I think many will enjoy and I'd recommend this to its target audience.

Rating: 3/5 stars. Would recommend to a friend.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for a Netgalley ARC to review!

This book is set during the Cold War, and follows a group of high school students who join a Skywatchers club. Their job is to watch the sky for signs of Russian missiles, but they never imagined they would become entangled with a UFO mystery instead. This book is a historical fiction, as well as a sci-fi.

Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. I loved the idea of a historical fiction, and I loved the idea of a UFO story set during this time period. However, I feel like the book didn't really pan out on either of those descriptions.
However, I do think that my complaints are things that other readers may not be bothered by, and I see this book has gotten a lot of love from other reviewers. So I would still say that if it sounds interesting to you, give it a shot. The writing is nice, the story is intriguing, and the characters are interesting if you're able to connect with them.

The things that made me not fully connect with the story, I think, were a result of the story spreading itself too thin and not developing the important aspects of itself.
As a historical fiction, there isn't much sense of time or place. We're aware of the time period and location because we're told, but there isn't much of an atmosphere. Aside from the mentions of the Red Scare and the recent end of WWII, readers are not really exploring or being immersed in this time period.
As a UFO mystery, there wasn't much exploration of aliens or extra-terrestrial phenomenon, and the mystery was more of a time waster than anything else. We know it's aliens from the beginning. It's in the synopsis, its in a blurb on the cover of the book. And yet, we spend fully 60% of this book beating around the bush while the kids wonder what happened to them and where they were. Then we are briefly transported to a futuristic sci-fi scene for a few chapters before the book ends, but the vibe never really connects with the mid-century UFO phenomenon feeling.
It just didn't work for me, historically or extra-terrestrially.
In addition, I felt the characters and the relationships between them were not given enough room to develop or make me feel attached. One exception to this was John, who I will say I had a good sense of his personality, and loved that the book acknowledged Japanese internment camps through him and his family's past. Throughout the book I felt like I knew who John was. I knew things about the other characters, but I didn't feel like I ever got the chance to get to know them.
I think ultimately this book was trying to do a lot of different things, but didn't fully engage with any of them.

However, as I said, I think there are still things to enjoy in this book, and I expect that many people would love it!

Skywatchers by Carrie Arcos combines science fiction, historical fiction, time travel, mystery, suspense, and a bit of mythology that throws you into the galaxy!

The story features several different and unique teenagers. While they don’t normally all get along, they all gather at night to watch the sky as part of the Skywatchers Club. From there you learn a little about Cold War era history and culture through the lenses of each character. I was anxious to know the whole time what happened, and Arcos kept me wondering.

For about the first 15-20% of the book, I struggled a bit to find interest. I wanted the story to pick me up and whirl me into space. Once I got through the first fifth of the book, I could not put it down. The last 25% of the book kept me on my toes and guessing until the very end. It was the perfect blend of so many genres that I love.

This book was an amazing read. If you are into history and science, I highly recommend this book. I think readers who don’t typically read these genres would also enjoy it. While this book got a bit creepy in parts, it was never scary.

Trigger Warning: Death of people under 18 years old.

Overall rating 4.75 stars.

I received an electronic advanced reader copy from Penguin Teen through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

Y’all... this book!! As an avid fan of Stranger Things I KNEW I had to have this book when it was suggested for people who enjoy that show. They were not wrong. While this book starts out slow, it is well written and you learn a lot about the characters in the beginning. I was on the edge of my seat (figuratively not literally) while reading this because I knew there was going to be some aliens or something from another dimension coming. The reader is kept in the dark for most of the book but that is because the characters are as well. We find out things at the same time and despite the clues that I am sure were there for the characters and the reader, I was completely caught off guard when the big reveal happened. I wish the ending was paced slower since the rest of the book was but it was good. The only way for this to have been paced slower at the end would be if the author decided to make it into a series but as it is now, that is not necessary. Well done. Would recommend.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me early access to this title. A more thorough review will be posted on my blog and goodreads soon.

I could not put this book down! When I heard that this book was similar to Stranger Things, considering I just finished the series, I knew I had to dive in. I really enjoy the third person POV in books. I feel like we get to know the characters in a much deeper way than a one sided POV. There wasn't a character that I didn't like. Teddy and the gang are members of a group called Operation Skywatch, and they help protect the country by watching the skies from invasion. Very quickly a mystery begins to unravel and it's up to a group of high schoolers to save everyone. When they go to investigate a green light in the forest... they disappear. I don't want to say too much due to spoilers but trust me, don't skip this book.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes scifi! I love the UFO vibes and the timeframe of the 50s. I hope everyone pushes to read this book because I really loved the balance of scifi and the mystery!

Skywatchers is about a group of teens in a small town on the coast of California who join a club called the Skywatchers where they’re trained to take shifts watching the skies for incoming missiles from Russia. One night while in their lookout tower they spot a strange aircraft. This is unlike any plane they have ever seen, it disappears and reappears, travels faster than anything possible and is a weird shape. They see it go down in the woods and so they go investigate. Over 24 hours later they start to come out of the woods one by one, completely confused with no memory of being gone at all and one of their Skywatcher friends is still missing. What was that plane and where were they while they were missing?? Could it be aliens or Russian spies? This was a super fun quick read that reminded me of Stranger Things! I think if the Duffer bros got ahold of this it would make for a binge-worthy Netflix series! 3.5/5 stars for some elements that were a little unnecessary in my opinion but overall really enjoyed this!!

I need this book to get more buzz! This was such a great book. I had so much fun reading it. I loved the characters, the setting, and the story itself. This book was hard to put down and I can see this book being adapted for a TV series. It was quite the page-turner.

I still struggled with how to talk about this one.

But I finally came to a conclusion about what my real issue was here, and the answer might surprise you.

But first and foremost—the preliminaries. Thank you very much again to Penguin Teen for sending me the eARC of this book. I appreciate it, as always.

The basics: Skywatchers is a YA novel by Carrie Arcos about a group of teens living on the West Coast in the year 1952, at the height of Cold War tensions. The teens are a part of a group mobilized by President Truman called Operation Skywatch or the Civilian Ground Observer Corps, in which civilians take rotations--you guessed it--watching the sky for possible incoming threats from the country’s Russian enemies. They are trained in what to look for and reporting procedures and provided with a line to an operator where they call in any sightings of anything in the U.S. airspace.

One night while on post watching the sky, the group sees a strange color-changing light that seems to land very nearby their post in the woods, and four of them head out to investigate it…only to disappear. When three of them are finally returned to their sleepy seaside town, struggling to recover their own memories, they have no idea how their lives have been and will be changed forever.

Penguin refers to this book as genre-bending, and I couldn’t agree more. While it definitely leans toward sci-fi, it’s also historical fiction, and I loved the blending and blurring and incorporation of the two, which I think the author did an excellent job with, to be honest.

It sounds awesome, right? Okay, so here’s my biggest complaint about this book:

There needed to be more.

There was so much good stuff to explore here. SO MUCH. This absolutely could have and should have been a full series of books going more in depth, but it seems like we should have been laying that groundwork already. I can see how perhaps this could have been difficult to query or even publish and maybe this isn’t even the type of thing a lot of audiences would go for these days, but I know I would have been all. Over. It.

There’s a lot to like about this book. A LOT. First of all, the overall concept. I mean?!?! If you’ve know me at all, you know I’m super into aliens, UFOs, the ideas of other dimensions and interplanetary travel—all of that. So to see that in a YA novel was so exciting. This is something that’s different and unique. Sometimes readers can get stuck in a bit of a rut with YA, going back to the same genres and ideas repeatedly, so it was a huge breath of fresh air to see something new and cool that we don’t talk about in this particular sphere all the time. Plus, the addition of the concept of the looming doom of the Cold War and living in this time period where things are so uncertain made things even more new and refreshing. I was just so excited to see something go outside “the norms” if you will and explore some different realms (uh, pun intended).

So excited in fact, that I wanted more of it.

There’s a lot in this book. There’s so much cram-packed into this one story. Not only is there the alien aspect, and the UFOs, and the mystery of the abduction, but they’re also doing some really cool, interesting things with times and the concept of space-time and possibly co-existing dimensions or simultaneously existing realities. And on top of all that, the author also delves into concepts of love and friendship and death and loss, family relationships and struggling with what your family expects of you vs. what you want for yourself, and she even tackles some difficult issues like racism and prejudice and even touches on the horrific issue of Japanese internment camps in America, which would have just been done away with shortly before this book tooks place, and which the one Japanese-American character and his family were, in fact, put in when he was a child, and which I assure you I did not once learn about in any of the several schools I went to as a child due to moving around a lot. Nope, I learned about that from guess where? Reading. And whenever I would mention it at school, other kids didn’t believe me that that was  a real thing that happened right here in the USA. Because it wasn’t. in. the history books.

But I digress.

The point is, there was a ton of interesting stuff in this book. But it was like getting one bite of a really good meal and then having the waiter sweep by your table and grab up your plate and take it all away.

There are a lot of characters in this book, but I think we were limited in getting to know them by how little room we had. There were so many of them, that I didn’t think everyone really got fair character development. It seemed like we really got to know and like a couple of the characters—like Bunny, who comes off as a bitch but is really just struggling with parental abandonment and having her life uprooted and moved across the country against her will (I mean, mood), or John, who has already been through so much in his young life and watched his parents struggle with endless prejudices as well as enduring his own, but still seems to have a smile and such a positive attitude. But other characters, we didn’t really get much out of. Like Frank, who kind of just got tagged as “the writer” and received very little development beyond that, or Oscar, who was more or less just “Frank’s sidekick.” There was even one character in this book who…I’m just being honest, I’m not even sure why she was there. I realize other people’s opinions might differ, but I couldn’t even figure out what purpose she served and I think the book would have functioned exactly the same without her existence.

But in addition to that, it was like the first 75% of the book is spent on what I felt was the build up. The seeing the strange light and then trying to figure out what the heck is going on. But once they do figure out what the heck is going on, it’s like oh my god. Mind blown. Big explosions. THIS IS WHERE THE GOOD STUFF IS. So good. I want to be careful what I say so as not to give away huge spoilers, but this is what I want, and it all kind of just gets brushed over as it feels like we rush toward the end of the story. I want to hear about their lives, I want to hear about the aliens, the alien technology, the thin spaces between dimensions and the kind of wavering boundaries of time/space and the cool ways they’re playing with them in this story. I want more of that, not 75% of this wondering what happened. All the fun stuff just gets brushed aside, even by the characters as they speed through the end of the book with hurried asides of “there’s no time to explain!” to the other characters in the book, which just feels like an excuse to not get into the good parts. I want there to be time to explain. Which there would be…if this were a series.

Maybe it still could be. Maybe it will be. What do I know?

So, I’m still going to give this four stars, I guess. It doesn’t feel right not to. But I want to be clear, I am giving it these stars for the concept, the uniqueness, the overall ideas. Writing a book is hard, and this was new and different and exciting to read, and it had aliens and UFOs, so, yeah, I’m giving it four stars. But at the end of the day, I just wanted more development and I think it suffered from getting curtailed too quickly. It was curtailed by being a standalone. That’s where I’m at.

I do think that this would be a really good place to start for people who are just getting into this genre or who are new to the ideas and discussion of UFOs and aliens, especially young adults who are just dipping their toes into sci-fi and don’t want to be overwhelmed or take on too much too quickly. And again, just what a relief to see something new and different. Penguin seems to be doing an excellent job taking on a range of different things for young readers, and I have to give them credit for that.

Wow. What did I just read? SKYWATCHERS is a totally unique book – what I ended up reading was so far from what I thought this book was going to be, but in the absolute best way.

This is very much a retro sci-fi story, so Stranger Things comparisons are apt, although this is set in the early Cold War era. There is a ton of exposition in the first few chapters, but stick with it. After a shocking death, the rest of the book takes off and you will be completely engrossed until the end.

It’s incredibly hard to talk about this book without spoiling the incredible surprises. So, here is what I can tell you:
- There’s a major mystery that will keep you guessing for most of the book
- While it may not seem like it at first, this is some SERIOUS sci-fi
- Chapters rotate through multiple POVs, which is really fun
- Teens were realistic teens, and when they weren’t, well, there was a reason

I am so thrilled to have had an opportunity to read an early version of this book. This isn’t a title I may have picked up normally, but I know I will be thinking about for days. Definitely recommending this to all the Stranger Things fans out there. If you can stick through the first couple chapters, you will be in for the ride of your life.

Huge thank you to the Penguin Teen Influencer program, Philomel Books, and Netgalley for providing this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Prior to receiving the Penguin Teen influencer Fall 2020 ARC email I had not heard about Skywatchers by Carrie Arcos. The cover immediately caught my eye so I had to check the book out. I was super intrigued by the plot.

Skywatchers tells the thrilling story of a group of teens in the 1950’s who are a part of the “Operation Skywatch” club. Their job is to watch the skies for enemy aircraft. The club is pretty boring, at least until one night when a strange light appears in the sky. Four of the teens go to investigate, but they all disappear. The teens return, but all of their memories of the incident have been erased, and one of their group is still missing. Skywatchers is an exciting mystery that combines sci-fi and history.

Skywatchers was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed the suspense and the mystery! The story took a turn for me once the teens started to regain their memories. I liked the way the author went back in time to reveal what happened to the teens. I liked the big reveal, but everything happened very quickly. The reveal, the climax, and then the resolution felt very rushed.

Overall I really liked this story. It was a fun mystery that is outside my normal realm of reading. I enjoyed the suspense and the sci-fi aspects. The ending was just too rushed and resolved too easily. However, it was still super fun and exciting!

SKYWATCHERS WILL BE RELEASED ON AUGUST 18TH BY PHILOMEL BOOKS & PENGUIN TEEN.

This one is a future re-read!

Science fiction is something I have been reading more and more lately and "Skywatchers" by Carrie Arcos is just what I needed right now! This novel has the feel of Stranger Things, Super 8, and a smidge of Star Trek. The four main characters Caroline, John, Bunny, and Teddy are so well written! I loved all the banter between the four of them. All four teenagers are very different, but it is a sort of "Breakfast Club" scenario where it all ends up working out perfectly.

Set in 1952, we are dropped into the era of the UFO hysteria. I cannot tell you how excited I was when "Project Blue Book" was mentioned! I am fascinated by all things PBB and getting another perspective on American life during the 50s UFO scare was excellent.

The main mystery that surrounds the three teens throughout the novel is a perfect example of a page-turner. I just needed answers! So many of the questions I had were answered, but after finishing it, I have even more! I hope we get more of this world at some time in the future!

My only problem is that I found the ending to be a bit rushed. I don't think there was enough time spent on the rescue and overall the conclusion could have been a bit more exciting as at times it was a bit anti-climatic.

4/5 stars!

I’ve been having trouble focusing on physical books, but SKYWATCHERS hooked me from the start. This YA book follows a group of teens in 1952 California. They have joined an after-school group where they literally watch the skies for abnormal activity. While anticipating something from Communist countries (like maybe an atomic bomb!), the teens see an unidentified flying object one evening. They enter the nearby woods to investigate, but not everyone returns.

The beginning of this story was by far my favorite part. Arcos packed the scene with vivid details that were all true to the 1950s America. From magazine covers to the real fears Americans were facing, I found the set up to be fascinating and well worth reading this book.

As the book goes on, the reader learns more about the characters and the effects of their time in the woods. I think the comparisons I’ve seen to Stranger Things made sense. Unfortunately, the ending lost me a bit. There was so much build up to what might’ve happened, the ending rushed through a somewhat wild and maybe unsatisfying ending. I STILL HAVE QUESTIONS!

Regardless, I’m glad to have been fully immersed in this weirdly-wonderful sci-fi historical fiction world. I’m excited to try out some of the other books by Arcos, as I learned she had been nominated for the National Book Award for a backlist title.

Thank you to @PenguinTeen for the advanced copy. I hope other readers enjoy getting lost in SKYWATCHERS, too.

(I will post my review on Goodreads and Instagram/Bookstagram closer to the publication date.)

This book was absolutely addicting! I stayed up super late two nights in a row because I literally couldn't put the book down. I was originally interested in this book because it was compared to Stranger Things, which is one of my favorite TV shows. I definitely see similar vibes between the show and this book. When I first started the novel, I wasn't positive if I was going to like it because it had a unique writing style using third person omniscient POV. We get to see into the minds of every single character and the first couple chapters felt like a giant info dump on each one. As I kept reading, I got used to the writing style and was able to understand why the author chose to write it this way. Once the book reached the catalyst, I was absolutely sold on this book. There was a mystery that developed that I genuinely couldn't figure out. That was my favorite part of this book. The mysterious, sci-fi vibes it exuded. So if you start this book and you feel conflicted about it at first, I highly encourage you to stick with it. Once the mystery is built up (pretty early on in the book as well), it is absolutely fascinating. A quick summary of this mystery is 4 teenagers seeing a mysterious light in the sky. They are a part of a club called the Skywatchers and they watch the sky in case there are Russian aircrafts that possibly appear with bombs (it is set during the Cold War). When they follow the light into the woods, the teens come out days later with no memory of what happened to them. And one of their friends never came back. I highly recommend you pick this book up when it comes out August 18th!

Unputdownable! I loved the story, I got very invested into the characters in a way I never expected to. The author wove science in with fiction in such a beautifully original way. I want more!! I can’t wait to buy a physical copy when it hits shelves in August!

** thank you to Penguin Teen & the author for my advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review**

Skywatchers was so fascinating! I wasn't fully sure what to expect coming into this book but I ended up really enjoying it. It was so interesting to read a YA novel set in the era of the Cold War and the UFO phenomenon.
I loved the plot twists and the gang of characters were so likable. I could fully see the Stranger Things vibes through the perfect mix of mystery and science fiction in a historical setting.
I was so into the story that I couldn't put this book down. I definitely stayed up way too late to finish it, but it was totally worth it!
Thank you so much to Netgalley, Philomel Books and the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Skywatchers blends history with mystery and science fiction. Such a combination should have plenty to interest readers. While the story has much to offer, it attempts to take on too many themes and ideas that impact the pacing, leaving the reader with a story that feels unbalanced.

The book starts out strong. Acros does fine job of weaving fiction with history, providing readers necessary context without having the story feel like an imposed history lesson. With the McCarren-Walter Act, the Ground Observer Corp, Project Grudge and perhaps even Project Blue Book to some degree, I’m sure that even some instructors might find themselves learning additional details about the federal legislation and government program initiatives that were in place during the 1950s.

Early on, Arcos also succeeds in offering readers glimpses into the science and technology of the times through her characters. Readers are introduced to a curious, passionate and well-read group of teens—teens who enjoy reading fiction—sci/fi, mystery, comics and the like—but also supplement their reading with books on programming, astronomy and physics, simply because they want to know and understand the science behind the stories that they’ve enjoyed. For them, it’s all new—a world full of mystery and discovery—and they want to be a part of it.

Yet when the mystery and sci/fi elements are introduced, the balance shifts. While the mystery is established early on, the book doesn’t offer very much in detail that would support and develop it, until the final third of the book. The reader is offered snippets of truth here and there, as the characters begin to remember what had happened; but these truths are not sustained by having the characters fully share and discuss them with each other. Readers might think this out of character, especially when recalling the characters’ passion and drive at the start of the story. The majority of the book tends to focus on character introspection: Readers are offered ample opportunities to reflect upon how different traumas can change one’s sense of self, and how this can impact beliefs, motivations and one’s sense of security. Though some readers might find this turn interesting, others may find these sections lacking enough drive to sustain the pacing of the plot, especially as the questions continue to mount.

The inconsistent pacing becomes more apparent when readers are offered a rapid-fire resolution, which some might find jarring. Events occur in immediate succession, leaving little time to offer compelling explanations and answers. History and science don’t necessarily offer much support to the mystery; there’s simply an acceptance, without the immediate drive to learn more. Readers who may find themselves comparing this sentiment to the sense of wonder in discovery that’s presented at the start of this book, might find such a turn of events disappointing.

Skywatchers was an unexpected book, and I completely enjoyed it. At first, it seemed like a period piece about life in the 1950s; times were simpler and the greatest threat came from a feared Russian Invasion during the Cold War era. The Skywatchers did their patriotic duty by watching the nighttime sky for Russian invaders.

As it turns out, Russian spies weren't the greatest threat facing the United States. One night, a group of teens is watching for enemy airplanes. It's a slow evening and three of them leave early. the teens that stay behind have their lives irrevocably changed. They see an eerie green light in the sky...and then they disappear. Bunny, Caroline, and John wander out of the woods within a couple of days. Teddy appears a couple of weeks later. None of them can remember what happened while they were missing.

Skywatchers was a suspenseful page-turner told with chapters sharing the viewpoints of the different characters. The teens were realistic young people with joys, troubles, hopes, and fears; you start to care about them and what happens to them. There were also some loose ends in the story, that might be answered in a sequel. Hopefully, we will get to spend more time with the skywatchers.