A psychological YA thriller set in a high school? YES PLEASE. Here for the premise and the mystery (but not always for the psych thriller aspects). I don’t love gaslighting also this was very out there though so that’s why I took it down a few stars.

Kelly Armstrong never disappoints. So fun, interesting and engaging. Classic mystery story with great chemistry and plotting

Gripping and will have you asking yourself what precisely is going on with these teens. Complicated but never feeling as if you're left in the dark. Armstrong does not disappoint.

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada, Tundra Books And NetGalley for an arc edition of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A mystery from the start! This one pulled me in mostly because I just wasn’t quite sure what the heck was going on…. Mysterious memories that don’t add up. Nightmares of blood and murder…. A school of STEM students.

The story takes place in a private STEM school that is run by a research lab where the majority of student’s parent work. A small group of friends are thrown into chaos when the principal is found dead with one of the group, Gabrielle, in his office. Quickly minds unravel when Gabrielle seems to have lost her mind and starts accusations that her parents aren’t her parents and the cameras are always watching them. This event leads Blythe to try to help her friend and to figure out what is happening at her school. Strange happenings start to expose secrets that the students are shocked to find out.
As a YA this was well done and would be enjoyed by adults as well. No whiny teenager attitudes or silly romances. Just a twisty and well written mystery with unreliable narrators.

I loved the chemistry between Blythe and her friends. And did not guess the twists. I've read a lot of Kelly Armstrong books and liked all of them. This was a little too sci Fi for me though. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an Arc of this.

I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this book. I have loved the authors previous YA thrillers but this one was very different and didn't leave me with the same feelings I have when I have finished her other books. It was an interesting story but just not what I was expecting.

Starts off with a pretty interesting relationship between the two friends Blythe and Tucker, though later on the rift between them is revealed, we can see clearly that tucker never stopped caring.

Books with childhood friendships turn sour are always so interesting, cause what once felt comforting can quickly turn frightening.

Blythe and her friends are characters you will want to follow as they recount their tale.

Blythe attends a private STEM school run for children of a tech company’s employees. She has a close group of friends there, including brother and sister Tucker and Tanya. But her parents haven’t allowed her to spend time with Tucker for a few months since an act of violence. Most of the adults refer to him as troubled or dangerous. But she knows he’s not what everyone thinks and she can trust him.

One day, another good friend flips out in class and is taken to the principal’s office. Blythe is confused about what would cause Gabrielle to act so strangely. She goes to a room where she has learned she can overhear conversations in the principal’s office. What she hears disturbs her and she races to the office, where she finds Gabrielle covered in blood, right next to the bloody body of the principal.

Blythe gets knocked out, and when she comes to, she’s forgotten what happened. The school is saying the principal killed himself and Blythe got a concussion falling in the bathroom. She believes it, but little things don’t seem quite right as days go by. Something is wrong, isn’t it?

In talking to her friends, Blythe starts finding out they’ve experienced some odd memories and dreams. And as they begin trying to unravel the mystery of Gabrielle’s disturbing behavior (that’s just not like her at all), they turn up some very odd things indeed.

It turns out they can’t trust their memories, themselves, or each other. But even if they face danger or secrets that may destroy them, Blythe, Tucker, Tanya and several friends are determined to finally get the truth.

Someone Is Always Watching is a gripping book. First, there’s the mystery to solve of what exactly is going on. When that becomes clear to the reader, and a likely explanation to the characters for what they’re experiencing, they face the hard work of proving it. And they must figure out who is betraying them. The book is a page-turner until the end, with mystery and thrills throughout. The story explores some interesting ideas that I can’t talk about at all without spoilers.

I am normally a HUGE fan of Kelley Armstrong....but this one was a "meh" for me. It could be a great concept but the execution didn't do it for me. Blythe is the overachieving perfectionist every parent dreams of but still maintains a close friend group. When her best friend Gabby starts freaking out about "the cameras" always watching her and then does something else so bad that steps are taken to make sure no one, even Blythe and Gabby herself, remembers what happened by tampering with their memory.

As the mystery evolves it's revealed that several of the friend group have not only had early memories tampered with, they actually were involved with some deaths. The problem is, all of the parents work for the CMT Corporation which is a research company and Blythe and Tucker find out they are part of an experiment.

I didn't have trouble getting through the book, which reaffirms my belief that Kelley Armstrong is a great writer, but everybody has a miss once in awhile.

I thought, possibly due to the cover, that this was going to be a standard murder mystery novel, although I was interested to see what the legend Kelley Armstrong would do with the genre. This is actually a little closer to a sci-fi thriller, as Blythe and her friends try and unravel what the organisation CMT has done to them.

Overall this is good, and I liked that it was somewhat of a multi-POV, occasionally giving us insight into what the other characters are thinking and feeling. I did think this could be a little messy at times though, and I was confused when Blythe's sister seemed to disappear from the story at the half way point, only being referenced by the other characters, almost as if she was an actor that had left the show.

The ending was a little too stereotypical after the big reveals for me, I'm not the biggest fan of single culprit reveal endings, where we have to sit through the explanations of why they did what they did while everyone kinda yells at each other. I did like the story overall though, as the rest seemed quite unique.

“I can be a good and moral person who is also a coward, or I can do something bad in pursuit of something good.”

Blythe and her friends have always been tight-knit until an act of violence last year drove a rift between Blythe and Tucker. The rest of them have drifted apart. Gabrielle, Blythe’s best friend, has been acting strange, which culminates in the vice principal’s office, covered in blood. Gabi doesn’t remember it, and neither does Blythe. As Blythe tries to help her friend, she sort of gets the band back together, but this time, more than friendship is at stake.

This YA psychological thriller is full of intrigue and a little murder. It’s got queer rep (including ace/aro, which is not always common) and neurodivergent rep, which I love to see. It’s a mystery with short chapters that flips between characters. There’s a tiny bit of a love triangle but not enough to detract from the overall story. Do recommend.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and to Tundra Book Group for access to an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book...this book was a trip. In, like, the best possible way.

Blythe and her friends have grown up together, always sticking close together, and despite her reputation as the goody-two-shoes of the group, they've always had each other's backs--especially Blythe and Tucker. But when things went wrong one night that led to most of the town viewing Tucker as violent and dangerous to be around, including his own father, Blythe's parents tell her to stay away from him. They stay in contact somewhat, but the group begins to drift apart, kind and shy Gabrielle and good girl Blythe sticking close while Tucker and his rebellious sister Tanya carry on as best as they can.

But when strange things start to happen with Gabrielle--paranoid whispers about being watched over lunch and angry rants in class--and everything comes to a head when their vice principal dies in a sudden and violent way and Blythe hits her head and loses her memory of that afternoon. As life seems to get back to normal only to spiral out of control again, Blythe and her friends have to come together to help themselves, their friends, and their families, to solve the mystery of what's going on in their town and with the kids in it.

Without giving anything away, this book presented such an interesting, cool idea and did an amazing job presenting it. Watching the kids all go through the steps of figuring things out and seeing the ways their discoveries sat with them and changed their lives was such a cool way to experience the narrative. And the way Kelley Armstrong wove both psychology and capitalism into the suspense of the story made the pacing and the atmosphere *so much fun*. Honestly, I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, suspenseful read, despite the fact that it turned out to be a lot less scary and 'thriller'-coded than I expected going in. All I can say is check your trigger warnings.

TRIGGER WARNINGS (that I can recall) : mention of sa, child sa, death, mention of suicide, gore, murder, abuse by a parent. neglect by a parent.

2.5 stars
This one was not for me. The story follows a group of teens who attend a private STEM high school. When one begins to act erratically, killing their principal, the group starts to search for answers. They soon find files on each of them learning secrets of their pasts before their memories had been wiped. This was definitely an over the top, off the wall story line that seemed redundant causing the story to drag.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me access to this arc.

3.5 stars/5

Things I loved:
Quick read - easy to devour
Thriller!!!!
Loved how the story explored psychology of mistrust and gaslighting

Things I didn’t love:
Prefer her adult thrillers
A little strange

Kelly Armstrong delivers an interesting YA thriller. She once again captures your attention with a creepy mystery about of the teens at a private STEM school.

Kelley Armstrong does it again. Suspenceful and dark, this book showcases how one situation can change a friendship.

I have been on a nonfiction kick recently and this one stood out for many reasons. I loved the honesty and emotion. I felt like I was in the moment with the author and I felt like the articulation of the circumstances were easy to understand which I appreciated with such a complex issue.

This was a fun and quick read. I did find it to be predictable at times. I was interested in seeing how things progressed but wish there had been more development on characters so I could feel attached! I really did not care too much for any of the characters. Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC.

Firstly, I want to say thank you to Kelley Armstrong and her team for sending me this ARC. I feel very grateful! I was super excited to read this YA thriller. The story follows Blythe & her friends. Her and her friends were always close, but when an conflict occurs with Blythe and Tucker, random flashes of thoughts and nightmares start happening. These cracks in their thoughts open up a whole can of worms. And if they can't trust their own memories, how can they trust each other?
The plot of this book had a lot of potential. Right off the bat, I feel like they rushed through a lot of important parts of the story, but they also added extra plot points that weren't necessary. I really liked the friend group, with their different personalities and memories. This reminded me a bit of the book, "This is Not the Jess Show". It's not exactly the same, but felt similar.
While I've never read anything by Kelley Armstrong before, I look forward to seeing her other work. She has a great writing style, so that was not the problem with the book at all. I love psychological thrillers, and if the plot went a little differently, I would have LOVED it. Overall, 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this book.

Just began getting into reading thrillers and this one did not disappoint! The plot was not what I was expecting but it did not disappoint.