We Watch You is the story of four friends: Lauren, Jessica (Jess), Claire, and Tina. Except after something that happens Tina is outed as Lauren, Claire, and Jess distanced themselves from her. Now, Tina has gone missing, too, a development that Lauren, at least, thinks maybe her fault.

No-one knows whether Tina has been kidnapped, murdered, or has simply vanished for reasons of her own. Lauren wants to solve the riddle and resolves to find out what happened to her ex-friend, but then sinister things begin to happening to the remaining trio.

I must confess that We Watch You wasn’t the easiest book to read. While Lauren is the putative narrator, other voices pop in here and there. Entries from Tina’s blog appear randomly, Claire writes letters to her dead parents and there are occasional observations from other shadowy characters that are, particularly in the beginning, difficult to identify. The shifts in viewpoint make following the story in a linear fashion a bit difficult.

Nominally, this is a book about a missing woman and how her friends react to her disappearance. But it isn’t a straightforward thriller. Twice, upon reaching a point the reader might assume is a logical conclusion, the story takes off in another direction. By the end of the book, it’s dabbled with dystopian and paranormal themes.

Another aspect of the book I struggled with is that it spends too much time in Lauren’s head. Lauren has autism which causes her to overthinks everything and overanalyze every situation. I found her frequent hand-wringing quite distracting from the plot.

You’ll have to like a certain type of story to enjoy We Watch You but it isn’t a bad book. It has good character development, and the main actors come to life realistically enough. However, given the author’s penchant for keeping secrets from the reader, it takes time for some of them to develop fully. By the end, though, I found myself fully invested in the fates of the three women, especially Lauren.

If you are into twisted tales with a touch of dystopia stirred in, you should give We Watch You a read.