Watching Edie by Camilla Way

I would like to thank the publishers,  Harper Collins,  for sending my a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Watching Edie tells the story of two friends,  Edie and Heather,  although Edie would much rather keep that friendship in the past where it belongs.  Since she was a teenager,  Edie  has been dreading the day that she would see Heather again,  but now Heather has turned up on her doorstep and Edie find herself digging up memories of past events that she has tried to forget for so long.  Pregnant and alone,  Edie has to turn to Heather for help,  but deep down she knows that the past can't stay buried forever.  After all,  someone has to pay for what has happened in the past, the only question is: Who is going to be?

There are so many psychological thrillers  on the market at the moment,  it would be easy to think that Watching Edie would be just any of the others, but you would be wrong. The minute I started reading this book,  I found it very hard to put down,  finding myself saying: Just one more chapter.  Watching Edie is the most unsettling book that I have read this year.  I loved how the story is told in two different time frames and by both of the friends,  Edie telling the story from present day and Heather telling the story from back when the girls were teenagers.

Both the characters of Edie and Heather are brilliantly developed from the very first page there was something about Heather's character that I found especially unsettling.  As the story progresses,  we get to see glimpses into Heather's past and the more we find out the more unstable the character becomes.  I started off liking the character of Edie a lot,  but as the book goes on and I found out that there is more to her character than meets the eye,  I started to develop a deep disliking for the character.  I think this is what adds to the appeal of the book.  We learn that the two girls are from very different backgrounds,  Edie being from a single parent family,  where her mother doesn't really care about her or anything she does and Heather coming from an over protective family due to the tragedy they have suffered in the past.  The contrast of the characters lives made it next to impossible to guess what had happened,  meaning that the end was a huge surprise.

Watching Edie is a brilliantly,  cleverly written psychological thriller that will get into your head and under your skin.  I never could have guessed the ending and being perfectly honest,  the ending made my blood run cold.  Watching Edie is unlike any thriller o have ever read before.  It is stunningly written and will make you keep turning the pages until you've closed the book for the final time.

I can't recommend this book enough.

4 stars