Watching Edie; Camilla Way
(NAL) Harper Collins - 2016
Watching Edie is a psychological thriller that takes place around London and it's a story that grabs the reader early on. Edie and Heather have a shared past and in their teens had been friends. Edie was the popular and confident one and, Heather was shy and overweight. Both girls came from fractured families but, then something happened to end the friendship. Full details are not know until the end of the novel but, the incident was significant enough to end their relationship.
Fast forward 17 years and Edie is a waitress, single and pregnant. After giving birth she is unable to cope with motherhood and its demands. She lives alone in a bare bones flat and can't even care for herself never mind newborn Maya. Just when she's at her lowest Heather shows up and, like a good friend might, she steps up to the plate and begins to care for Maya and Edie. Before long her helpful ways seem controlling and stalker like making Edie want to put space between them once again.
The chapters alternate from "before and after", Edie tells the present and Heather tells the past. As tension builds at times it's hard to discern who is more disturbed and then comes a shocker of an ending once all is revealed.
Readers who like an unsettling story should definitely give this one a try. At times the story felt a little bogged down but, it was still a terrific psychological thriller.
4/5 stars
(review copy)
