Watch the Girls

by Jennifer Wolfe

Overview

Fame and obsession collide in this darkly twisted novel featuring a former Hollywood starlet with a devastating secret in this psychological thriller People magazine praises as "fast-paced and involving", from an incredible new voice in suspense.

I've been watched all my life. I'm used to being stared at. Observed. Followed.
SOMEONE IS WATCHING
Washed up teen star Liv Hendricks quit acting after her beloved younger sister inexplicably disappeared following a Hollywood party gone wrong. Liv barely escaped with her life, and her sister was never heard from again. But all this time, someone's been waiting patiently to finish what was started...

FOUR MISSING GIRLS
Now fifteen years later, broke and desperate, Liv is forced to return to the spotlight. She crowdfunds a webseries in which she'll pose as a real-life private detective--a nod to the show she starred on as a teen. When a mysterious donor challenges her to investigate a series of disappearances outside a town made famous by the horror movies filmed there, Liv has no choice but to accept.

FOLLOW THE WHITE WOLF
Liv is given a cryptic first clue: Follow the white wolf. And now a darker game is about to begin. Through social media, someone is leaving breadcrumbs to follow. As Liv makes increasingly disturbing discoveries, her show explodes in popularity. A rapt internet audience is eager to watch it all--perhaps even at the cost of Liv's own life...

Filled with provocative twists and turns as the line between plot and reality blurs in this inventive tour-de-force from breakout writer Jennifer Wolfe.
Incredible Acclaim for Watch the Girl:
"Fast-paced and involving." -- People

"Sibling rivalry and Hollywood obsessions collide...Fast-paced and fraught with suspense, WATCH THE GIRLS unravels like a perfect summer-night movie." -- BookPage
"Has all the nightmare fuel of great horror movie camp mixed with an absorbing mystery....There is no denying WATCH THE GIRLS is "nervously-eat-an-entire-box-of-cookies-without-realizing-it" good." -- Shelf Awareness
"A devastating novel that evokes Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch....This disturbing, surrealistic thriller will keep readers spellbound." -- Publishers Weekly

"Debut author Wolfe has created a compelling, sympathetic character in Liv...[This is] a psychologically dark ride through a twisted underworld of fame and desperation, a journey that will keep readers guessing until the shocking ending. " -- Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781478974246
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	07/10/2018
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	449,144
File size:	516 KB

About the Author

Jennifer Wolfe worked as a phlebotomist, a fiction writing teacher, a copywriter, and ran a concert venue before quitting to move to Los Angeles, where she performed odd jobs in the film industry for a decade. She now divides her time between Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. Watch the Girls is Jennifer's debut thriller. She also publishes young adult fiction under the name Jennifer Bosworth.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/28/2018
YA author Wolfe (as Jennifer Bosworth) makes her adult debut with a devastating novel that evokes Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch. In 2003, 17-year-old TV star Olivia Hill barely survives a car crash and the younger of her two sisters, 14-year-old Miranda, disappears. Flash forward to 2018. Olivia, rechristened as Liv Hendricks, finds herself at another crossroads after a blogger’s surreptitiously recorded video—in which she drunkenly vents about exploitation of women in Hollywood—goes viral and gets her fired from her acting gig on a Scooby-Doo knockoff reality TV show. Her response: crowdfunding a web series in which she’ll investigate real-life mysteries. That’s what brings her to Stone’s Throw, Calif., where she connects with legendary horror film director Jonas Kron, her biggest backer, who insists that she try to figure out what became of four young women who vanished from an area of the picturesque mountain village known as Dark Road. Then Gemma, Liv’s overbearing manager and perennially jealous sister, shows up—and disappears. Despite some plot reveals that stretch credulity, this disturbing, surrealistic thriller will keep readers spellbound. Agent: Doug Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Fast-paced and involving."—People

"One can't help but become ensnared...With dark woods, missing women, eccentric locals, unsettling wolf masks, secret messages and nighttime stalkers, WATCH THE GIRLS has all the nightmare fuel of great horror movie camp mixed with an absorbing mystery. ....There is no denying WATCH THE GIRLS is "nervously-eat-an-entire-box-of-cookies-without-realizing-it" good."—Shelf Awareness (STARRED REVIEW)

"A devastating novel that evokes Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch....This disturbing, surrealistic thriller will keep readers spellbound."—Publishers Weekly (STARRED REVIEW)

"Sibling rivalry and Hollywood obsessions collide...Fast-paced and fraught with suspense, WATCH THE GIRLS unravels like a perfect summer-night movie."—BookPage

"It's a fascinating set-up, and while it seems like it may be nothing more than a fun romp, don't let looks deceive you. This takes dark and unexpected turns, culminating in an ending fit for its own horror movie. Liv is a compelling protagonist with a distinct voice—snarky and vulnerable, tough and persevering-and the book as a whole takes clever swipes at the Hollywood culture that has pervaded our lives. I'm anxious to see where Wolfe takes us next-either with this character or the next. Frankly, I'm willing to follow her anywhere."—Crimespree Magazine

"WATCH THE GIRLS is one of those books—it gets under your skin and stays with you long after you've devoured the last page. It's the perfect dark, chilling thriller for the age of social media and ubiquitous reality TV that's anything but real. Jennifer Wolfe's damaged heroine toes the thin and ever-blurry line between truth and fake Hollywood glitz, right up until the devastating conclusion."—Nina Laurin, author of Girl Last Seen

"Make no mistake: Wolfe's got the goods. Timely, harrowing, and vividly imagined, WATCH THE GIRLS is a wild ride with style to burn."—Chris Holm, Anthony Award winning author of The Killing Kind

"Twisty, tense, and addictive, WATCH THE GIRLS is like a great horror flick, a classic mystery, and an edgy piece of social commentary-all wrapped up into one dark, delicious package. Jennifer Wolfe is a huge new talent. Welcome to the book everyone will be reading this summer."—Brad Parks, author of Closer Than You Know

"[A] campy debut thriller...with [a] twisty and twisted ending."—Kirkus Reviews

"Wolfe moves one step further and investigates voyeurism itself—both as a problem, and as a manifestation of curiosity....Playful and creepy...blurs boundaries between the real and the surreal."—CrimeReads.com

"Debut author Wolfe has created a compelling, sympathetic character in Liv, a scared, lonely woman who acts jaded and tough but grieves over a missing sister of her own. The author takes readers on a psychologically dark ride through a twisted underworld of fame and desperation, a journey that will keep readers guessing until the shocking ending."—Booklist

From the Publisher

2018-05-01
A TV actress has two missing sisters in this campy debut thriller by Wolfe.In 2003, Olivia Hill and her middle sister, Gemma, are co-stars on a teenage detective show, The Hills Have PIs, when their youngest sister, Miranda, disappears in Los Angeles. Fifteen years later, Olivia, restyled as Liv Hendricks, is a co-star of Bullsh?t Hunters, a reality show in which four friends "investigate" creepy phenomena, declaring "This one's bullshit!" whenever they uncover a fraud. After Liv is cut from the show for granting a too-honest interview to a blogger, she accepts an offer of $40,000 from "Red_Stranger," who she believes is independent film producer Jonas Kron. The gig is to investigate the real-life disappearances of four women from Dag Road in the "adorably twee" Central California town of Stone's Throw, where Kron created his shocking film The Girl and The Wolf. When Gemma unexpectedly arrives in Stone's Throw, claiming she's worried about Liv, and then disappears, Liv must step up her efforts to find out what happened to the missing women and save Gemma from their fate. Extended flashbacks reveal what happened to Miranda and intersect with the twisty and twisted ending. Some of the characters are one-dimensional, stereotypical, or little more than walk-ons, and the tone veers between comedic and deadly serious. Still, the story is fast-paced as Liv secretly films, texts, and tweets her way through bizarre encounters with a screaming mountain lion, howling wolves, animal masks, a blood-red house, a cabin in the woods, steamy sexual hookups, pie shops, and more.This novel revels in its weird creepiness and its roots in reality TV shows and horror movies. The conspiracy behind the women's disappearances pushes far past believability but doesn't detract from the fun.

Kirkus Reviews