Watching Edie by Camilla Way

Heather and Edie.  Friends since high school but total opposites.

Heather was the studious, compliant one. Edie was not interested in school and was rebellious.

Heather and Edie met in high school and went their separate ways, but did they? 

Heather showed up at Edie's flat many years later and noticed that Edie was pregnant, but Edie sent her away.  Edie wonders how Heather found her and if Heather had been watching her for years. 

After Edie's daughter is born, Heather appears again but Edie let her stay this time to take care of the baby because she couldn't handle her new responsibility.    Both girls came from unstable families. 

Ms. Way was masterful in her organization of the book and also kept me on edge the entire time I was reading. You never knew what Heather was going to do, and you feared for Edie as well as feared for Heather herself.

The theme and mystery of what happened that tore the friends apart was quite cleverly weaved into the story and kept from the reader until the very end.  I do have to say that I really didn't like either of the main characters. They both made terrible choices in their lives.

I actually was fearful about many of the situations they involved themselves in.  Most of the situations were unsafe and poor choices on the part of the characters, and these choices had me nervously turning the pages.

Ms. Way addressed many social issues such as drinking by teenagers, drug abuse, domestic abuse, and mental illness.

I wasn't sure at first if I was going to like the book because the characters definitely led risky lives and made me nervous.   I didn't put the book down, though, because I wanted to know what became of the two main characters.

WATCHING EDIE definitely is a tense, but a well-written debut. 4/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.