A Book Review - The Watcher by Lael Littke (Point Horror)

I liked the idea of this, although the actuality of it could have been improved upon.

Catherine cares about one thing only: her soap opera. Everything in life revolves around watching the soap and being like Cassandra, one of the lead characters. When a cute new boy at school mentions that he enjoys the show and thinks that she looks just like Cassandra, she's even more determined to turn into a Cassandra-clone, cutting her hair the same way and wearing the same clothes.

But Cassandra is being stalked by someone intent on terrorising her, and soon someone starts stalking Catherine in identical ways. 

As I said, I liked the premise of this book, but I felt that the execution could have been improved upon. Catherine is kind of a non-entity; the only standout personality feature is her obsession with this soap opera. I'm not even sure that she HAS a personality other than that which is copied from Cassandra. The book feels choppy to me, and inconsistent with disparate elements. Catherine appears to be this shy, slightly odd girl with few friends - and then we find out she's also a cheerleader. (What?) Travis, the new guy and Catherine's love interest, seems to have a dark past that is alluded to and then basically ignored. The motivations for the villain seem to come out of nowhere. There are some interesting threads here, but they never quite weave together in any kind of regular pattern, and I feel that they should either have been developed or cut loose.

Verdict: Interesting plot, fell down a bit on the writing side.