A Feast for the Eyes

Gr 9 Up–Crespo’s book invents a new cryptid, the Watcher, a creature with many eyes that feasts on secrets in Pine Cove, OR. Once it’s drawn to someone’s secret, its prey can feel it watching them, stalking them, and hunting them, until it either succeeds at its hunt or the truth is told. Awakened by Shay and Lauren arguing in the woods about their secret romance, it attacks Lauren. Shay gets away, but she can still feel it continuing to hunt her. In an attempt to prove its existence to the police, Shay approaches aspiring photographer Zoe Ramos for help capturing a photo of the creature. Angling for a photography scholarship, Zoe agrees, and together with their friends Jack and Parker, they launch a full-scale investigation to hunt their hunter. Full of mystery, tension, secrets, and action, this queer horror/thriller is a uniquely fun ride that explores themes of shame, identity, and the price of secrets. All four main characters are queer. Zoe is Latina, and Parker uses they/them pronouns.