All Eyes on Us

These Kit Frick thrillers just keep getting better and better. It’s so rare for authors to truly nail dual POV with two female protagonists, but both Rosalie and Amanda’s voices drip off the page, the wholly compelling narrative of how their one commonality — boyfriend Carter — turns into a stalking case that intertwines their lives more and more. Both narrators are fully complex, compelling, breathing characters, Frick inviting us into each of their different searches for happiness and identity and watch as these futures are slowly unraveled within the thriller plot. Twists around every corner, a mystery that I ultimately didn’t see coming, and an extremely poignant look at both feminist and LGBTQ+ struggles and triumphs. And then, of course, Frick’s prose is gorgeous as always. Highly recommend!!

This is one of the best books Ive read in a long time. I stumbled across it, and curiosity took over. It has touched me in an unexpected and unexplainable way, one which I cant describe. I was nervous and afraid as I continued. My emotions are just raw.
We are more alike than we acknowledge, and this book proves it.

I LOVE this story, and all that Ive learned.
Thank you Kit Frick.

Ooooo did ALL EYES ON US surprise me, in more ways than one. I read the first chapter, which is Amanda, before going to bed and my initial thought was oh. A bunch of rich kids get played with? Meh. But I dont stop reading after ten pages, but I fully anticipated stopping around the 50 page mark. Nope. That did not happen.

The book is told in alternating points of view between Amanda, a rich girl who has her life all planned out with her equally rich boyfriend, and Rosalie, the lesbian stuck in a Christian cult who only wants to be with her girlfriend but is using Carter, Amandas rich boyfriend, to throw her crazy, culty parents off her scent while keeping Carter ignorant. Rosalies voice immediately grabbed me, such a compelling and horrifying situation. Amandas took a few chapters, but once that eggshell started to crack she became much more of a real person in a sad situation. The two girls ultimately mirror each other pretty well, each having been shoehorned into a role they didnt choose. Amanda just drank the kool-aid for a while.

I loved guessing who the texter was. And man, I thought I had it. NOPE. Didnt even see the ending coming, and I love that. It blew my expectations, literally kept me guessing, and surprised me at the end. Thats hard to do.

I just loved the writing in ALL EYES ON US. There was nothing crazy florid about it, but Frick just nailed these characters. Theyre so realistic and so engaging and compelling and I couldnt help be drawn into their stories. I read the book in great chunks, burning through pages like they were nothing. The thing is I didnt find the thrilling parts all that thrilling. Like they werent crazy high stakes (most of the time), there was no running or threat of physical violence (most of the time). So much of what was going on was emotional and played out in the realm of emotions. It just relied on excellent storytelling to get the plot from one cover to the other.

It doesnt happen often, but I absolutely adore when books do this to me. Just sneak up on me and surprise the hell out of me because of their awesomeness. And I totally would have never found this title either if it werent for me needing some comp titles for my query (this isnt going to be one of them, unfortunately, not the right fit) and stumbling across a post from Riveted pointing out all these great teen thrillers. The stars lined up and Im so glad they did.

4.5

A thriller about two girls tied to the same guy, and being harassed because of him, All Eyes of Us has a plot that leaves you guessing to the identity of their anonymous stalker. Amanda and Rosalie are both Carter’s girlfriends, and though being aware of the other, they are quiet about it – Amanda because she thinks Rosalie is just a phase he will grow tired of, and because she doesn’t want to lose the privilege of being the future Mrs Shaw; Rosalie because Carter is the one way she can make her devout Christian parents believe that she has been ‘healed from her homosexuality’ through the ‘counseling’ sessions by the pastor. The girls are at odds at the start, because Amanda doesn’t know about Rosalie’s real reason to date Carter, and Rosalie fears Amanda’s anger over her dating Carter.

The anonymous texts start out subtle, but soon progress to threats. As they do so, the suspect pool in the plot increases, but of course the common factor is yet to be found. Every time I thought this person could be it, there isn’t enough motive as the threats go up in stakes. As for the girls, they both don’t have adults they could turn to, to help them out of their situation. Amanda’s mother downplays her fears and basically tells her to suck it up; Rosalie is being threatened to be outed to her parents about the existence of her girlfriend. I wouldn’t say this is a typical mystery per se, but it is more of the fears being weaponized against these girls. Amanda’s entire identity and image in her town is tied to being Carter’s girlfriend, and fear of her mother’s ire keeps her in place; she has to learn to break away from those expectations. Now, Rosalie’s fear is quite visceral because she has been subjected to conversion therapy twice and she is still traumatized by it; her arc is also to finally break away from the expectations of her family.

The voice of the two protagonists and the writing was well done, though Amanda using her parents’ first names was confusing at times. Additionally, I felt most of the secondary characters were like props or at the most, red herrings, and underutilized.

Overall: it is a good thriller plot, and has well fleshed-out protagonists.

All Eyes On Us was an interesting read – while it took a while to get into it, I couldn’t put it down by the end!

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