Watch Over Me

By: Nina LaCour

Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie

A modern ghost story about trauma and survival, Watch Over Me is the much-anticipated new novel from the Printz Award-winning author of We Are Okay

“Gripping; an emotion-packed must-read.” (Kirkus, starred review)

“A painfully compelling gem from a masterful creator.” (Booklist, starred review)

“Moving, unsettling, and full of atmospheric beauty.” (SLJ, starred review)

Mila is used to being alone.

Maybe that’s why she said yes. Yes to a second chance in this remote place, among the flowers and the fog and the crash of waves far below.

But she hadn’t known about the ghosts.

Newly graduated from high school, Mila has aged out of the foster care system. So when she’s offered a teaching job and a place to live on an isolated part of the Northern California coast, she immediately accepts. Maybe she will finally find a new home — a real home. The farm is a refuge, but it’s also haunted by the past. And Mila’s own memories are starting to rise to the surface.

Nina LaCour, the Printz Award - winning author of We Are Okay, delivers another emotional knockout with Watch Over Me about trauma and survival, chosen family and rebirth.

©2020 Nina LaCour (P)2020 Listening Library

Critic reviews

"The sense of place is strong, and readers will be transported to the rocky, coastal hills shrouded in fog and full of secrets.... Mila’s journey to reclaim herself and find independence is tense and powerful.” (Kirkus, starred review)

“LaCour presents a ghost story that is moving, unsettling, and full of atmospheric beauty with foggy, coastal air that hangs heavy in the pages.... 100% LaCour at its core.” (SLJ, starred review)

“LaCour’s portrait of a young woman yearning to belong and facing her past while navigating the liminal space between childhood and adulthood brims with tender moments and sensory details.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Love this voice!

This book is so tender, and the reader has such a perfect voice for the tone of the story.

It was a meh for me

Melts waiting for something meaningful to happen, that would tie everything together in some way or make the book feel complete but that moment never came

The Way Loneliness Feels

I really find this book beautiful. I think the language is beautiful, I think the imagery is beautiful, I think the story is beautiful, I think the message is beautiful - all of it.

I also think it's very heartbreaking and vulnerable. Someone described LaCour's writing as loneliness put into words, and I have to agree. Maybe expanding on it, it's specifically adolescent loneliness. That sort of deep ache that comes with shifting life dynamics.

Highly recommend this book, but it deals with heavy topics at times, so tread lightly.

Narration elevates the story

After graduating from high school, foster child Mila goes to work on a farm as an intern, complete with creepy people and ghosts. Mila narrates the story, mostly in the present with flashes back to the time when she thinks she did a Terrible Thing. I say thinks, because readers will need to judge for themselves.

I’m a big Nina LaCour fan, but WATCH OVER ME left me feeling flat and disconnected. Though I love her almost poetic word-building and liked Mila as a character, I didn’t enjoy the story. None of the characters were fully fleshed out, not even Mila. The plot and wrap up did nothing for me. I was left feeling, “that’s it?”

Lots of other readers seem to enjoy the book, so you may like it more than me.