Adam Nevill is a master of horror-storytelling. Under a Watchful Eye is a brilliantly told tale of terror, and I wouldn't have expected anything less from Nevill.

The book starts relatively slow but it picks up pace at around a-third-way through. Just like his Last Days, this is another masterpiece.

Adam Nevill is that rarest of hen's teeth; a genuinely frightening writer of horror stories.

He instinctively taps into the vulnerability at the heart of what makes us afraid. Whether trapped by economics, emotional instability or powerlessness against the supernatural (or all of the above), his protagonists become increasingly trapped inside all too believable nightmares until escalating events have shut off any means of escape.

Seb Logan knows a truth that most never will. Once an individual will has been subsumed by another, that door is never properly closed again. Even to them. Especially to them.

And so his nightmare begins. Emotionally isolated and increasingly terrified until every vestige of self is stripped away in a violation almost visceral in it's unpleasantness.

There is also an interesting nod to Colin Wilson's investigations into out of body experiences lending a nod of horrifying plausibility.

But the true horror here is how flimsy our defences against chaos really are and how easily lost.

I recommend this book wholeheartedly and indeed all of the author's novels to date.

Adam Nevill is unpredictable. Unpredictable but never boring. He plays ball in all horror subgenres, and he plays it hard, merciless and oh so delightfully messed up. And his prose is so stylish he makes the likes of James Herbert look positively infantile.

I’ve read "Under a Watchful Eye" twice (so far), simply because the horror in it is in places of such an uncanny, eerie dreamlike quality that stays with you less in what you saw but more how it made you feel, the way you wake from a nightmare, shaken and scattered by it all day but only able to remember snippets - probably just the tip of the iceberg wreaking havoc in your subconscious now. Which makes the book utterly re-readable, leaving you to discover new bits each time you touch base with it again.
You wouldn’t think a picturesque Devon seaside town would give you the heebie-jeebies as much as a dilapidated house rented out by a psycho live-in landlord in a poor part of Birmingham. But fear not – when successful writer Seb spots an oddly floating figure staring at him from a distance, one that looks unpleasantly familiar to someone he had escaped decades ago, the sunny beachfront soon turns into a creepy negative like the intro from "Tales from the Darkside".

The figure keeps popping up in his path, out of thin air and coming closer and closer, just to disappear again, making Seb question his sanity. Until it appears in his drive, the disturbing figure of his uni housemate Ewan, a man so filthy and unkempt, Nevill’s description practically makes you gag, with no redeeming features whatsoever. He’s far from a hobo with a heart of gold – he’s displays delusions of grandeur and psychopathic traits and plants himself into Seb’s classy house like a human tick. You might wonder why Seb just doesn’t chuck him out – but once you’re exposed to the threat and mind-twisting manipulation he endures, you feel as trapped as him. And not just that. With Ewan, things appear in the house. Things from another Arthur-Machenesque plane that followed him there and start stalking Seb, as well. Things so unspeakably horrible, images Nevill plants into your head like demonic seeds that will sickeningly blossom before your inner eye just as you turn off the lights. Lost creatures, barely human, in a nightmarish fog. Condemned spirits and souls lost in a hellish dimension after dabbling in a cult practicing astral projection. A cult that soon starts stalking Seb, as well. And Seb’s life begins to crumble as he desperately tries to find out what Ewan has let loose on him, that he needs to get involved with that cult in order to find a way to free himself of the demonic forces in his life, just to get entangled deeper and deeper, with no hope of any human forces to rescue him.

By the way, those who read Nevill’s privately published short story collection “Some will not sleep” (another absolutely unmissable, by the way) will recognise the characters from an equally fascinating and gag-inducing short story called “Yellow Teeth” – to me, one of the most disturbing one in the lot, and that’s a walk in the park compared to UWE - ; its title featuring as the name of a novel Seb produces in UWE after his harrowing experiences with Ewan and his ghastly entourage.

I swallowed this book in two sittings, leaving my eyes dry and my flesh creeping. The imagery is as haunting as scenes from recent paranormal films: put visions of Silent Hill together with the various Furthers and Upside Downs, flavoured with the spirit of Arthur Machen and Aleister Crowley, you’re getting there. Nevill induces that cosmic horror in you that he’s become famous for. That sense of spiralling out of control, with no reprieve and escape. Seb’s terror will infect your own bones and not let go. Word of advice: plan in a few recovery periods with Disney films to get through this experience with your sanity intact.

Highly recommended, easily the best horror of this year.

Loved the story but found it a little hard going at times. Very well written!

I’ve long been a fan of Adam Nevill, so when Under a Watchful Eye was released my expectations were naturally high. When I started reading, I must admit I wasn’t entirely sold. The book has a slow moving, brooding narrative, and I found myself at one point thinking I’d need to come back to it when I was in more of a leisurely reading mood. But I kept reading, and the experience was better for it. The dread was palpable, and the way Nevill writes is darkly beautiful with a lyricism that you rarely see in horror novels.

Seb Logan is a well-known horror writer, working on his new book from his comfortable seaside home. His idyllic life is crashed into disarray when a friend from his past appears and threatens everything Seb has worked so hard to achieve. What follows is a descent into the darkest recesses of the self, where Seb must confront sinister forces from within and without.

Adam Nevill taps into the everyday fears we all have and writes them in a way that makes them terrifying. We, as readers, see ourselves reflected in his characters and that is what makes his works so frightening. His prose is florid and expressive with an originality that makes him a unique writer in the genre. He is descriptive in a way that builds his world naturally, without forcing too much information on the reader. The fact that we can build our fears into his descriptions is what gives the weight of real horror. With an antagonist like Thin Len (who will no doubt visit me in my dreams for many nights to come) he is so terrifying because he will appear differently to every reader.

The characters in Under a Watchful Eye are not the most deeply developed. Some appear only for a few pages before disappearing into obscurity, and the motivations of some others I found to be a little ambiguous in places. At first, this is what made me enjoy the book a little less, but the more I read, the more I realised that it was essential to making this novel so chilling. Seb is a character who is trapped, and by minimising his interactions with other characters, it only serves to heighten the feeling of isolation that surrounds him at almost every turn and makes us question his sanity, just as the characters around him do. We experience Seb’s subjective reality, one that Nevill manages to make real in all its terrifying and grotesque glory.
Under a Watchful Eye felt a lot more subtle than Nevill’s previous works which initially threw me. But once I was engrossed it proved itself to be a creeping tale of horror that was both visceral and stimulating. It was a story that blurred the line between life and death and fiction and reality with allusions to one of his previous novels, Last Rites, that help tie everything masterfully into his fictional universe.

Adam Nevill is a master of horror and a writer that every reader who considers themselves a fan of the genre should become acquainted. Under a Watchful Eye has proven his versatility and talent as a writer and is a must read.

When the sudden appearance of a dark figure shatters his idyllic coastal life, he soon realizes that the murky past he thought he’d left behind has far from forgotten him. What’s more unsettling is the strange atmosphere that engulfs him at every sighting, plunging his mind into a terrifying paranoia.

To be a victim without knowing the tormentor. To be despised without knowing the offence caused. To be seen by what nobody else can see. These are the thoughts which plague his every waking moment.

Imprisoned by despair, Seb fears his stalker is not working alone, but rather is involved in a wider conspiracy that threatens everything he has worked for. For there are doors in this world that open into unknown places. Places used by the worst kind of people to achieve their own ends. And once his investigation leads him to stray across the line and into mortal danger, he risks becoming another fatality in a long line of victims . . .

A new Adam Nevill book is always a cause for celebration here at The Eloquent Page. I am a relatively recent convert to his work, but every story I’ve read has been masterfully told. His latest novel, Under A Watchful Eye, is out now and it is another absolute corker.

Seb Logan is a solitary man. He writes fiction for a living and, for the most part, enjoys his own company. His rural idyll seems to be perfect. One morning while enjoying a leisurely stroll he spots a man who he hasn’t seen in years. The two parted company on less than amicable terms and Seb has zero desire to become re-acquainted with his “old friend”.

The dynamic between Seb and his stalker, Ewan, is particularly interesting. You quickly discover the true nature of their relationship, but rather than dispel the mystery that surrounds them it creates more. Seb’s initial reactions to his predicament are perfectly captured. His first thoughts being that he is some sort of breakdown. The person stalking him couldn’t possibly be who he thinks it is, and if it was, then how did they find him now after so many years. It must be a trick of his mind. All the old, half remembered details about distant family members who suffered from mental illness suddenly come rushing to the fore.

Unsurprisingly, there is far more to the story than that; let’s not forget this is an Adam Nevill novel after all. It turns out Ewan is only a precursor to the real horrors that are about to invade Seb’s quiet existence. Ewan may be a disruptive force in Seb’s life, but he is also intriguing. This shambolic husk of a man appears at first glance to be little more than a penniless vagrant, but the more time Seb spends with him the more he realises that Ewan has become something else entirely. Seb’s old roommate is involved with a shady group who explore the outer limits of pseudo-science and spirituality. Their enigmatic leader and their cult-like status appeals to the writer in Seb. Surely investigating them a little further couldn’t hurt? For a horror writer, the temptation to discover more inspiration for his work is too good to miss.

There is also wonderfully Inception-esque vibe to this novel. Spiritualism, astral projection and alternate planes of existence are just the tip of the iceberg. The narrative has some mind-bending twist and turns. If I am reading it correctly, Under A Watchful Eye is a story written by an author who is writing about an author, writing about an author who is writing about an author. If that doesn’t pique your interest and melt your brain at the same time, I don’t know what will.

Sitting somewhere between psychological horror and ghost story, I found Under A Watchful Eye to be a genuinely creepy experience. You don’t know what is going to happen from one page to the next. The thing I like most about Adam’s Nevill’s writing is the way it lulls you into a false sense of security and then pulls the rug out from under your feet. Up to a point, Under A Watchful Eye reads like a relatively straightforward tale. Seb is being tormented by his own insecurities and failings but then suddenly it transforms into something else entirely. I always enjoy when an author manages to confound my expectations like that.

Under A Watchful Eye manages to remain sinister and disquieting throughout. Nevill once again proves that he knows how to entertain and disturb in equal measure. I don’t think there can be a higher compliment that I can offer to an author of such compelling horror. My advice, do not under any circumstances read this book while you are on your own. Your mind is going to start playing tricks on you.

Under A Watchful Eye is published by Macmillan and is available now.

Under a watchful eye by Adam Neville is a general fiction (adult) read.
Under a Watchful Eye by Adam Nevill is a supernatural thriller from the award-winning writer of The Ritual and Last Days. Seb Logan is being watched. He just doesn't know by whom. When the sudden appearance of a dark figure shatters his idyllic coastal life, he soon realizes that the murky past he thought he'd left behind has far from forgotten him. What's more unsettling is the strange atmosphere that engulfs him at every sighting, plunging his mind into a terrifying paranoia. To be a victim without knowing the tormentor. To be despised without knowing the offence caused. To be seen by what nobody else can see. These are the thoughts which plague his every waking moment. Imprisoned by despair, Seb fears his stalker is not working alone, but rather is involved in a wider conspiracy that threatens everything he has worked for. For there are doors in this world that open into unknown places. Places used by the worst kind of people to achieve their own ends. And once his investigation leads him to stray across the line and into mortal danger, he risks becoming another fatality in a long line of victims . . .
I really enjoyed this read. Full of twists and plots. I couldn't figure it out. I was gripped from start to finish. 5*. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced copy of this book from netgalley.

A real horror story! This scared me rigid, but I couldn't stop reading all the same. Great characters and really spooky, if that is your sort of thing!

Another masterpiece to astonish any Nevill reader,

a very well crafted story about Sebastian. A successful author being haunted by a mysterious dark figure, appears in different and odd places. Till one day the mystery is solved and turns out that the figure is last person Seb wants to reconnect with. an old friend named Ewan.

With all the mystery circumstances surrounding Ewan coming back to Seb’s life, this time he has an offer Seb cannot refuse despite all his efforts. From that moment we travel in a dark, mystery world. Walking towards the unknown blindfolded. How can Seb deal with it, when he’s only choice is to move forward.

I couldn’t find a better way to express my feeling about the book other than using below quote taken from the book itself.

“We're all involved. We all struggle through the psychic stream. And the current is more powerful in some places, like here, and in some people. But the slowly flowing flood dose not stop reaching out, Sebastian. When a roof leaks, the water always finds it's way down. It drips onto our heads. A little at first, then more and more. But we all join the flow eventually. The dark, slowly flowing flood. Wè merely join it at different times. Who can say when that time comes to any of us?”

WOW. Just WOW.

I was lucky enough to stumble across Adam Nevill's work last month when I downloaded 'Some Will Not Sleep' and I can safely say that I am not a firm fan of his.

I have not been so excited about a new book release since the Harry Potter series (I was one of those nerdy teens who queued outside WH Smith for the release) and I was over the moon when Macmillan gave me the opportunity to read this early (and for free!) via Netgalley.

Seb Logan is an author who suddenly starts to see something - someone - following him. His fears are realised early on, but he has no idea the horrors ahead of him.

Some reviewers have mentioned that the book is overly-descriptive. I found this true of the first 10 pages or so, but after this it read like a normal book. The detailed description was quite confusing, but I found this helped understand the confusion of the main character.

This story really unsettled me. I loathed the reading of it sometimes as the character of Ewan repulsed me so. His character angered me and frustrated me and I could easily put myself in the position of Seb. I had the same feelings with a similar story in 'Some Will Not Sleep', but I think Nevill has excelled himself in this version of the story.

Nevill is the only author who manages to chill me to my bones when reading horror. I cannot wait to read his other books.

Seb Logan is being watched. He just doesn't know by whom.

When the sudden appearance of a dark figure shatters his idyllic coastal life, he soon realizes that the murky past he thought he'd left behind has far from forgotten him. What's more unsettling is the strange atmosphere that engulfs him at every sighting, plunging his mind into a terrifying paranoia.

To be a victim without knowing the tormentor. To be despised without knowing the offence caused. To be seen by what nobody else can see. These are the thoughts which plague his every waking moment.

Imprisoned by despair, Seb fears his stalker is not working alone, but rather is involved in a wider conspiracy that threatens everything he has worked for. For there are doors in this world that open into unknown places. Places used by the worst kind of people to achieve their own ends. And once his investigation leads him to stray across the line and into mortal danger, he risks becoming another fatality in a long line of victims . . .

A supernatural thriller - absolutely superb.

"In the greylands we found others in different form. They wept in our faces or clawed us from out of the mist. If they are angels or the souls of the departed, then none should be hasty for the dark.” And into those lands and that darkness of his latest book UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE, Adam Nevill invites the reader, to go back again with him to his earlier roots of horror and psychic terror but with a different approach and a change in tone, to discover a new territory of astral terror, and restless spirits, and dreadful spheres!

UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE is not a traditional horror, it is a very original one of different realms and malevolent things, they are as scary as those diabolic deities that live in the Scandinavian forests, very evil as those small shadows who haunt the Red House, they are hungry spirits, restless souls, monstrous things who are lost in dark dimensions parallel to ours! With a fresh eye, a fresh nose and a fresh mind the reader is to visit the disturbing and the maddening presented in a temple of unbearable squalor and filth. And the fears that are induced in those realms are multiple, from mundane to arcane; a fear of home invasion, more of a whole life highjack, a fear of anarchy and chaos, where “the imposition of the chaotic and disorderly into the life of the orderly, the unclean forced upon the clean” it is a fear of losing what was earned by hard work and perseverance, where all can be disappeared in a second; it is by an unwanted intervention, an unwelcome person and a haunting grim past, a life can be shattered to pieces! And that what happened to Seb Logan, an acclaimed horror writer, when Ewan, a ghost from an ugly past, interrupts suddenly his idyllic peaceful life in South Devon. A drunk and an addict vagabond, preaching delusions and weird ideas, Ewan won’t bring only his filth and stench to Seb’s life, but an inescapable nightmarish reality that will turn Seb’s life upside down! Another fear appears here, the return of a miserable period of poverty and trust-abuse and betrayal, of a past that Seb tried hard to erase with his dedication to his work, his self-discipline and organization;


And with mundane fears, come those of the arcane, of the unworldly spheres, of a pure evil where Adam conjures the world of Hades and its inhabitants. It is a place where darkness only lives and to which Seb is involuntarily dragged with the reader: again, the unbearable immense metaphysical manifests itself this time through astral projection, lost spirits trapped for ever. It manifests in a haunted derelict sanatorium, in an unreachable paradise to where the lost skitters on all four, in a dark river in the confines of a dirty tunnel where blind figures wade. To the uncanny atmosphere comes the overwhelming sense of despair that the reader shares with each character, the good and the bad, all are desperate, all are trapped in their shackles, starting with Seb who finds himself tied up in an unwanted situation that keeps deteriorating into a horrible cul-de-sac and ending with the hinderers or the lost souls who are prisoners of the darkness, and in their search for a light that doesn’t exist, they sob, they cry, they claw at the reader’s mind who becomes as well desperate to know if an escape ever exists from the maddening void out there.

Hades, astral projections and l’au-delà are all new themes Adam is tapping into, but old demons cannot hide. The diabolic cult and folk-horror and lunatic fringe of forgotten society revisited in UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE, where no one can be trusted. As for the supernatural and the weird and the strange, who is better than Adam Nevill to convey them! Frightening things inhabit each chapter of UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE where Adam turns the banal ordinary into a ghastly extraordinary! the incarnate and discarnate are overlapping, all of the time, in different spheres that exist simultaneously in the same place, those gruelling images of the dead, the inhabitants of Hades, the discarnate, are described as hellish emaciated bodies, bone than flesh, patchy scalps with wisps of hair. It is an atmosphere of the macabre that overshadows here.
Like in every book, Adam engages the reader’s senses to his distinct world of smells and visuals and sounds and in UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE, it is into a temple of reeking odours, morbid visuals and horrific voices. Starting with a festival of the miasma, the sebaceous and greasy scents, the sweat of cattle, where every hygienic rule is cruelly violated, where yellow teeth reign and unwashed flesh live. There is an abundance of sensory images and meticulous description of each detail, the sacrilege depicted in smudges and stains are here to haunt the reader’s mind! To the images of the dead and the departed, a cacophony of dreadful voices join. The wretched whining, the distant sobbing of a man in the middle of the night, the shrieks and muffled voices calling for mercy and succour are too scary to fathom. Of those visuals and voices, I find the scenes in the train and in an abandoned derelict house are among the scariest situations and should be considered as substantial references of ones of the most horrific scenes in contemporary horror.

But within the grotesque and horror, Adam draws a beautiful picturesque of South Devon where he lives. It is a very endeared place, to which Adam calls the reader to peek a glimpse. “ a door in heaven might have cracked to release what glittered on the water like a million pieces of polished silver” this is the author’s tribute to his surroundings, “an outstanding natural beauty” amidst the sweet beech and larch, beautiful trees, a beautiful sea where water became of an enticing aquamarine colour, a beautiful old harbour, the vivid purple buddleia flowers, all are displayed through the eyes of the author who cherishes everything about him, these are vivid images drawn without pretentiousness or exaggeration, it is a place etched with a personal affection.
In UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE, Adam exhibits a particular set of characters, from the reclusive loner to the narcissistic sociopath passing by the social misfit. From his short story YELLOW TEETH in SOME WILL NOT SLEEP – Adam Nevill’s collection of short stories- Seb and Ewan originated. Adam granted his protagonist Seb, some of his personal traits and antics, which adds to the character a certain charm and renders him more dimensional and living! Like Adam, Seb is a horror author but a more conventional one, who writes also for PAN. And like Adam, he appreciates his surroundings , the beautiful English coast where he takes long walks to write and which he portrays as a place inspiring creativity “if you can’t write here, you can’t cut it anywhere” he is also neat, organised with dedication and commitment to his writings and he smokes electronic cigarettes. But, unlike the author, Seb leads a lonely existence where he keeps everyone at a distance, he is a loner that finds solace in his isolation and loneliness. In a blunt contrast comes Ewan, this long forgotten mentor materialises in the world of living and dead to contaminate Seb’s life physically, mentally and emotionally so everything metamorphoses into something Seb loathes and fears. It is the author’s creation of the misfit, the rebellious artist, the hater and the egoist, a living example of self-destruction in all levels. A wretched squalor that reeks from each pore and breath, a self-absorbed manipulator with set of odd ideas but who never understood himself. And to those main characters, Adam introduces other faces and other evils, a narcissistic sociopath who lived before on earth but now wanders in a parallel sphere, the Master of the weird and something horrifying called Thin Len .
When it comes to the craft, Adam Nevill presents with eloquence a well-plotted novel with a slow burn quality. The tension builds up without the need to rush actions. Three parts with titled chapters is a new approach used cleverly by the author to masquerade a very intense twist and unexpected turn. The cinematic atmosphere, another trait of Adam’s compelling writing style, is to take part in UNDER A WATCHFFUL EYE, in addition to the beautiful fine vocabulary and powerful descriptions and the many aesthetic similes and metaphors to savour such as these beautiful sentences plotted with the dust and the shadows and something insidious had placed itself between his life and the sub.

I should mention, for a reader of Adam Nevill’s work, that the allusion to LAST DAYS and its characters, creates a sense of enjoyable familiarity and reminder of old monsters, as scary as those who exist in UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE .
In UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE, Adam Nevill is without a doubt the Master of the weird , he offers another fiendish book that gives a meaning to sheer terror and maddening and unnerving sentiments and juddering feelings that he intends to leave in every story he tells. Once again, he proves that disappointing is not a word that comes with his books because he cuts them from a personal experience, carves them out of a sharp observation of his surroundings and a fascination for the unexplained and the unthinkable and something immense of uncanny nature, all is evoked in his beautiful fine prose and eloquent writing. UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE is an amalgamation of morbid visuals, reeking odours and sheer despair, all shrouded in the strange and the weird that constitute par excellence Adam’s trademark because no one defines PECULIAR like him.
Hence, to every horror fan and aficionado of the strange, in fact, to every reader who seeks a good fine book with an original story, Adam Nevill simply is the answer.
I take the chance here to thank the author for giving me ARC and which I enjoyed reading and reviewing.