The Watchers (Book) Review Breaking Down The A.M. Shine Novel Before The Motion Picture Release

At the end of February, the first official teaser trailer for the upcoming thriller “The Watchers” was released. Written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, the film is based on the 2021 A.M. Shine novel of the same name. The gist of the plot follows a 28-year-old artist named Mina, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. Once she finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are being watched and stalked by an unknown creature at night. Dakota Fanning, Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, and Alistair Brammer are set to star in the film coming to theaters in June.

After watching the trailer, I became really intrigued by the plot. There have always been countless number of books that have been adapted from page to screen. And I’ve read a few in the past but I want to get into the practice of reading the source material and then getting into the live action just to immerse myself more in the story experience. So, I downloaded “The Watchers” on Kindle Unlimited and started reading. BE WARNED major book spoilers are ahead.

The timeline frame of the book spans a few months from December to March. There are five main characters, six if you if want to include Mina’s bird. We’ll get to that. You have John and Ciara who are married, Mina, Madeline, and Daniel. The book switches between the perspectives of the characters but I feel Mina is very much the main character and much of the story is geared towards her. In the Prologue, we meet the character John as he’s trekking through this massive forest trying to escape from something. He reflects on the events that led him and his wife Ciara to the forest; to the shelter they have come to call their home in the hellish nightmare that was their current reality. He was desperate to escape but unfortunately did not as these unknown “watchers” surrounded him as the prologue ends.

In December we meet Mina, an artist with an estranged relationship with her sister and pretty much a loner. She’s tasked with delivering a bird and winds up lost on her way on the outskirts of the doomed forest. In this area all technology taps out along with vehicles stop working. Mina encounters the watchers without realizing the danger she’s in and later travels into the forest trying to find civilization but finds her way to this bunker type of structure in the middle of the woods barely escaping the creatures. As Mina becomes acclimated to her new reality the reader slowly gets an insight into what the heck is going on. The shelter is essentially one room with a large window that acts as a double-sided mirror at night with the occupants only able to see their reflections, but the watchers have full view of them trapped inside. During the day the watchers leave and “sleep” underground and the occupants are able to explore the land, but it’s best they don’t go too far because at night they have to be indoors.

The Watchers read easily. I started reading back on February 27 and was finished by March 3 reading for about an hour and a half during the morning and at night before bed. I can already notice changes that will be in the film compared to the book based on the trailer. The main characters have a TV and access to music and I’m pretty sure in the book they didn’t have any forms of entertainment. Mina had a pack of cards that was in her purse because she said she always carried a pack and because she’s an artist she had a pad and pencil to draw, but there was nothing in that shelter. I remember them questioning how a light bulb was sourced wondering where electricity came from but it wasn’t to power a TV. Also, in the trailer I’m deducing that Georgina Campbell will be playing the Ciara character and it looked like she was doing ballet in the trailer. It seems the characters in the film HAVE to entertain the watchers every night, but in the book they kind of wandered around at night in the light because the watchers would get violent if they slept but I don’t recall them “performing” for the watchers.

In the book the watchers are described to be changelings and would often reflect different things to different people to further their fear, but normally they are described as human like with elongated features. I’m very curious to see how they will look in live action. The film is produced by M. Night Shyamalan and Ishana Night Shyamalan is his daughter, so I was expecting a classic Shyamalan twist and got one. When three of the characters managed to escape the forest, they are trying to readjust to life after being held captive for months, but it turns out Madeline was a damn WATCHER the entire time. Many of them have escaped the forest and have been living alongside humans without us knowing and that was a shocker when I was reading that I had to reread that part a few times. The other time I exclaimed out loud was when Madeline said how long she was trapped in that forest before Mina arrived which was two years.

When “The Watchers” comes to theaters I will be front and center to see exactly how this story comes to life. Things always change from books when they are adapted so I’m not expecting to see exactly what I read but being familiar with the material is enough for me to be fully invested in this film.

“The Watchers” comes to theaters on June 7, 2024.

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Photo: Warner Bros. Picture