The second book in The Amateurs series by Sara Shepard is here. Check out our review of Follow Me.
Warning: This review of Follow Me contains major spoilers for The Amateurs, the first book in The Amateurs book series.
About ‘Follow Me’ and ‘The Amateurs’
Follow Me is the second book in The Amateurs series, written by Pretty Little Liars author Sara Shepard. The series follows a team of amateur detectives, who are desperately trying to solve their way out of the cases that they keep finding themselves in the middle of.
After finding out that one of their own wasn’t what he seemed in The Amateurs, Seneca, Maddox, Aerin, and Madison, desperate to catch the traitor, are catapulted into yet another mystery. Chelsea Dawson’s kidnapping has Brett written all over it, and in Follow Me, they’re determined to make him pay for everything he’s done.
Unfortunately, while the team is searching for Brett, he knows exactly what they’re up to. With a mastermind pulling the strings, they’ll need to give it their all to save not only Chelsea, but themselves, too.
You can get Follow Me now at any of the outlets below!
‘Follow Me’ review
Pretty Little Liars fans are looking for their fix, now more than ever, and The Amateurs book series is definitely becoming one of the best places to get it. The mystery, the thrill, the camaraderie, and the romance are all there. It’s a winning recipe that is still working!
The Amateurs ended with a huge twist, revealing that Helena Kelly’s killer wasn’t who the group had suspected, but that it was actually their friend and teammate Brett. This reveal is still weighing heavily on everyone in Follow Me.
While a tone shift like this could be detrimental to many series, Follow Me is only enhanced by the shift in the type of mystery. Instead of a group of friends simply trying to solve a mystery, Follow Me becomes about the group already knowing the answer, but still struggling to find what they need, all while being taunted by their former friend and the culprit.
This change adds a welcome extra layer of horror to everything that happens to Seneca, Maddox, Aerin, Madison, and the new characters introduced in Follow Me. There’s something even more unsettling about a murder mystery when you know exactly who the killer is, yet they still somehow evade you.
For Pretty Little Liars fans, The Amateurs sequel moves even closer to the tone of the series. It’s hard to look at Brett’s manipulation of both Chelsea and his former squad and not recall how “A” surreptitiously tortured the Liars.
The main characters in Follow Me are just as you’ll remember them from The Amateurs, apart from some light wear from the events of the latter. The sequel does a great job of allowing each character to grow in their arc, while keeping them familiar and true to the characters that we previously met.
If we had one complaint about the characters, it’s that Madison still doesn’t have her own point-of-view chapters! #JusticeForMadison. However, the stories and struggles of Seneca, Maddox, Aerin, and Brett are more than interesting enough to keep you tearing through the pages, even during the minute breaks in the mystery.
There are also some new characters introduced in Follow Me, as the team meets with Chelsea’s loved ones in the attempt to solve the case of her kidnapping. These characters are just as intriguing as the leads, in many cases, and help to give this book a different feel than its predecessor.
Sara Shepard doesn’t just write about characters solving mysteries. She has a knack for making the mysteries very personal to the characters, which always adds an extra layer of urgency and increases the stakes. This is especially evident in Follow Me, as each character is forced to confront things that they’ve been avoiding, for the sake of the case.
Shepard is also a master of endings. If you thought the twist at the end of The Amateurs was epic, you have no idea what you’re in for with Follow Me. You’ll just have to read it to find out!
Fan of our book coverage? Why not join our Hypable Books Facebook group!
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.