Everyone is Watching (spoilers and ending explained) | Heather Gudenkauf
This is a spoiler-reveiw of Everyone is Watching by Heather Gudenkauf. If you are looking for a spoiler-free review, head back to the main page. You can come back here when you are ready to find out how it all ended, the ending explained, and what I thought!
What is Everyone is Watching about? (official teaser)
The Best Friend. The Confidant. The Senator. The Boyfriend. The Executive.
Five contestants have been chosen to compete for ten million dollars on the game show One Lucky Winner. The catch? None of them knows what (or who) to expect, and it will be live streamed all over the world. Completely secluded in an estate in Northern California, with strict instructions not to leave the property and zero contact with the outside world, the competitors start to feel a little too isolated.
When long-kept secrets begin to rise to the surface, the contestants realize this is no longer just a reality show—someone is out for blood. And the game can’t end until the world knows who the contestants really are…
What were my early thoughts?
I was interested in the premise. I love a good reality competition show! The live stream aspect is tough for contestants but fun for viewers (who doesn’t like a bit of voyeurism?). The premise reminded me of Big Brother mixed with Catherine Steadman’s The Family Game. A creepy property cut off from the world (except for the live streams around the globe) and a group competing for one million dollars? Let the games begin, as they say…
The book was fine—I’ll get into the spoilers first so we can really discuss and then circle back to it. I have seen glowing recommendations to try Heather Gudenkauf’s books and I had to wonder if this isn’t the best example of her writing. I didn’t necessarily dislike it, but it had more than a few flaws. Go in preparing to majorly suspend all disbelief. This book doesn’t just go off of the rails, it barely starts on the rails. But that is what makes it fun, right?
Who are the main characters and where is it set?
The bulk of the story (outside of flashbacks and a few other scene) takes place on the set of One Lucky Winner, a reality show filming at an expansive estate called Bella Luce in Northern California. Catalina (who goes by Cat) is the producer of the reality television show One Lucky Winner. Her success in the industry is well-established, and she has special plans for this show that are sure to make it a hit. Her assistant Fern is helping to produce the show. Fern has loyalty to Cat despite her difficulties as a boss due to Cat stepping in and standing up for Fern after she was assaulted by her boss at a former company.
The show has five contestants who alternate narration. Each is described at the beginning of their chapters by a “type”. Maire is known as the Best Friend, and she is also a single mother to a child with health issues who she hopes to be able to support by winning the money. Camille is known as the Confidant, and works as a therapist in the LA area. She has a strange client named Nan in her flashback scenes who has a troubling relationship with her boss. Are you picking up on anything yet? If not, I’ll get to it.
Richard is known as the Senator, which seems obvious because he is indeed a senator. Why is he participating in this reality show? Great question. I don’t feel we got a good enough answer on this. Samuel is known as the Boyfriend. We honestly don’t learn much about Samuel until later, other than that he and Maire know one another from many years earlier. Is this a coincidence? Don’t worry, I’ll get to that. Ned is known as the Executive and this is of course because he is a sleezy CEO.
What is with the weird titles for the characters’ chapters?
Are you seeing anything strange about this cast of characters? You should be, because the typologies that they are referred to as (by the writer of the book—I want to make it clear, these are not monikers for the reality show) obviously have nothing to do with their actual identities (with a few exceptions for the ones who are titled by their job).
What do they have to do with? Well, to me it was obvious from the beginning they all were a relevant identity in terms of their relationship to Cat. Cat is the person who created the show and it seems clear that she casted these specific people for a specific reason. So how and when was Maire Cat’s best friend and Samuel Cat’s boyfriend? We don’t wait long for an answer to that, because Maire fills us in on the history of how she knows Samuel. Samuel was dating Maire’s best friend Lina in college. At a camping retreat, Maire and Samuel had a spark and it led to some inappropriate flirting and eventually to a deadly accident.
What is the deal with Maire, Samuel, and Lina?
I sighed so hard my lungs almost collapsed as soon as we learned this backstory (and we learned it very early on). It wasn’t remotely difficult to figure out the main twist here. Do you see it? Cat’s real name is Catalina, as we learned early on. Maire was best friends with a girl named Lina, who was also the girlfriend to Samuel (who happens to be here). Maire and Samuel hooked up behind Lina’s back. Cat is quite obviously the same person as Lina. This isn’t officially revealed for a long time (as in the last 5% of the book), but there was absolutely no suspense here.
What happened in the past with Samuel and Maire?
If you’re thinking that they went on to date after their dalliance, I’ll tell you now that they did not. They flirt, share a kiss, and frolic in the woods. While heading back to camp the same night, Maire suggests a (very stupid) game that she used to play—they’ll wait on the side of the dark road and jump out from the side to scare an oncoming vehicle.
If you think you see where this is headed, you are correct. They pull this prank and it doesn’t go well. The car careens off of the road and crashes over a snow drift. The driver gets out to try and hunt them down with a pipe in his hands, but eventually he dies from injuries sustained in the accident. It’s clear the driver is drunk, but that doesn’t excuse this extremely dangerous game that Maire concocted. It made it difficult to like Maire, to be honest. They leave the man alone to die and try to get back to camp, but of course, the man isn’t dead. Long story short, Maire and Samuel never progress past what they did, and don’t speak again until they meet on this show.
What was Cat’s goal with this show?
Cat’s goal is revenge, plain and simple. Through a series of events, Cat learns that Samuel and Maire cheated on her (sort of—they honestly barely kissed) and were responsible for the death of a man who they ran off the road (Cat learned this part recently from a mutual friend, Damon). Cat has never gotten over any of this, for some reason.
Camille was Cat and her ex-husband Jack’s marriage counselor. Camille felt that Cat was toxic for Jack and she encouraged Jack to leave his marriage and get away from Cat for good. Again, Cat never got over this and wanted revenge on her therapist. Cat found out that Camille was taking cash from clients under the table so she didn’t have to report it to insurance. She also had a client who died that she lied to police about knowing.
Cat dug up some dirt about the senator Richard years earlier when she was working as a journalist. She found out about his affair with an escort named Shaina and his love child, and was set to expose it. Before she could, Richard talked to one of her coworkers and Cat was fired before she could release the story. Cat went on to become a successful influencer and producer, but she still is holding on to that grievance.
Ned was Cat’s former CEO who sexually assaulted Fern one night at work. Cat sided with Fern when she got fired for reporting it, and hired her as her own assistant after leaving. Fern didn’t know that Cat cast Ned for the show. Cat was also sexually harassed and assaulted by Ned, though she didn’t think anyone would believe her. She is now taking her revenge.
Did no one recognize Cat?
Conveniently, Cat didn’t interact directly with the contestants, Fern did. You know how Cat was really Lina (as evidenced by her real name, Catalina)? Well Fern was another obvious alias, as was obvious from very early in the book. Fern’s real name is Fernanda, and Camille’s mysterious client who was in a bad disguise was a woman who went by “Nan”. See where this is headed? It was pretty obvious Fern was the same person as Nan, the client who complained about her boss in therapy. I suppose Fern went with sunglasses and a hat, but I still struggle to understand why Camille would let a client see her in disguise and how she didn’t see through such a flimsy disguise when faced with the real Fern…
Even more strange—Cat and Fern’s former boss Ned didn’t seem to recognize either of them until chapter thirty-seven. Cat was mostly behind the scenes, but are we to believe he didn’t recognize a woman (Fern) that he assaulted in his office? Please.
How did Everyone is Watching end?
The details don’t matter, but essentially Fern thought she locked Cat in the wine seller, but it turns out she didn’t. Cat is in the office. There’s a big confrontation where everyone learns who Cat is and what her agenda was (revenge). Cat plans to expose all of their secrets to the world. Before she can do that, Ned lunges at her. Cat and Ned fall off the rickety balcony to their deaths.
In the wake of Cat’s death, Fern is shocked to learn that Cat had Huntington’s Disease (a terminal illness) and that she left everything to Fern in her will. Fern goes on to film a second season of One Lucky Winner. Maire and Samuel never reconnect after the show, but Fern does send Maire a (undeserved, in my opinion) check for one million dollars to help with her children’s medical bills.
The book was a let-down in terms of twists
The book is fine—but not great. I was somewhat entertained, though at a certain point I wanted it to be over. The changing narrators kept the pace lively. It seemed too obvious from the beginning what was going on. Even if readers didn’t put together the Cat/Catalina and Fern/Nan connections, the titles of the chapters being ones that didn’t fit the people in real life made it clear what was happening. Maire was someone’s best friend, Samuel was someone’s boyfriend, and the others were self-explanatory.
This could only have been in relation to Fern or Cat, and it was clear in Fern’s chapters (titled the Assistant) that she didn’t know them. Also Fern’s title was a dead giveaway who the person was behind it all. Fern is Cat’s assistant. Therefore, it fits that everyone else is titled in regards to their relationship to Cat. Once we learn about Maire and Samuel’s dalliance, it’s a no-brainer that Cat is Lina (if we didn’t pick it up from her name being Catalina…).
The revenge plot didn’t make much sense
My biggest issue with all of this was that Maire, Samuel, and Camille (and to a certain extent, Richard) didn’t deserve what Cat was doing. Cat may have been unhappy with them, but it didn’t seem like anything warranted this level of plotting.
Cat’s grievance with Ned was the only one that really made sense to me in terms of the extent of this revenge plot. Does it hurt to have your boyfriend lightly kiss a friend? Sure. Is it worth ruining their lives twenty years later after everyone moved on and stopped speaking? I’d argue it is not worth it. Same with Camille, who I want to be clear is a terrible person but isn’t to blame for Cat’s marriage falling apart. Then we have the Senator who probably was owed having his secrets revealed (I’m unclear why she waited so long), but didn’t really ruin Cat’s life. In fact, from what I can tell her life improved after getting fired.
The characters weren’t interesting
With such bold type casting, this should have been an interesting cast of characters, but it wasn’t. I found them all unlikeable but also bland, which isn’t a good combination. Cat’s revenge was unhinged and honestly didn’t have enough juice to justify the squeeze, as they say. Fern was also awful, though more sympathetic. Maire bothered me the most. I think we were supposed to find her as the beacon of light, but she was so selfish and stupid, and didn’t seem overly remorseful. Mostly, Maire worried about her kids finding out. Samuel was confusing to me—should we want him and Maire to end up together? Did he even want that? At any point did he consider Maire someone he would even date? It didn’t seem like it.
The ending was wrapped up a bit too neatly for such a messy book. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if Cat lived (and didn’t have a terminal illness) and succeeded in ruining everyone else’s lives. A villain moment might have brought this home in a less predictable way. As it stood, it was too obvious what the twists were from very early on (like the first 25% of the book), and that made the whole thing anticlimactic. Especially when Cat ended up being just as awful as we thought, but also got what was coming to her. And I will also never be on board with Maire getting that one million dollars. I don’t think anyone should have ended up with it, except maybe Cat.
