Mini Book Review: Watching You
Author: Lisa Jewell
Publisher: Atria Books
Rating: 3.5 stars
Read: February 2021
Watching You by Lisa Jewell opens with a resident of the affluent Melville Heights neighborhood found murdered in their own kitchen. We then go backwards in time to explore the intersecting lives and secrets of this small neighborhood. Tom Fitzwilliam is a beloved headmaster of a local school. His son, Freddie, is brilliant but socially awkward. The new neighbor, Joey, is infatuated with Tom despite her very recent marriage. Jenna, on the other hand, is a teenager who has some suspicions about Mr. Fitzwilliam… Oh, and don’t forget Jenna’s mother, who firmly believes that she is being stalked.
This is a very well done domestic thriller. I wouldn’t even really call it a thriller. Maybe an intense domestic drama, plus murder? The audiobook narrator is excellent and engaging. I zoomed through my library loan of this book in about three days! I think Jewell does a wonderful job of building up these characters and their intertwined suburban lives. Everyone has a secret, and nothing is what it seems.
Most books of the thriller genre have “surprise” plot twists at the end nowadays, and they are usually silly and make no sense. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen in Watching You. The slight twist was just intriguing enough without trying too hard, and it didn’t have me rolling my eyes. Did I see it coming? Yes, but I didn’t care because I was so engrossed in these people’s lives and their secrets! Overall, this book is fun brain candy that uses the theme of surveillance to its advantage. I recommend Watching You by Lisa Jewell to lovers of The Guest List, The Wife Upstairs, and other recent domestic thrillers.
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