Review: Watching You by Lisa Jewell

You’re back home after four years working abroad, new husband in tow.

You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now you’re crashing in your big brother’s spare room.

That’s when you meet the man next door.

He’s the head teacher at the local school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive. You find yourself watching him.

All the time.

But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession.

Or that someone is watching you.

Review: Another amazing book from Lisa Jewell. And another book where I have read the last page and then immediately gone back and read the beginning again to see how it all ties up. Lisa always does an amazing job of drip feeding the important information and the clues to the big reveal throughout the story through mini revels and through characters revealing things to one another and I am just in awe of the way she writes and the way she structures her novels. So clever and just so gripping. Just like her last novel, this one had me holding my breath and gasping at regular intervals throughout the book. Yet again it is hard to comment too much on the narrative or the characters without giving too much away!

There is quite a big cast of characters in this novel and the way they all intertwine with one another must have taken a lot of planning. We have some classic unreliable narrators but we also have some characters who are much more difficult to work out and keep you intrigued right up until the last page. I wouldn't say I particularly warmed to any of the characters particularly, perhaps with the exception of teenager Jenna who is a young carer for her mother. But boy was I obsessed with finding out more about every single one of these characters, what made them tick and how they fitted into the story. They are people you know, people you recognise from everyday life, they are your neighbours! Characters we can all relate to is just something else which this author excels at!

To say this book was a thriller, there isn't a lot of gore or violence in it, there are definitely moments that make the reader uncomfortable and moments that lead you down a path you never saw coming. This is definitely a slow burn but the short chapters will mean you will continue to turn those pages way past your bedtime. Some of the ways things that seem trivial are connected to the story are just mind-blowing and I am just in awe of how cleverly written this novel is. I enjoyed every moment and would love to have the chance to read it for the first time all over again. Another amazing Lisa Jewell novel to add to your reading list right now!

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