Watching You: A psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Family Upstairs

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His mum, like him, had no friends. It was as if they could tell, he thought, they could tell she wasn’t ever going to be one of them. She was always going to be trying, never just being.” The complexities of the marital abuse described in Watching You undermine some of the assumptions we often make about what gives someone power in a relationship. What power dynamics do we see in the various marriages in the novel? How do these fit or defy our expectations? What I liked about Watching You was that with every narrative shift, my perspective on Tom changed. I made up my mind about him early on, which made this even more interesting to read once the truth was revealed. I did find the pacing a bit slow in the beginning and the narrative to be a bit disconnected, but everything came together eventually. As always, Lisa Jewell changes her style from book to book so I am never really sure what to expect, which is one of the things I enjoy about reading her novels. I figured out one of the twists, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment. Overall, I enjoyed watching these characters watch each other!

Jewell excels in creating complex characters, building tension and keeping readers in the dark yet riveted until the "Aha!" moments...this thriller unfolds and concludes in a very satisfying way." — Shelf AwarenessFreddie recollects that his parents taught him not to embrace the diagnosis his doctors had given him because he would “always be so much more than a label” (p. 234). Do you think claiming an identity label, like the one Freddie eventually reclaims, is limiting? Why, or why not?

Everyone in the village sure appears to be infatuated with Tom! What is it about this guy? Sounds like a guy I need to meet! Baah! (JK!)Like I might be about to do something really, really stupid. And knowing I'm going to do it isn't going to stop it from happening.”