I was in the mood for a thriller and Watching You by Lisa Jewell caught my eye! I quite enjoyed her other book, The Family Upstairs, so I was eager to dive into this.

Watching You is told from the POV of many different people:

• Joey/Josephine: who meets one of her neighbours (Tom FitzWilliam) and thinks she might be becoming obsessed with him
• Freddie: Tom’s son, who has the habit of watching his neighbours but recently has started noticing something suspicious about his dad
• Jenna: A student at the school Tom runs, her mother is certain that Tom is part of a conspiracy that’s persecuting her. Jenna always thought that it was her mum’s paranoia talking, but lately she’s been doubting that.

Now the question is: who is the real stalker and who is the real victim?

The book begins with the death of Tom’s wife, and accounts of interviews by the police are interspersed through the narrative, creating a sort of flash-forward situation (most of the book takes place pre-murder, so I don’t consider this a flashback). I think this was to heighten tension as to who was the real victim and who’s narrative could not be trusted, but I did feel like the tension started off too high and the book ended up feeling very long in a “I want to know who is the murderer, why can’t we jump to the good bits” kind of way.

In terms of characters, the only one that I thought was sympathetic was Jenna, who obviously had a lot to deal with. Joey and Freddie were less likeable, but honestly I was just very fascinated by how Tom, who’s the focus of the book, is never really given his voice. It made him a very intriguing character because you could draw different interpretations of him based on how the different characters saw him.

The only thing I was disappointed with was the ending. While I’m used to not being able to guess who the murderer was, the actual reveal made a lot of the book pointless. I don’t mind one or two red herrings but it felt like I was given a whole school of them. Plus, one of the key pieces of information that were used to solve the crime or to given provide motive were pretty much hidden away until the police made the arrest.

Well, I wanted a thriller and I read one. While I am disappointed with the ending (which made large parts of the book feel draggy for no reason), I’m not completely against reading another Lisa Jewell book, so if you have a suggestion please let me know.