Highly recommended for fans of Jordan Peele’s movies, When No One is Watching is a thriller that is fascinating, discomforting, exciting, unflinching, and honestly the list of adjectives could go on and on. Alyssa Cole’s tale of gentrification in a Brooklyn neighbourhood has been referred to as “Rear Window meets Get Out” and that is truly a perfect description. The voyeurism of Rear Window combined with the racial dynamics of Get Out makes for a powerful story!
Told through chapters that alternate perspectives between Sydney Green, an African-American life-long resident of the neighbourhood, and Theo, her new neighbour who is white, the reader never has the chance to look at the story solely through one lens. This is a technique that makes for excellent story-telling, but at times will likely make the reader uncomfortable. However, in my opinion, this is the “right kind” of uncomfortable as it’s the kind that forces the reader to look at something in a different way than they typically would. New perspectives are never a bad thing, even when we find them in a work of fiction.
The shifting perspectives from chapter to chapter also serve to give the reader more information than any one character has. We see what’s going on in Theo’s relationship in the privacy of his home, which Sydney never sees. She has to sometimes take Theo at his word, while the reader (sometimes) knows whether or not he is telling the truth. The opposite is also true. As the reader, we know some of what Sydney is going through that Theo has only seen glimpses of through his neighbour’s window.
Both Sydney and Theo also have secrets in their respective pasts that they are not eager to share, and in some cases the reader is not privy to this information either. We get hints and suggestions, but for most of the story we are just guessing. Sometimes you can see it ahead of time, but other secrets come out of nowhere.
The action takes place over only a week, as Sydney is getting ready to conduct a walking tour of the history of their neighbourhood. In the hopes of getting this ready for the upcoming block party, she reluctantly accepts Theo’s help as a research assistant. The bond they form while working together is constantly built, then tested, then damaged, then built, then tested again, and then repeats this pattern.
Their research, however, starts to unearth things that appear to be happening again, this time right in front of their very eyes. Neighbours are suddenly moving. Businesses are changing hands literally overnight. What is happening and, based on some of the things they are finding out, who can they really turn to for help?
This thriller constantly ratchets up the tension, and while it is certainly a highly recommended read just as an exciting story, it is also much more than that. There is depth here that needs to be read and thought about. Opening one’s self up to the perspectives and world-views of others is how we learn and how we grow. Neither Theo nor Sydney is 100% likeable, or reliable, but their interactions may provide readers with valuable insight into situations or circumstances they have never been confronted with before.
When No One Is Watching is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Rear Window meets Get Out in this gripping thriller from a critically acclaimed and New York Times Notable author, in which the gentrification of a Brooklyn neighborhood takes on a sinister new meaning…
Sydney Green is Brooklyn born and raised, but her beloved neighborhood seems to change every time she blinks. Condos are sprouting like weeds, FOR SALE signs are popping up overnight, and the neighbors she’s known all her life are disappearing. To hold onto her community’s past and present, Sydney channels her frustration into a walking tour and finds an unlikely and unwanted assistant in one of the new arrivals to the block—her neighbor Theo.
But Sydney and Theo’s deep dive into history quickly becomes a dizzying descent into paranoia and fear. Their neighbors may not have moved to the suburbs after all, and the push to revitalize the community may be more deadly than advertised.
When does coincidence become conspiracy? Where do people go when gentrification pushes them out? Can Sydney and Theo trust each other—or themselves—long enough to find out before they too disappear?
