Book Review: Watching You | Lisa Jewell

Intelligent, suspenseful, and shocking—my first experience reading the incredible Lisa Jewell blew my mind!!! There are times when an author is hyped up (for good reason), but I feel a small sense of disappointment when I finally join in on their work. Perhaps because I don’t have the history with the author, or because the book I came in on wasn’t their most ground-breaking work. NONE of that can be said about my first experience with Lisa Jewell. If anything, all of the amazing things I’ve heard fellow readers say about Jewell pale in comparison with the journey I just took through Watching You! There’s not a moment of this book that I’d change. Outstanding!!!

About the Book

Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighbourhoods in Bristol, England; home to doctors and lawyers and old-money academics. It’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the sort of place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you.

As the headmaster credited with turning around the local school, Tom Fitzwilliam is beloved by one and all—including Joey Mullen, his new neighbor, who quickly develops an intense infatuation with this thoroughly charming yet unavailable man. Joey thinks her crush is a secret, but Tom’s teenaged son Freddie—a prodigy with aspirations of becoming a spy for MI5—excels in observing people and has witnessed Joey behaving strangely around his father.

One of Tom’s students, Jenna Tripp, also lives on the same street, and she’s not convinced her teacher is as squeaky clean as he seems. For one thing, he has taken a particular liking to her best friend and fellow classmate, and Jenna’s mother—whose mental health has admittedly been deteriorating in recent years—is convinced that Mr. Fitzwilliam is stalking her.

Meanwhile, twenty years earlier, a schoolgirl writes in her diary, charting her doomed obsession with a handsome young English teacher named Mr. Fitzwilliam…

Reflection

First I want to talk about the narrative structure. We begin with a murder and see bits of evidence at the scene. Then we travel back a few months, to the moment Joey Mullen first arrives to Melville Heights, living in one of the storied painted houses she admired so much. From here, many characters begin to pick up the narrative. This isn’t a book just about Joey. In the same way a neighborhood has hidden threads connecting people, some by proximity, and others by something deeper, so does this novel. The way the stories picked up on one another, bringing pieces of information and perspectives in to make the final twists and turns stand out was truly a masterpiece.

If there’s one thing we can all learn from this book, it is that someone is always watching. Those hidden moments that you think no one saw? The extra bottle of wine you pick up at the store, the lingering glance you give someone after they walk away, the item you drop into a neighbor’s bin—in a neighborhood like Melville Heights, even the most mundane occurrences are noted. So what happens when a murder occurs on the same block? Who will have a piece of the puzzle?

I found Joey to be a stand-out character. She’s self-destructive. She describes her mind as a hurricane—as someone incapable of following their instincts. She understands what the bad decisions are, but she sees infinite possible moments and she seems to haphazardly push forward without organizing her thoughts. It would be easy to think Joey is unlikeable, given the nature of her storyline (attracted to another man). But I never felt Joey had bad intentions. Joey is someone who just doesn’t have herself together. She’s in a halfway stage between grown up and young adult, and she is finding her way. I’m so excited for readers to experience Joey’s story.

There are too many great characters to talk about (this review would be 100 pages long), but I want to mention a few more standouts. The first is school girl Jenna Tripp. From an outside perspective, Jenna has it all. She’s beautiful, popular, and has a close group of best friends. Jenna’s life could seem easy. But Jenna has a mother with somewhat undiagnosed mental illness. Her mothers hovers on the line between ok and needing help. Jenna has so much on her plate, and I looked forward to her chapters. She’s a remarkable girl and character!

And then I want to end with those enigmatic Fitzwilliams… The mother, who fades into the background, enamored by her perfect, magnetic husband, and a bit lost in life. The son, Freddie, who keeps watch over the neighborhood, documenting the small moments that may be the clue to the murder, while still struggling to find his way as an awkward teenager. And then Mr. Fitzwilliam—the center to the whole story. In a way, Mr. Fitzwilliam is the center to the neighborhood. He’s a man with a trail of admirers. And yet, he’s difficult to pindown. Is he a charming school head, or is he someone more sinister? You’ll have to read to find out!

Thank you so much to Atria for my copy. Opinions are my own.