Lisa Jewell | WATCHING YOU

Plot (via Goodreads):

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…

Review:

One of my first memories when I started my blog was a hot day in June (about six months into blogging) and I came home from work to like, six packages and I was just in awe. I mean, these publishers sent me some great reads to review on my blog and I was so thankful...I still am to this day. I am thankful for all of the publishers and authors who send me these great pieces of work that they trust and care about my opinion on. It's a great feeling and sometimes when I am bogged down and just exhausted, feelings like this remind me that it's all worth it in the end and that at end of the day, I really do enjoy getting to experience all of these wonderful novels and communicate with so many people through Bookstagram. Well, one of the first books I got from a publisher (shout-out to Atria Books!) was I Found You by Lisa Jewell. I was intrigued, a ton of people had recommended her novels to me (especially this one) when they found out I loved mysteries, thrillers, and suspense. What happened next? Well, I devoured it in one evening and was obsessed. Now, today I am going to tell you about my third Lisa Jewell book that I've gotten to read and what could possibly be my favorite from her.

I feel like the tone and the setting and the overall feel of each of Jewell's novels really set themselves apart from not only her other titles, but from other pieces of work in general. With this one, I was immediately hooked from the first page (which is a diary entry from an unknown character in 1996). I mean, anytime an author starts a novel like this with a diary entry or a newspaper article or something different from any other prologue or immediate line to hook readers in, I find it more effective - but, with Lisa Jewell, I knew that I was going to be in for something really special an once again, she did not let me down. Let's just start with the obvious; Lisa Jewell's novels are completely atmospheric and cinematic. Even though they take place over the pond, as a U.S. reader, it's almost like the settings can be somewhere in the United States as well and I always get a feel for some location because Jewell has a knack for giving her readers glorious details that make you feel like you are not reading a novel, but experiencing it with a cast of phenomenal characters that have an ability to bring each and every single aspect of her stories to life. For me, this one felt like I was in the hills of San Francisco on a chilly and rainy night with an eerie feeling falling over me like a cape that something was going to go wrong and someone wasn't going to make it to the last page.

The characters in this novel just floored me as a reader. Not only were they dazzling and three-dimensional, but we kind of get a look into this novel through three main characters perspectives and what I enjoyed the most was that I felt like each one kind of brought a different feel or genre to this story. Overall for me, this one had kind of a Hitchcock vibe and didn't rely on violence or anything too overwhelming or unrealistic to get me hooked. It had phenomenal characters going about their everyday lives with something ominous brewing over their beautiful neighborhood. The characters in this novel are all so unique and different from one another that it's remarkable that Lisa Jewell is able to captivate male and female teenagers around the ages of 16 all the way to older men who are 51 and everything in between. I loved this cast of characters and they were all so lively and enjoyable to read. There were a few times reading this one that I forgot there was even going to be a crime. But, then the police interrogations in between chapters reminded me that a crime has happened and the intensity is going to build with each chapter.

Another thing I enjoyed with this novel was the pacing. Even though I kept being reminded that something bad was going to happen, this one had a major Big Little Lies feel to it but was a little more sinister. What I love about Lisa Jewell's novels is how she breaks them up into different parts and each part kind of ends on a cliffhanger that entices you to just keep going and dares you to walk away - for me that was impossible and I actually was bummed I had to go to bed Saturday night with only 100 pages left. But trust me, when I woke up Sunday morning, those last 100 pages were filled with intensity that you would usually find in the last 10 of any other novel. The ending for this one was brilliant and I never saw any of it coming. I kept being proven wrong as I went along and finally I just gave up and let myself get lost in Melville Heights with all of its characters. My only hold back with this one was that the epilogue was chilling and featured a few last sentences that I kind of had to grasp at to understand and build my own theory as to what they meant without any hints in the rest of the book to rely on. Other than that, I found this one really had it all and I cannot wait to enjoy more Lisa Jewell novels!

Special thanks to Atria Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4.5/5