A review by chapters_and_pages
Watching You by Lisa Jewell

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was my 8th Lisa Jewell book, and while I enjoyed it, it definitely wasn’t my favourite. 

Melville Heights is one of the nicest areas of Bristol, it’s certainly the last place you’d expect someone to get brutally murdered in their kitchen… Following four different characters, everyone has something to hide. 

Firstly, as someone who was born in Bristol and has lived here my entire life, I loved reading about it from a fictional perspective. It was really cool to actually be able to recognise and picture locations based on first hand perspective!

At the beginning, I found it a little hard to distinguish the characters, and who I was following at any given time, but by about 100 pages it wasn’t too bad. 

I really enjoyed Jenna as a character, she was definitely my favourite. In regards to the other three main characters, in my opinion, Joey was annoying, Tom was creepy (even if he wasn’t in a relationship with a student, and, as far as we know, had never been, the fact that he was in his mid thirties and in a relationship with a 19 year old was creepy…) and I didn’t like how Freddie was portrayed. 

Throughout the book, Freddie is depicted as some sort of teenage stalker, watching people from his window, taking photos of them. Later in the book, it becomes clear that he has Asperger’s (which would now be known as Autism Spectrum Disorder) which he doesn’t know about. As someone with suspected Autism, I don’t like how it seemed like the behaviour was written off and excused because he’s on the spectrum. 

I found the ending to be a bit meh, not bad but not as shocking as I would have liked. The very last page mentions a lock of hair, and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out who’s hair this was and the significance of it until I Googled it, and I’ve read a lot of reviews where people said the same thing. 

Overall, I enjoyed this book but it wasn’t a favourite of mine. 
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