Someone's Watching Me by Zoe Rosi
Genre: Psychological thriller, Suspense
Read: 24th September 2022
Amazon
Published: 15th September 2022
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Is someone dangerous out to get her? Or is it all in her mind?
Becky’s life is almost perfect. Growing up, she could never have imagined living in such a safe, beautiful home, with a boyfriend as loving and kind as Alex, and hopes for a little family of her own. But then stand-offish Max moves in next door, and things begin to fall apart.
First, someone starts trolling her social media. Then she finds her tyres slashed. By the time she discovers the dead bird, left waiting for her like a prize, she’s sure someone is after her. And having spied some strange goings-on beyond her kitchen window, she suspects that person is Max.
Frightened, Becky turns to Alex for help, but she’s surprised to find that he and Max have become firm friends—and that Alex is convinced it’s all in her mind. But when news of a missing young woman breaks, Becky knows she has to do something. She’s sure she’s seen this woman in Max’s home—hasn’t she?
With Alex concerned that she’s losing her grip on reality, does Becky dare keep digging, knowing her almost-perfect life could shatter into imperfect little pieces?
MY THOUGHTS:
I'm not sure how I feel about this book. I mean, I enjoyed it and it was very definitely a quick read but...I felt it was lacking something. What that was, I don't know. It just felt that something was missing to give it that extra oomph. But I was still engaged throughout. In fact, I almost read it in one sitting, finishing the last half hour of it this morning before I got up and my day got hectic.
Becky lives a happy, safe and secure life on a beautiful quiet street in South London with boyfriend Alex. She works as an estate agent, he is a personal trainer and she loves the life they share together. They are even trying for a baby which will just complete the now perfect life she has. But Becky's life now is a far cry from the one she came from; the one she tells no one about, not even Alex. Everyone thinks she can't remember her early life before she went into foster care and she has let them believe that, but she remembers clearly. No one knows what she saw. Not even Alex. But it still haunts her almost three decades later.
Maybe that's what makes her so jumpy when new neighbour Max moves in next door. From the first moment, Becky has had an inkling that there is something not quite right about Max when she found him standing outside just staring at her. He wouldn't take his eyes off her. There was something dark almost sinister in his stare. But why? What does he hope to achieve? She tells Alex about her concerns but he just laughs them off. Especially when in the coming days he actually befriends their new neighbour and finds him quite a personable guy. Max has even booked some training sessions with Alex. But Still Becky is on edge. Every time she looks towards the house next door, Max is just staring at her. It's chilling.
She tries to brush it off by focusing on her work and is ecstatic when she gets a viewing for a £3m mansion, thinking the commission will come in handy. But the prospective buyer never shows up and then she finds locked out of the property. What is even more puzzling is the bad review the no-show left about her, leaving the company in a bad light. And when she does get to show the house again, the woman is cagey and doesn't look like she could afford to buy a two up two down terrace let alone a £3m mansion! Then an open house she has booked for the weekend goes from bad to worse when she's running late because someone slashed her tyres and a pile of stinking rubbish is left sprawled over the back yard, turning away everyone who turned up to view the house. Who would do this to her?
Beginning with some vicious trolling on social media and the loud heavy metal music from next door, moving on to slashed tyres to stinking rubbish to a disemboweled crow left on her car and the innate feeling that someone is watching her, Becky is sure someone has it in for her. But who? And why? Becky believes their new neighbour may have something to do with it but Alex laughs off her concerns which quickly escalate into arguments about what he deems as an unhealthy obsession in Max. Adam thinks it's all in her mind but Becky knows someone is toying with her and there is just something about Max that gives her the creeps. And when women start to go missing, she is certain that Max has something to do with it.
And all too soon, Becky's perfect life begins to fall apart... Is someone out to get her or is she really losing her mind?
Honestly, SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME is a good solid quick read that is fairly fast paced and is interesting enough to keep you engaged throughout but it lacked excitement and that edge-of-your-seat thrill-of-the-chase feeling. I was unsure what was missing but I think maybe that was it. But it is still a good quick read to while away a few hours. Really, I completed it in just over 4 hours tops.
There are just a handful of characters and no one is really all that likeable, except maybe Anita and Lucy, and of course Becky. But even she seemed an unreliable narrator at times that the reader sometimes questions her logic...but then we don't know what we soon discover about her past. Ryan was a complete moron but it was Alex who was the biggest shock. He and Becky are supposed to have this committed loving relationship and I found that difficult to marry up with his attitude towards her when she tried voicing her concerns. Instead of trying to allay her fears and talking with her, he accuses her of being obsessive and unreasonable and then walks out on her refusing to answer any of her texts or calls. Some loving boyfriend!
It most definitely is a psychological thriller that makes you question the reliability of its narrator and whether everything is as it seems. The plot wasn't entirely original, but that's OK, though it has been done better. The twist was a little predictable but would have been even more so had we learnt about Becky's past sooner so I think that revelation came at just the right time or it would have spoilt the twist. The ending, though, was a little underwhelming but still poignant. However, it was still entertaining with enough suspense to keep you turning the pages to the end.
I would like to thank #ZoeRosi, #Netgalley, #AmazonPub and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #SomeonesWatchingMe in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Zoe's thriller, Someone's Watching Me, comes out in September.
Pretty Evil is due to be published in January 2023. It has been optioned for TV by Corestar Media.
Social Media links:
No comments:
Post a Comment