Sydney was born and raised in Brooklyn in a brownstone that belonged to her mother. But her beloved neighborhood, and the community within it, is changing with every passing day. Condos, franchises and expensive businesses have uprooted families, old bodegas and local folks who have lived in the neighborhood for as long as Sydney can remember. As her largely brown and Black community is quickly supplanted by rich, white neighbors, Sydney decides to launch her own walking tour, hoping to tell the true history of her Brooklyn neighborhood and the people who have lived there. Here, she finds an unlikely assistant: Theo, who has just moved across the street from Sydney with his girlfriend. Even as Sydney and Theo work with each other, a companionable relationship growing between them, sinister things begin to happen. The more stones Sydney turns, the more secrets and conspiracies she unearths.
When No One is Watching is a thriller unlike any I have read before. Frankly, I did not know what to expect going into this book, because of the lackluster Goodreads rating and my unfamiliarity with the author’s work. I took a shot, and I’m so happy that I did because I have not been this enthralled by a thriller in a very, very long time. To me, this is a near perfect book with a complicated, multi-faceted character duo, riveting social commentary, a compelling romance, and a mystery that is both sinister as well as entirely believable.
Alyssa Cole expertly crafts the mystery, weaving the narrative with sharp racial commentary, while keeping the characters layered and realistic.
To me, a thriller can fall flat on its face even if the mystery is the most unpredictable, twisty thing I have ever read, if the author has failed to flesh out the characters. Flat characters don’t captivate readers. But from the get-go, I knew that that would not be a concern I would have with this book. Told from the perspectives of Sydney and Theo, the narrative does a tremendous job of building these characters’ back stories and personalities. Even as the reader uncovers secrets these characters are hiding, their core remains consistent and knowable. I was invested in both of these characters surprisingly quickly, and I liked them both despite their very deliberate flaws. I loved Sydney’s determination and grit just as much as her (rightful) mistrust and her tendency to shut down emotionally. I loved Theo’s sensitivity and willingness to grow just as much as his missteps and his sense of inferiority. These characters charmed me so fully that even if I had correctly guessed the conclusion of this book on the first page, I would have kept reading just for them.
But the real cherry on top is that I didn’t guess a thing! Maybe it’s because I was so enthralled by the story that I wasn’t even trying to piece together the clues on my own, but Cole did a phenomenal job of giving me enough clues to satisfy, while keeping enough hidden that I was still surprised. The thrill and the mystery is tied inextricably to the gentrification aspect of the novel. Partly because of this, and partly because of Cole’s vivid writing, I was reminded of Jordan Peele’s Get Out for many reasons: the domestic setting, the white supremacy based horror, the often-surreal situations these characters experience that lead them to question their own sanity. It’s sinister, and it’s conspiracy-driven, and somehow it feels completely realistic because of the history and the real-world themes that drive the story forward. And make no mistake: despite my comparison, Cole makes this story entirely her own. It feels fresh and new, and I desperately hope she continues to write thrillers.
And despite living in New York City, and despite being acutely aware of the city’s gentrification problem, this book still managed to give me a strong dose of reality.
It is not a book’s job to educate its readers, but when a book raises issues that are affecting real communities, that many people perhaps don’t even think about, I think it becomes crucial to emphasize how important that book is. I have been living in New York for almost a decade now, and I know that gentrification is a very real concern. But reading this book and seeing how Sydney’s life, her emotional well-being and her larger neighborhood is impacted by gentrification, it pushed me to truly think about the issue in a meaningful way. The uprooting of entire families and their histories, the demolition of cultures and communities, where businesses and people who have lived in the same area for decades upon decades are painted over because wealthy, usually white, people decide to move into that area – it’s a horrifying reality, one that we should all confront and fight against. For that reason alone, I would urge people to pick this book up and think about the systemic issues it raises.
But, a word of warning: this book is very much a thriller book, and it is also very much a romance book.
I think the comparatively low rating on Goodreads is because people don’t usually pick up their thrillers with the expectation that it will heavily center a romantic pairing. Personally, I’ve never read a thriller or mystery where the romance is basically half the plot. If you don’t enjoy romance books or romantic plot lines, I can say with 90% certainty that you won’t vibe with this. But if you go into this book knowing that there is a heavy focus on romance, as well as a heavy focus on the mystery and horror, I think you’ll have a blast. I did!
I found the romance incredibly well handled. Both characters complement each other but also challenge each other in important ways. The relationship unraveled quite beautifully, with progression as well as appropriate regression by virtue of Sydney’s mistrust of her white neighbors and her emotional turmoil regarding the neighborhood and her mother. I thought the characters had great chemistry, and despite the difficult and tense circumstances they find themselves in, their dynamic brings a certain lightness to the novel that was much needed. The romance was a big, big plus in this book for me. But I do think it’s important that people go into the book knowing what they’re getting themselves into.
So, why did I take off a half star? My only gripe with this book was that the antagonists felt cartoonishly flat.
I have to think this was done on purpose, because Cole is otherwise so adept at crafting layered, nuanced characters. Perhaps the overtly, in-your-face ‘villains’ were a way of building the sinister, hostile environment that Sydney confronts throughout the book – but I can’t help but feel that having some of the antagonists be more outwardly subtle and insidious would have achieved that sinisterness far more effectively. It would also have added another layer of depth to the book that could have made it 10/10.
Content Warnings
Very overt depiction of racism; police brutality; death; violence; emotional domestic abuse.
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★ ★ ★ ★ ½
I was so impressed with this one and am hoping Alyssa Cole writes more thrillers because I could not stop thinking about this one after I finished. I loved how this one explored how sinister gentrification can be. I actually read this around the time I watched Vampires vs. the Bronx which turns gentrifiers into vampires and apparently this kind of personification of evil is something I love, haha. Great review!