Alison Gaylin

The Collective by Alison Gaylin is a very highly recommended unpredictable psychological thriller. An excellent, stay-up-late-to-finish page-turner.

Camille Gardener is still grieving the loss of her 15 year-old daughter, Emily, who was raped and left to die five years ago by 17 year-old college student Harris Blanchard. During the trial Emily's reputation was besmirched and Blanchard was acquitted. Now Blanchard is receiving an award from the college and Camille is angry that he never show more suffered any consequences for his crime. She shows up at the ceremony and yells "Murderer" at him, is immediately arrested, and a film of her breakdown goes viral on social media. When leaving the police station a woman passes Camille a card with one word on it: Niobe.

First Camille finds Niobe, which is a facebook group of grieving mothers who have lost their children and the murderers have never been held responsible. This group leads to an invitation to a group on the dark web where mothers are free to vent their rage and revenge fantasies. Then Camille is introduced through private message to the vigilante group The Collective, who seek revenge in the real world by working together to make it happen. The rules for participation are strict, however, and noncompliance is not an option.

The Collective builds slowly at the beginning as it tells the backstory and establishes Camille anger, grief, and rage. She is unable to move on and this new group may provide a safe way to help her recover. You will hope it does, and it seems to be giving her the outlet she needs to openly rage against the injustice of her daughter's death among a group of mothers who support her. The group quickly takes a more ominous tone once she is invited to participate in The Collective and Camille begins to question certain things.

Camille is a mother full of grief, pain, and rage, so you might be able to sympathize with her even if her extreme and overwhelming emotions are out-of-control. You'll understand that she needs a support group, she needs a way to express her fury over the injustice meted out to Emily. She is not an especially likable character, and her stability is questionable, but she is certainly a realistic character.

Excellent writing propels The Collective forward to an irresistible, unputdownable thriller. The concept of grieving mothers desiring to extract justice without mercy raises the tension quickly. The plot quickly escalates in the second half and you will find yourself glued to the pages. This is an engaging and compelling novel that you will stay up late to finish. The ending was totally unexpected in so many ways. The Collective is an outstanding thriller!
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of HarperCollins.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/10/the-collective.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4301081802 show less

A perfect sort of low stakes beach read. You could read this at the beach or half-drunk or sun-dazed and love it. An easy, accessible thriller that doesn't insult the reader. Well written to boot.

We Are Watching (2025) by Alison Gaylin.
If you have the slightest trace of paranoia within you, this book proves just how right you are to be constantly on your guard. In a time when the vast majority of us live our lives openly on the internet, constantly updating new friends and old, family and associates alike about the daily actions of our lives, we seldom stop to think about who else is lurking in the shadows of the net. We tend to openly document our lives through the sharing of show more still pictures and streaming videos of where we go, when we go, who we see and what we do,
In some ways there is a communal glory in this open forum where we are all part of the greater and glorious world, and with the push of a key you can shove the most wonderful portions of your life down the throats of all the people you know, and let them chew on how great our lives are while they have to wallow in their own misery.
Of course, all this openness comes at a cost. Everything we share can, and could be used against us. We never know ALL of the people who view this on-line life we are presenting to the world. Most people are sheep, happily frolicking in the green fields and blind to the threats around them, Of course we “know” there are dangers, but, come on, we only share with the lambs we trust.
But there are the wolves, set to ravage and destroy whatever they feel like. They are watching. They are armed. They will triumph.
And that is the crux of this book.
Magnolia “Meg” Russo is now the center of the wolves attention. Back when she was fifteen she entered a contest by writing a book, and Meg won. The book was a dark magic fantasy with heroes, but mostly populated with dark “Lords” with liquid metal in their veins. And to some the book also told of a coming plague and the end of the world on 121222.
The Wolves believe this scenario, and they also believe that Meg’s father, Nathan, former bass player for the rock band Prism, is a satanist and the cause of the plague, as is Meg. The Wolves think there is a prophecy written in the book telling how to stop the world ending. It includes instructions on the killing of Nathan’s family, Meg, her husband Justin, and their daughter, the eighteen year old Lliy.
Of course the Wolves believe the plague is Covid-19 and the end is near at hand. The Wolves are watching Meg and her family. Their is an internet site that populated its pages with photos and videos of the Russos, many of them altered into twisted, evil nasty representations of Meg, Nathan and Lily. The posts also rejoice in the recent death of Justin in what was thought to have been an accident but is rapidly looking like a planned murder.
The Wolves are out there, anonymous posters, filling the board with hate and vitriol and there is little to be done about it all, except there might be.
The book is a ramp down into the darkness and insanity of which the internet can descend. Meg acts as her own detective when the police are seemingly handcuffed from helping her. With her husband dead, her father and daughter threatened, it is up to Meg, with some timely help from her father Nathan, to unmask the Wolves and perhaps save the day, but time is running out as the December 12, 2022 deadline rapidly approaches.
There is so much more in this dark book that I won’t reveal. It appears to start a bit slow, but the tension mounts as the pages turn and you will find yourself reading far beyond whatever time limit you have set for yourself.
And it may make you think twice before your next post.
Thanks to William Morrow books. show less

Seldom do I love or even like, all the main characters in a story, but I did in this one. I have never read this author, but I have to say that she did a fantastic job of writing both the adult and the teen characters...all were very well-developed. The mystery was well-paced, keeping the tension high, and holding my interest. There were other surprising reveals along the way, some that related to the main crime, and others that didn’t. All the storylines were handled competently and show more wrapped up nicely. This novel dealt with a wide range of issues that affect both the adults and the teens...single parenting, past trauma, grief, bullying, isolation and social ostracization, and how easily what we say on social media has the power to ruin lives. I thought the quote that I read concerning this book sums it up very well, "It takes the gulf that naturally develops between teenagers and their families and stocks it with sharks. show less