Sylvia Johnson (1)

As a New Zealander I love the evocations of dry-grass/ hot-sand/burnt barbecue-by-the-rocks childhood delivered in blunt dialect familiar to all of us who have grown up in the southern antipodes. Sylvia Johnson captures the discomfort of childhood along with its joys and easily demonstrates how one can end-up out-balancing the other, tainting even our sub-conscious memories and shaping our adulthood. But more important is the way in which Johnson builds suspense, adding piece after intriguing piece of the jigsaw puzzle, each morsel making you hungry for the next. The book is also a powerful statement on a society which appears to have abandoned at a very deep level the basic principles of looking out for the helpless and judging people innocent until they are proven guilty. If I can ever write a book even half as good as this one I will be very proud. Well done, Ms Johnson, I look forward to reading more.… (more)

Four children telling a lie to stay out of trouble and a man shot in the head in London 40 years later. Obviously there's some sort of connection as they are both elements of WATCH OUT FOR ME by Sylvia Johnson. What's always intriguing with these sorts of unlikely components, is how and where the author is going to take the reader.

WATCH OUT FOR ME is an intriguing and complex debut psychological thriller. Told in a series of short chapters attributed mostly to those children, their story bounces between them then and as the adults they have become. One brother, two sisters, and their young cousin, who all come together for a summer holiday where something bad happened. Whilst there is that concentration on the past, there are ripples into the present.

WATCH OUT FOR ME builds deceptively. At the start we're very much looking for an explanation of what happened in 1967. In the current timeline one sister (Hannah) is in Sydney, dealing with the inconveniences of life in Sydney in lockdown for the visit of the American President; whilst the other (Lizzie) is in Morocco dealing with a more personal threat. Cousin Toby is newly back in the Hannah's life, conveniently ducked by her brother Richard. The relationship of the three siblings with each other, and then with the outsider - the cousin that they all seemed to like - touches on so many of the fundamental themes of this book - fear, prejudice, expediency, violence and panic, hysteria and cruelty - purposeful and accidental. Meanwhile the true story of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in London in the aftermath of the 2005 Underground bombings is touched upon, using clippings from the British newspapers. This is not as odd or as sensationalist a juxtaposition as it would seem. There is a synergy between the fictional and the fact. The use of the fact isn't gratuitous - it illustrates all too well the mistakes that can be made in the realm of supposition.

There are some standout characterisations in this book - Hannah grumpy, ranting, tense, scared, conflicted, abrasive, tricky. Lizzie is more contained; frightened by the situation she finds herself in, stuck in a strange land, it never seems like she won't be able to cope. Richard, the elder brother elusive, uninvolved. Toby hesitant, his separation from the others has had ramifications in his life, as it emerges it did for the other three.

WATCH OUT FOR ME is an interesting construction. Much of the story is elusive, ethereal in some places, superficially there's a lot of disconnected elements - the three siblings, Toby, the mysterious man in the heavy overcoat, the past and present timelines. It's a style that's going to be difficult for some readers, it's content uncomfortable, disconcerting. Yet there's tension and suspicion and there's a connection to everything when you start to dig below the surface. Often, when discovered, the connection is the emotional and personality traits formed or demonstrated in 1967.

WATCH OUT FOR ME isn't a book in which the past comes back to haunt the present, rather it's a book in which the past gives you clues to the people that these children will grow up to become. The way that their choices back then reflect, and affect, who they are years later. Whilst the past is ultimately explained, the present is frequently more hinted at, not requiring blatant explanation, left to interpretation. Which of course makes it the perfect book for this reader.… (more)