When No One Is Watching

This was a bit uneven—it started out hitting many of the beats of a romance/family drama, hinted at a couple of not-very-mysterious mysteries, but then completely switched gears about 3/4 of the way through to suspense/action thriller. I'm very sympathetic to the simplicity of the idea of societal evils being caused by a deliberate conspiracy, and the catharsis of the somewhat direct (and violent) solutions thereof in this book. Wouldn't it be nice if in real life, racism and gentrification were much less systemic and society-encompassing problems and instead had such specific, localized villains?

Whew. I thought this was great. A thriller about gentrification and developers that takes in Brooklyn with lots of surprise turns and likeable-yet-flawed characters and cringe-y awful white people that make you think to yourself “Was I ever that awful?” “Are these people in my neighborhood right now?” It gives justification to the Black anger and cynicism and skepticism that is so often dismissed as paranoia or “crazy.” I liked the ending a lot. Resistance not saviors. The audiobook narrators were great too.

I was not expecting THAT from the author of A Princess in Theory. lol LOVED it! By Chapter 10 (page 152), I knew I was in trouble; it was like 1am and I was totally hooked. A "read it till it's finished" or "go to bed and finish it tomorrow" crossroads. Needless to say, I didn't go to bed until 4am.

The pace is steady, not slow or fast. The tension is palpable from the get-go. And the atmosphere is one of dread. You feel the danger closing in and want so badly for Sydney to trust herself and get out, but then you remember, where's she gonna go?! Once they cut the lights in the third act, all hell breaks loose and my whole body was tensed up for 50-60 pages straight. And I never could fully trust Theo--Cole so brilliantly kept me on my show more toes with him.

All in all, a solid thriller and I will definitely check out One of Us Knows in the very near future.

Side note: There's also a lot of information. Ms Cole obviously wanted to drop some history in this thriller, and I'm grateful. And I appreciated the inclusion of varying levels of racism and microagressions. Because racism nowadays isn't always as blatant as using slurs or salutes. show less

This alternates between two POVs: Sydney, a black woman who was born and raised in Brooklyn, and Theo, a white guy who recently moved into the neighborhood with his wealthy girlfriend. Both of them are struggling with weights on their shoulders - Sydney has her mother's medical bills to worry about, and Theo was recently laid off and is being increasingly frozen out by his girlfriend.

Sydney's neighborhood is becoming unrecognizable - long-time neighbors leaving and shops she's gone to for years closing and getting replaced, sometimes practically overnight. As Sydney begins researching the area's history, with Theo's assistance, the two of them gradually realize there's something sinister going on.

I was surprised when I first heard about show more this book - it seemed like such a shift from Cole's romances. I'd previously enjoyed Cole's contemporary romances, and since I haven't been as much of a romance reader in recent years, I thought I might enjoy this particular book even more. I was, unfortunately, wrong about that.

I went into this with more traditional thriller expectations. I figured there would be a gradual buildup of tension that would blow up into something bigger by the end. While there were occasional disturbing moments - for example, the Uber driver scene - the overall effect was disjointed and didn't mesh well with the parts where Sydney and Theo spent time together doing research. The information they uncovered was interesting but wasn't tied into the story until fairly late (beyond the general "gentrification has been happening for a long time" aspect).

Cole is primarily a romance writer, but I really wish she hadn't incorporated romance into this particular story. Theo and Sydney didn't work for me at all as a couple. Nearly every time Sydney was around Theo, she snapped at him. Sometimes it was just because she was stressed and sometimes he'd actually done something to deserve it. Either way, it made it difficult to believe he'd continue to keep coming around and hoping a romantic relationship might develop between the two of them. It was also exhausting to listen to, and after a certain point I increased the audiobook narration speed so those scenes would at least be over faster.

The developments near the end of the book were interesting, and there were some nicely chilling moments, but then Cole suddenly changed the scale of events from local to global and it was just too much. And ugh, again with the romance. It really, really should have been dropped. Sydney easily and frequently doubting and distrusting Theo near the end was more believable than the idea that they might have any kind of decent romantic relationship - they'd only really just started to get to know each other, after all.

The audiobook narrators weren't bad, but Jay Aaseng, in particular, seemed like a poor choice for Theo's voice, and the alternating narration made it difficult for me to remember who some of the minor characters were when they weren't voiced by the narrator I most associated them with. I'd probably have been better off reading this book rather than listening to it.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

CW: racism; historical, systemic racist practices; white folk being super ugly and racist; racist, non-consensual medical experimentation on humans

This thriller about gentrification in a Brooklyn neighborhood was a fascinating combination of history, all-too-believable current-day racist conspiracy, and light romance. I'm not usually terribly into thrillers because I find they tend not to do enough character development to hold my interest, but not so here. I enjoyed the main characters thoroughly and wanted to stick with them, find out what happened to them, and route for them. Recommended, but see my content warnings.

Cole reveals the discriminatory practices throughout history, culminating in gentrification, that contributed to the destruction of Black neighborhoods in Brooklyn as she slowly sets up a suspenseful narrative involving two flawed characters. Sydney returned to her mother's home in Brooklyn when her own marriage fell apart. Now, her mother is ill and Sydney is still struggling with her self-esteem and as well as with paying mounting bills, all the while noticing alarming changes in the neighborhood where she grew up. Theo and his girlfriend recently purchased the Brownstone across from Sydney but Theo is beginning to discover just how much he does not belong in his girlfriend's world, despite the extreme efforts he took to become part show more of it. When the narrative finally addresses the underlying suspense that has been very slowly building through the first three quarters of the book, everything happens very quickly and melodramatically. This novel feels like two, maybe three, completely different books and, while each is entertaining in its own way, the whole was a bit jarring and disconnected. show less

Cole does such a wonderful job making me cringe! This book was so excellent that even my husband, who doesn't read much fiction, picked it up and read it in just a few nights after hearing me read a passage or two. The themes of trust/distrust after betrayal, race, class disparity, etc. are so interconnected throughout this book.

As a white reader I definitely had to stop a few times and question whether or not I have been as hideously clueless as some of the characters are in their exchanges with Sydney. The dual perspectives in storytelling also kept up the suspense. And the online system through which the neighbors chat (similar to NextDoor) at the end of the early chapters adds a little levity and also increases suspense.

Loved this!