Watching You (novel)

Watching You is a thriller novel by British author Lisa Jewell, published in December 2018 by Atria. The audiobook is narrated by English actress Gabrielle Glaister.^[1]

Watching You was well received by critics,^[2] including starred reviews from Booklist and Library Journal.^[3][4] Booklist's Jane Murphy called it a "stellar domestic drama",^[3] while Kirkus Reviews referred to it as "an engrossing and haunting psychological thriller".^[5] The novel was compared to Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window,^[6] as well as the work of Gillian Flynn, V. C. Andrews,^[4] A. J. Finn, and Ruth Ware.^[3]

Reviewers were generally impressed at Jewel's skill at developing a suspenseful novel, with Publishers Weekly stating, "Jewell does a masterly job of maintaining suspense."^[7] Elyse Dinh-McCrillis, writing for Shelf Awareness, complimented Jewell's skill at "building tension and keeping readers in the dark yet riveted until the 'Aha!' moments".^[8] Kirkus highlighted how the novel "deftly maintains its intensity and brisk pace even as the story moves through different moments in time over the previous three months".^[5]

Critics provided positive feedback regarding the characters, as Dinh-McCrillis noted that "Jewell excels in creating complex characters".^[8]

Considering the novel's multiple perspectives and characters, Kirkus Reviews praised how Jewell "adeptly weaves together a complex array of characters".^[5] They further noted that "Jewell’s use of third-person narration allows her to explore each family’s anxieties and sorrows, which ultimately makes this novel’s ending all the more unsettling".^[5]

Kirkus also praised narrator Glaister's "emotional authenticity and true English intonation".^[9]