Hugging a Killer: Watching You Book Review
In the middle of the night, when no one is around, but you can feel eyes on you, would you run or fight back? What if who was watching you, knows your darkest secrets? Would you risk ending it all to seek revenge?
Lisa Jewell’s 2018 novel “Watching You”, took me on a ride; one I’m not sure I signed up for.
Warning: SPOILERS ahead. If you haven’t read “Watching You” and would like to, this is your official notice to turn back now and return after reading.
The cover art and the title initially made me snag this book off a sale rack around Christmas of 2019. I was fully prepared for a “Rear Window” type of thriller featuring the age-old moral dilemma of if the sin of voyeurism is worse than the wrongs the voyeur witnessed. The book started as such featuring three families in Melville Heights who are all either being watched or watching.
Jo and her husband move in with Jo’s brother and his pregnant wife. Down the street, Tom Fitzpatrick, a school headmaster, and his wife and son fight back against “group stalking” allegations from Jenna Tripp and her paranoid mother.
Now, this is not meant to be a book synopsis so I won’t waste your time (and mine) giving you a rundown of the story. That being said, it’s worth reading, if not for the story for the clever literary devices that Ms. Jewell uses.
Up until the end of the story, everyone is a suspect in the murder of Mrs. Nicola Fitzpatrick; a concept I thoroughly enjoy. As an avid thriller and mystery reader, I love not being able to “call” an ending or a twist. However, about halfway through the book, I was able to figure it out. For that reason, and that reason only is why I would only give this book 4/5 stars.
My disappointment in not being shocked with a not before seen twist ending does not mean that there isn’t one (My husband says my standards for book endings are too high. I’d be interested to know if you agree). As past connections from the main characters come to light, we find out that Jo’s pregnant sister-in-law, Rebecca, committed the murder. An interesting choice for Nicola’s killer given her 8th month of pregnancy physical state, however, I found myself falling for my favorite literary trap.
Empathizing with the killer.
In the end, all of the pieces come together and we find out that Nicola had bullied Rebecca’s kid sister in high school to the point of suicide; a wrong-doing that Rebecca never forgave. While I strongly believe that revenge, especially to the point of ending someone’s life, is never the answer (I’m a talk it out girl myself), I did find that I was feeling an overwhelming amount of empathy for Rebecca.
All we really find out about Rebecca, aside from her current life, is that she was very close with her younger sister and that younger sister had killed herself when Rebecca was in high school.
Obviously, we as readers, feel bad about that. But what really got me was at the very end when Rebecca writes a letter to her, now 1-year old daughter, explaining why she did what she did. Rebecca had planned her whole adult life around seeking revenge on Nicola. Who she married, which house they bought, and where Rebecca worked (with the ability to work from home) all focused on finding Nicola and forming the perfect plan to killer her.
I wanted Rebecca so badly to get better and to find joy in her life aside from the goal of seeking revenge. While writing from jail she is not sorry for actions, only sorry for the life are actions ended up giving her daughter. But to live your life wanting to hunt and hurt another person has to, in laymen terms, suck. To feel that level of brokenness that only ending someone’s life will fix, well, by the end of the book I really just wanted to hug Rebecca.
Final Thoughts
I needed more. I loved the characters and the different intertwining situations, however, I wanted more character development. I thought that Jenna Tripp and Freddie Fitzpatrick (son of Tom and Nicola) could have added so much more to the story if we knew more about them. I was left asking questions about Jenna’s dad and brother, and how Freddie began the “Melville Papers”.
I thought that Watching You would have thrived as a more developed duo-logy allowing time to really get to know the characters and give them a chance to further entangle themselves in each other.
Overall I give this book 4/5. Let me know what you thought of it or suggest another book!
