Greetings Friends!
Today I have a REVIEW of the new psychological thriller Watch Me by Jody Gerhman, a terrifying look into an obsessive mind and his victim.
Kate Youngblood is disappearing. Muddling through her late 30s as a creative writing professor at Blackwood college, she’s dangerously close to never being noticed again. The follow-up novel to her successful debut tanked. Her husband left her for a woman ten years younger. She’s always been bright, beautiful, independent and a little wild, but now her glow is starting to vanish. She’s heading into an age where her eyes are less blue, her charm worn out, and soon no one will ever truly look at her, want to know her, again.Except one.Sam Grist is Kate’s most promising student. An unflinching writer with razor-sharp clarity who gravitates towards dark themes and twisted plots, his raw talent is something Kate wants to nurture into literary success. But he’s not there solely to be the best writer. He’s been watching her. Wanting her. Working his way to her for years.As Sam slowly makes his way into Kate’s life, they enter a deadly web of dangerous lies and forbidden desire. But how far will his fixation go? And how far will she allow it?A gripping novel exploring intense obsession and illicit attraction, Jody Gehrman introduces a world where what you desire most may be the most dangerous thing of all.
RATING:
REVIEW:
Told in seamless dual narratives, this is a dark, compelling, and twisted thriller that will really begin to creep you out especially each time Sam’s point of view is shared. These two perspectives allow you to see both the obsessive mind of the stalker and the conflicting emotions of the victim given that Kate doesn’t immediately know anything untoward is going on. Gehrman skillfully crafted a conversation exploring the power of illicit attention and intense infatuation. Because of the dual narration, you know Kate derives pleasure from Sam’s interest in her, but you also know how demented his fixation really is. She ignores some early indicators of his abnormal behavior, doubting her intuition because after all he’s charming, attractive, and attracted to her. But he’s also patient, possessive, and a psychopath.
Neither of these characters is at all likeable, but it ultimately made this story all the more believable and realistic. It would have been so easy to paint Kate as “good” and Sam as “evil,” but there are these broad strokes of gray that ultimately took this story to the next sinister level.
This won’t be the book for everyone, but I was truly captivated by the unfolding of a deeply disturbing and dysfunctional relationship. By the end, it was hard to escape the feeling that I wasn’t being watched as well!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
That's What She's Reading 