“When I think of a Black community, the first thing that comes to mind—even if I don’t want it to—is crime. Drugs. Gangs. Welfare. That’s all the news has talked about since I was a kid. Not old people drinking tea. Not complex self-sustaining financial systems that had to be created because racism means being left out to dry.”
Sydney Green is tired. She is tired from taking care of her sick mother. She is tired from an unending lack of sleep driven by an ever growing feeling that something is amiss in the Black Historic neighborhood she has grown up in. When the neighbors she has lived beside in the Gifford Place community begin to move away from the neighborhood without saying so much as goodbye, Sydney's gut tells her something is up.
When No One is Watching is a genre bending thriller that educated me on topics like; Gentrification, red-lining, and the sorted history behind banking. At first this didn't really feel like a thriller, but the internal dread factor slowly crept up on me until the full blast of the conclusion of this book soaked me thoroughly. When No One is Watching me reminded me of the genre defying magic behind Jordan Peele's work and that worked for me. I like thrillers, but I like ones that are more character focused than plot focused, so sometimes finding that niche intersection means I am often left feeling disappointing when I explore this genre without doing my research. This book was not disappointing in that regard. The book switched between Sydney's perspective and the perspective of her new white neighbor whose partner moves in and quickly stirs up trouble for the residents of Gifford place. All of that worked in terms of making a cohesive character-driven book, but despite the characters being on point here, I really wish I could have had about 50-100 more pages between the middle and the end of the book. The ending of this novel was realized and shot at me so fast, I had a hard time tracking with the action parts of the ending. It felt like a bit of a problem in pacing, and I felt like some of the message was a little muddled in its sprint to the ending.
Reading this novel was such a crazy experience. It was so different and engaging in a way I can't compare with anything I have read. I am really looking forward to what Alyssa Cole puts out next! I want more of this kind of reading in my lineup!
Content warning: Racism, death, murder, psychological abuse, verbal abuse, gun violence, micro aggressions, xenophobia, drug use, kidnapping, abuse of power by doctors and nurses.
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