Reviews with content warning for Racism - When No One Is Watching

Started off slow, but I’m glad I hung in there. “Rear Window meets Get Out” is pretty accurate but also not quite complete.

If you’ve been on NextDoor you know how accurate and believable the “Our Hood” app postings interspersed in the story are. They were a perfect vehicle for illustrating the attitudes of white gentrifiers - even those who aren’t explicitly plotting evil.

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megan_bbender's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I felt like this story was very slow in the beginning. When I got to around 200 pages, I logged it on my StoryGraph and said "holy sh*t, I'm not even halfway through?", but it really started to pick up towards the end, the last 150 pages or so were thrilling and it felt like the plot was finally moving, however the ending was so abrupt that genuinely can't believe that was it; it finally felt like something was coming out of this book and then *poof* it was gone.

With that being said I can actually appreciate the abruptness throughout the book, for example the very fast-ending sentences and scenarios really help to gain an understanding about how the characters are actually feeling and how fast everything in their community is actually changing.

To be honest, I was having more fun learning about the history of the community and kind of forgot about the plot. I did really like the characters though, Sydney is someone that I would love to be friends with, and the way the neighbours always had each others backs was heartwarming, and I definitely got super invested in the slow burn romance.

I liked the concept of this book and it was really intriguing but I feel like if it was shorter, I would've rated it a bit higher.

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bessadams's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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karissa_bush's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

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cestnicka's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

3.5 stars. This was a very interesting read and I'm glad I checked it out, and probably would have rated it higher but the ending really threw me off!

This book was a " get out" style thriller with the black female main character named Sydney living in a historic area of Brooklyn that is being gentrified and her neighbours are going missing left and right and she is determined to get to the bottom of it.

I actually loved the premise. I thought the concept was really cool, I loved all the history and the way that she put it into the book and integrated it into the story.

I like that she touched on a lot of really important topics like racism, gentrification, and classism.

I liked the relationship between her and Theo and the little bit of romance sprinkled into the thriller was a really nice change!

I also thought the narrators were great! I always love when there are two distinct voices for the two main characters.

Where the book lost me was the ending. The whole book was really nice and subtle with a little bit of mystery not knowing where the neighbours are disappearing too. It really felt like this was something that could happen in any neighborhood. The white folks moving in were just what you would picture in real life.

And then it took this crazy turn to a dystopian like whirl wind of an ending that seem to happen so fast. It just felt really unrealistic and I didn't feel like it matched the first half of the book. It just felt like something totally seperate and I wish the ending had taken a different direction.

I liked the writing style and I would still check out more of this authors work and see if they improved a bit as I know this was the authors first book in the thriller word and I thought it was pretty good for a first thriller!

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rcarr14's review

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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archiebb's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I really enjoyed this thriller.
The main character was really likeable although she was really going through it. Like I really wanted things to turn out for her.
I've seen people say that this book would've worked just as well without the white guy and I agree. Like the only important plot point he matters for is when

for a moment she thought he had played her and was working with his gf to get rid of her

.
Things I did see coming

the mom dying

Things I didn't see coming

the friend being dead. I thought she was just also kidnapped. I am confused about how that happened. Like how was she murdered and left in the crawl hole or just stuck there and died without anything happening to the MC?
Also I did not see it coming that the neighbors were the ones that moved the body. I loved that.
I did not see all that bloodshed coming!

I did like the pacing as well going through the stages: the creepy part, the person falling apart with all the tension rising, and the bloody conclusion. I loved her use of real concepts into thriller form.

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