Reviews with content warning for Stalking - With My Little Eye: A Novel

It's got issues and a couple of things that barely work. None of her books are perfect but I enjoy reading all of them and they always keep me interested. It's not my favorite of her work but Honor is definitely one of my favorite JJ characters. It has funny moments and relatable ones and then it gets super dark. I have seen her books called chicklit and I don't think that's quite fair. I don't know what I would call them except mystery/thriller. I will continue to read anything she writes.

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devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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

3.5

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fiction_addiction_1994's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

TW: Stalker, IVF infertility/ miscarriage, Rape (mentions)
🌷
First, let me thank NetGalley for letting me read for an honest review
.
•What did I think of this book? (Mult POV)
I hate giving bad reviews but i pride myself on honestly.. So, I don't know what I expected but this was not it. This was full of side characters and too many details. I haven't had the pleasure of reading a book where the main character is an actress.. honestly, she couldn't have made poorer choices if she tried. Move cross country to rid a Stalker fine, okay.. but imagining it's an ex and moving to his city? And not taking better measures to ensure her family's safety? The name given is "Marker Man".. I didn't care for this read it picked up at for a moment but altogether predictable.
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lgmelcher's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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chailady's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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lemurdance's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Meribel Mills has discovered the dark side of fame in the form of an escalating stalker. Fleeing across the country to save her young teen daughter and herself, she also learns that it isn't really possible to be both celebrity and anonymous in any location.

I received a Netgalley digital ARC of this book. There were a fair number of typos and a couple of glaring errors I ran across that hopefully will be fixed for final publication.

For a main character, Meribel seemed...flat. I found her 12-turning-13 daughter, Honor, a much more interesting and well-rounded character; whereas Mirabel was often reduced to "oh she's an actor" tropes. (Actually, there are more than a few eyeroll-inducing "my actor brain" mentions that essentially implied being an actor brings about superpowers. While actors may be wired differently...just no.)

As a thriller, after a somewhat slow build for over half the book, a lot of unexpected twists happened in quick succession. Were this not a book waiting for review, I definitely would have put it down several times instead of pushing through.

Character flaws aside, this one gets 4 stars from me for the truly surprising plot twists, a thrilling final few chapters with parallel stories, and for excellent inclusive writing for a character with autism. It's not my favorite Joshilyn Jackson book, but it's a solid thriller.

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astoriareader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

SYNOPSIS:

Meribel Mills is an actress, who had some fame in the nineties, and a single-mom. She begins receiving creepy letters from a dangerous stalker, and over a year, the stalker’s behavior escalates. She moves herself, her daughter, Honor, and their dog, Gumball, from LA to Atlanta for a fresh start. Meribel took a part as a character in the second season if a popular show “The Spirit of the Thing”, which was filming in Atlanta. Will she get a fresh start in Atlanta, or will the stalker persist?

MY THOUGHTS

This is the second book I’ve read by Joshilyn Jackson. I previously read “Mother May I”, and I thought “My Little Eye” was better than “Mother May I”
This was a gripping, terrifying book, and I loved it. It was fast-paced, and I enjoyed it. I liked the ending as well.
I enjoyed how Jackson structured the book. The story is told from multiple perspectives of different characters.
Even with all the thrillers I read, I kept wondering, “okay, who’s the bad person? who’s good? who do we trust?”, while reading it.
I really enjoyed how Jackson wrote Honor’s character, who is portrayed as Autistic, intelligent, funny, & kind.
I thought this book raises a lot of good themes and questions, such as..
- How often do we treat celebrity’s lives as non-human juicy topics or gossip?
- Police tend to not take stalking seriously, until something violent has happened.
- We do “micro-stalking” everyday on social media.
There’s a lot to explore in this book, and I didn’t think it was the run-of-the-mill “beautiful woman being stalked” story.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Fast-paced, well-written, gripping thriller. Deeper than your run-of-the-mill “beautiful woman being stalked” story.

Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. It's due to be published on April 25, 2023.

Content Warnings

bookswithmybulldog's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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