4.5 stars

Okay, since this is a thriller, I'm not going to comment much on the plot since you'll want to experience every little nuance, twist and turn of this story for yourself. When No One is Watching is more than just a thriller, it's also deals with contemporary issues like gentrification and systemic racism in a way that I felt was thought-provoking.

One of the biggest pluses for this story were the two main characters, Sydney and Theo. I loved how their relationship built from the opening pages. Even though there are some trust issues to deal with, I felt like they were really friends to each other when they needed someone and I found myself wanting more from these two. They made an interesting couple and worked together well when it comes to the exciting conclusion.

I adored Sydney's sassy mouth (especially how she talks to Theo), her love for the research she was doing, and how she treasured her heritage. I really liked everything about her, including her anxiety issues and the scars that her ex left behind with his words.

And Theo, the "strange white dude with a hero complex" -- he was just lovely in spite of his many flaws he admits to. I liked how they both had secrets they eventually spill to each other. Their interactions really carried this story and I kept reading because I wanted to know where they ended up with each other and how they would be impacted throughout the story.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the neighbors. It was heart-warming how the neighbors looked out for and truly cared for each other. I grew up in a neighborhood like that. Those tight connections and the expanded neighbor-family seem to be missing in today's world and this book reminded me of the value of those relationships.

I did find the pace a bit slow for the first half of the book and the break-neck speed of the last 25% had me breathless and contrasted with the slower pace of the beginning of the story. So much happens at the end, I had to read the last bit twice to make sure I caught all the details. Overall, the suspense of the story did build gradually to an exciting conclusion, so as a thriller, the pacing did work it's magic to build the tension of the story.

I liked this thriller. It was suspenseful, thought-provoking and I loved the main characters. I'll be watching for more in this genre from this author.

A review copy was provided by the publisher. This is my honest review.

Dear fellow readers!

I've been reading this phenomenal book on my kindle thanks to @netgalley and @harpercollins and through my @librofm app. It has been an exceptionally excellent experience. When I first read the reviews and saw Get Out and Rear Window mentioned I was immediately interested but it does more than strike similarities to those movies. It does what Mexican Gothic does for The Gothic Horror genre. It adds to it. This is a layered, intelligent, and socially conscious read. The dual povs give it nuance and the idea of conspiracy and reality blending give it dizzying surreal quality that is very much grounded in reality. Cole captures and depicts emotion and loss so succinctly. I cried and still feel emotional after reading this. And rest assured I will not shut up about this book anytime soon. Bravo Cole!

I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley for review and all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Set in New York, Sydney's beloved Brooklyn neighbourhood is undergoing change. She channels her frustrations into a walking tour that reveals the paranoia growing in the community as people go missing from the street. With the gentrification comes a big pharmaceutical company but is all as it seems?
Triggers: racism, extreme obscenity, home invasion
The premise is interesting for a thriller and characters well developed.

When No One is Watching was a mesmerizing book. I was completely hooked. I heard it pitched as Get Out meets Rear Window, and it delivered on that promise. The story is told from dual points of view. When No One is Watching integrates Black history, the problems of gentrification, systemic racism, and classic thriller moments. Its dual points of view gives us an unreliable narrator. The twist and turns of the plot were very reminiscent of the best of Hitchcock's films. Overall, I loved it! I'll be recommending it to everyone.

This is really a very interesting book to read right now. With all the unrest in our country, I can believe that the elements of this story could exist. Maybe not to the extreme as here, but you feel very uncomfortable while reading it. And that is a good thing. I agree with others that the ending was a big abrupt but it was an exciting ending. I can definitely see it played out in film. You would be cheering, even if it is rather violent.

Thanks to Netgalley and William Morrow for a copy of this book for review.

Alyssa Cole is one of my favorite romance authors, and I was nervously excited for this new genre with When No One is Watching. Oh my goodness, this was so, so, so good. While the first 2/3, minimum, of the book are much more about the history of the neighborhood and of gentrification and establish the current environment in the characters' neighborhood, don't be fooled that it's not a solid thriller in that last 1/4 or so of the book. I was frantic, reading the last chapters, unsure of how this could possibly end. It is genre fiction that is thought provoking and enlightening. Will definitely be recommending everywhere.

When no one is watching is a story told from two points of view. A woman named Sydney and a man named Theo. You slowly see how their lives intersect and intertwine. I enjoyed this slow burn of a book. It was more suspense than a thriller but overall an exciting eventful read. The ending was a little rushed but definitely unpredictable! I loved how unpredictable Sydney was and her mysterious relationship with Drea played out wonderfully. Truly enjoyed this relevant and intense read. Thank you to William Morrow, NetGalley, and Scene of the Crime for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

𝘐𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘺’𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘪𝘳. ⁣
⁣
Thank you @williammorrowbooks for the gifted copy. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“US - THEM”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“BESIDES WHAT CAN THEY DO CALL THE POLICE...LMFAO” ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“YOU NEED TO STOP ATTACKING ME”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“THESE PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR A REASON TO COMPLAIN”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“IM TIRED OF YOU PEOPLE” ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“AFTER EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED I EXPECTED THE ROOM TO BE FILLED WITH MONSTERS BUT NO, JUST A BUNCH OF NORMAL LOOKING PEOPLE”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“YOU CANT STOP US...WE’RE TOO BIG AND THERE’S TOO MUCH MONEY ON THE LINE”⁣⁣
⁣⁣
“WE OWN THE JAILS” ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭⁣⁣Sound familiar?? I know this book has been ALL over Bookstagram and rightfully so! Today is 𝗪𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐍𝐎 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝗪𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆 publication day. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Now that’s a damn book! Y’all if this book ain’t a recount of THIS here world then IDK want is. A superb thriller detailing gentrification, Black bodies not having any worth, devaluing Black communities, police brutality, systemic racism, victim blaming...𝘞𝘈𝘐𝘛 𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙𝘌’𝘚 𝘔𝘖𝘙𝘌 😩😭...the use of Black bodies as test subjects, the disappearance of Black bodies and lack of concern...𝘔𝘖𝘚𝘛 𝘖𝘍 𝘞𝘏𝘈𝘛 𝘐𝘚 𝘞𝘙𝘖𝘕𝘎 𝘞𝘐𝘛𝘏 𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘚 𝘞𝘖𝘙𝘓𝘋 𝘐𝘚 𝘐𝘕 𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘚 𝘉𝘖𝘖𝘒. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
This book made me sick to my stomach but I am so happy that I read it. Alyssa Cole is a new to me author and I heard she writes romance but I am blown away at 𝗪𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐍𝐨 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝗪𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. I was scared, I was pissed, I was disgusted and also I was not suprised one bit. This book is like a modern day retelling of history that continues to repeat itself. ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
Be sure to grab a copy, this is not a book you’d want to miss out on. It’s a slow build for sure but once it takes off...𝘐𝘛 𝘛𝘈𝘒𝘌𝘚 𝘖𝘍𝘍! ⁣
⁣⁣

Loved this book! This is my first Alyssa Cole book and I am a fan. This book was so good. This thriller is so relevant right now! I loved that the protagonist Sydney was a complicated Black woman who is struggling with her mental health, and trying to keep some sense of normalcy in her life. Sydney’s home has alway been in Brooklyn and when she starts noticing her neighborhood changing drastically she decides to start a walking tour to educate all the newbies on the historic culture of her neighborhood. As gentrification starts taking place, Sydney notices her neighbors are up and “leaving for the suburbs”. All of her neighbors seem to be up and leaving without so much as a goodbye which doesn’t make sense to Sydney. As Sydney reluctantly works with her new neighbor Theo on her walking tour they start looking into the historical facts about the neighborhood and find that the neighbors may not have all left for the suburbs as it seemed. This book kept me guessing until the end. My only issue was I wanted to know what happened with Sydney and Theo. It seemed to end abruptly and I wish the author would’ve added a little more to wrap up where everyone ended up. Otherwise it was a great read and really shows how harmful gentrification can be to communities of color.
Thank you William Morrow Books for the ARC of this book.

When No One Is Watching tells a tale of the dark side of gentrification and how a neighbourhood can lose its history and be robbed of a community when white people move in to a predominantly minority neighbourhood. This was a slow burn mystery but a fast read that really packs some heat at the 3/4 mark. I really enjoyed the historical part which is not the norm for a book classed as a thriller but if you know me, I love when authors try to really stand out and do something different from the rest when it comes to my thrillers. There were definitely some twists and odd turns with a little romance in there to show not all is lost which was just👌🏽 and done so well. This book gave me major Get Out vibes mixed with a little bit of No Exit with it’s strong female lead and if you enjoyed them, then I think you’ll love this book!

When 'Noone is Watching' is a fantastic glimpse into the important issues that has been impacting this country for years, but more importantly that still continues in 2020. If you feel uncomfortable reading it...well you should. Perhaps it will be a wakeup call to all of you that are privileged.

The novel centers around gentrification in brooklyn. Something that a majority of NY is going through, but none have been more impacted than Brooklyn. Sydney's neighbors are all moving to the suburbs and she has worked on starting her own walking tour to educate people on what truly happened to black people back in the day. She's sick of all the b.s. being fed to people. A medical research center is being built in her neighborhood and things are starting to get weirder and weirder. So many things are questionable for Sydney. What's going on? Is she losing her mind? What can she do to fix all this?

I really enjoyed this book. This is Alyssa Cole's first thriller and she killed it. I love how much Cole educated you on the history of Brooklyn, just spitting facts. I will admit that a lot of these things I didn't even learn about in school and that's sad as hell. I definitely recommend this book to everyone. Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow Paperbacks for a copy of this book for an honest review.

3.5 stars, rounded up
This is a unique mystery/ action thriller featuring people disappearing from a neighborhood as gentrification is taking place. I really liked the characters of Sydney and Theo and thought that the entire plot, as head-shakingly horrific as it was, actually seemed pretty plausible. I loved how the author incorporated so much history into the tale without it seeming to be a dry and boring lesson.

The slight shortcomings of this tale are with the pacing. The first half is quite slow, I do understand the need for build up to get the reader invested, but the backgrounds of Sydney and Theo, which are the main things that are propelling the story, aren't revealed until over halfway through. After the reveal, the pace picks up and the book gets very exciting and filled with action. I thought that the reveal could have and should have taken place earlier. Also some of the side characters (particularly Drea) should have been given a bigger role because they were definitely important overall.

I did really like this book because it is nothing like other books in this genre. Its plot and themes are timely and relevant to the world today, and if it doesn't make the reader think then they aren't reading closely enough.

Alyssa Cole is a new author for me, and overall I found this to be a very well written book. I love thrillers, and this one started out kind of slow but once it took root, it turned into a very good read. The book did a good job of incorporating some history into the storyline. I would recommend this book to others.

I received a ARC from NetGalley and the publisher Harper Collins, and I was under no obligation to leave a favorable review, all opinions expressed here are my own.

This was a slow builder but once it got going, there was no putting it down. I’ll admit I didn’t quite see where the author was headed with the story but in the latter half of the book, everything clicked in to pace.

4.25 stars

When No One is Watching is not your typical thriller in the best way. For the first half of the book, I wasn't sure if there was some nefarious person out there, or if the antagonist was society at large and the ways we've oppressed Black people.

The book centers around Sydney, who's watching her neighborhood quickly become gentrified. While there are some very strange things happening, there are also a lot of things that exist in every day, normal life: redlining, systemic racism in the police force and the government, the word of a white person being believed over someone who's Black.

The book starts out slowly with a sense of paranoia and unease, and a lot of secrets and things left unexplained. Once things start to happen about halfway through, though, it's like train at full speed and I couldn't stop reading. I wish I loved the ending more. It could've slowed down a bit more, with a little more explanation <spoiler>I'm not sure how I feel either about the villain being ALL the cops, lawyers, neighbors, and government officials being really evil and having unlimited resources. Maybe this is coming from a place of white privilege, but it seemed like a lot</spoiler>. But still a great read that made me think while also making me very creeped out.

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for an advance review copy!

Gifford Place is a black community in Brooklyn NY, where neighbors always greet each other and look in on their elderly. Most of the residents have been there for years, have seen the changes in the city, and now fear the gentrification seeping into their neighborhood.
Change can be good when it benefits everyone. The new families moving into Gifford Place want change on their terms, and will do anything to make it happen. Money can buy anything, and when it can't then murder is always an option.

This may be the best thriller of 2020! I was immediately sucked into the book with the build up of the changes happening the Gifford Place. The neighborhood that is described is likeable and realistic, and i wanted the characters to stay there forever. The outrage I felt when the changes start happening lead to several WTF moments. I kept asking myself, "Did that really just happen" and more often, "No they didn't just say that".
Sydneys secret shocked me. Theos history shocked me. The plot twist can only be described as incredibly unexpected and insane, definitely giving you the on the edge of your seat feeling. I don't think I have ever turned pages so fast. My heart rate skyrocketed as I went on the ride of this book. Yes I shouted at the book, causing my husband to run into the room.
Please make this a movie. Please make the movie exactly like the book. @alyssacolelit please write another crazy thriller immediately! I'm hooked. i don't think there's another thriller in 2020 that can touch this one.

10/10 stars

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW: When No One is Watching is a contemporary fiction/thriller novel written by Alyssa Cole and set for publication September 1, 2020. This novel is being published by HarperCollins Publishers by their William Morrow Paperbacks division. Cole has won multiple awards and accolades for her works, including historical, contemporary, and sci-fi romance novels. The tagline for this novel reads, “Rear Window meets Get Out in this gripping thriller from a critically acclaimed and New York Times Notable author, in which the gentrification of a Brooklyn neighborhood takes on a sinister new meaning…”

PLOT RUNDOWN/BASICS: Sydney Green has returned home to the Brooklyn neighborhood she’s spent her entire life in, save those few years she doesn’t want to think about in Seattle. She’s left her ex-husband there, with his controlling ways and abusive tendencies, and she’s settled into her new role as caretaker for her ailing mother. She’s even started a new project of her own: a “real” history tour, one focusing on the contributions of people of color in her historically black neighborhood, in response to the white-washed tour of homes she recently took.

But time passes, and her mother declines, and Sydney finds herself aimlessly wandering through the area she’s known so well for years. Her neighbors’ names, their children, their habits, their jobs - these are all things that have imprinted on her very being, and made her an integral part of the Gifford Place family. But an ominous pall has settled over the street, and things are changing rapidly and alarmingly. Neighbors aren’t just selling their homes; they’re vanishing completely, and without telling anyone where they’re going. Entire storefronts disappear overnight, to be replaced with generic cafes and organic sandwich shops. New, lighter-skinned residents are incredibly quick to pick a fight with their older neighbors and call the authorities - men in uniform who never seem to pick the side of the “angry” black residents who are being targeted.

Sydney knows the often-buried history of her neighborhood, and New York and America writ large; she’s no stranger to the cultural death toll that gentrification takes, or how it remakes entire neighborhoods and wipes out generations of minorities in the blink of an eye. But her gut is telling her that all of these mysterious happenings, and the sudden presence of threatening individuals and police patrols, are no coincidence, and that something more sinister is actually happening.

Together with Theo - her new white neighbor from across the street, who has his own dark secrets to contend with - she digs into the truth behind the new pharmaceutical company that’s moving into the neighborhood and causing these sweeping changes. Can she trust Theo with her own terrible truth, and if so, can they work together to find out the truth behind the implosion of Gifford Place? And even if they find the answers they’re looking for...can they stop it?

MY THOUGHTS: Cole has been receiving industry buzz for this novel in recent weeks, including a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly - and let me just say that I, like these reviewers, was absolutely blown away by this novel. Her previous works in the sci-fi romance and historical genres have passed me by, but I for one am so grateful this book found its way into my hands this year.

I finished this book in less than 24 hours - in fact, it’s safe to say I actually DEVOURED it. (With two young attention-seeking kids, and multiple loads of laundry and dishes to do for the upcoming school week, natch.) The story flips back and forth between the perspectives of Sydney - the protagonist who’s watching the Brooklyn neighborhood of her youth fall prey to a greedy and malevolent gentrification - and Theo, her new (white) neighbor across the street with secrets of his own. It’s gritty, it’s realistic, and it’s enthralling.

Cole skillfully - and seemingly effortlessly - weaves together threads of contemporary fiction, the darkest parts of American history, and the creeping dread that something terrible is happening and cannot be stopped. And if you are an empath, or if books actually physically affect you - by leaving you feeling overwhelmed, claustrophobic, or irritated when the characters are in seemingly no-win situations - then you will FEEL that dread. You will feel it in your bones, and you might want to stop turning the pages...but you can’t.

Cole knows that this level of unease and discomfort is necessary to accurately portray what Sydney is going through. The atrocities perpetuated throughout history - our own American history, on our own land, by people we’ve deemed heroes instead of monsters - SHOULD indeed make us feel uncomfortable. And in achingly realistic scenes that mirror headlines today, we see militaristic policemen arresting young black men with no reason, and patrolling a peaceful neighborhood multiple times a day to maintain a semblance of power. There’s also a rage-inducing scene depicting a belligerent, rich white man taking over a piece of land with both a fake deed and the full support of the corrupt local police department. The officers threaten the “angry black” person - who actually has true legal ownership of the land - with arrest for refusing to leave. “The police came for [him]. The knowledge that it can happen just like that, that they can show up and ruin your life, feels like an itch in the middle of my back that I can’t reach,” Sydney bemoans.

Cole wants us to know that just turning a blind eye to entire infrastructures and systems that perpetuate this racism is not acceptable, and it’s costing people everything even now, in 2020 - their homes, their hopes and dreams, even their lives. If it’s shocking to read some of the historical facts presented in this novel - including detailed and historically accurate information about how we turned the loss of slavery into a successful ongoing system of oppression and voter suppression - I think we really need to sit with it and ask ourselves why. (The same with the incredibly tense ending to this novel, and the depictions throughout the book of violence, murder, and bloodshed.) We’re meant to ask ourselves why we’ve been trained to see these things as okay in certain situations, but not in others.

And Cole does all of this with a literary magnificence and such beautiful prose that I really hesitate to label this book as a “thriller,” considering what usually passes in that genre. As Sydney’s neighborhood becomes more and more alien to her, she stares out at the bleak beacons of change, complete with cranes that have “the American flags attached to them flapping darkly in the wind, signaling that they came in peace when really they were here to destroy. To remake. … The landscape of my life is unrecognizable.” You can’t miss this metaphor.

Sydney learns, as we do while reading the book, that this travesty is nothing new. “People bury the parts of history they don’t like, pave it over like African cemeteries beneath Manhattan skyscrapers. Nothing stays buried in this city, though,” she muses. (Even - horrifyingly - the once-successful slavery theme park, “Black America.”) However, by the end - which is explosive, shocking, and yet satisfying after such a heavy journey - she learns that the power always belongs to those who band together to right the wrongs: “Bad things happen in this world, every minute of every day. We try to stop them, when we can, how we can. We try to look out for one another.”

I liked this book but did not love it for several reasons. There was so much profanity that frustrated me to the point that I was having a hard time reading the book. There were way too many topics going on and then the book just basically was over all at once. I enjoyed parts but the book as a whole frustrated my as a reader.

I confess that I feel entirely inadequate to reviewing When No One is Watching. Thrillers are’t usually my genre. This thriller is layered with racial politics and I didn’t give myself nearly enough time to digest and process. As a white woman of a certain age, I assuredly missed nuances. Despite all of my reservations about myself as a reviewer for this book, I highly recommend it.

Sydney Green has moved back to her mother’s brownstone in Brooklyn after a divorce and professional failure. Her mother’s health has declined, adding to Sydney’s stress and grief. Sydney is delightfully snarly and messy. Her best friend accuses her of “panning for gold on Fuckboy Creek.” Initially she questions her perception of the changes happening around her. She treats herself like an unreliable narrator. All through the book, the foundations of her life are knocked askew, but she gains strength and confidence as she has to rely on herself.

Theo and his now ex-girlfriend, Kim, bought the brownstone across the street. Theo is recently unemployed and forced to live in the house he bought with his ex as a second class citizen. He is also unsure of the ground under his feet and noticing the weird goings on in the neighborhood. He thought he was buying a house and solidifying his relationship. The white people in the neighborhood expect him to be on their side, which will create a familiar tension for many readers.

I think the more you know about gentrification and how Black communities have been prevented from accumulating wealth, the scarier this book will be. The things that happen in this book echo things that have happened in real life. One of the scariest elements is realizing that there does not need to be an organized conspiracy to rip apart Black communities and ruin people’s lives.

Along with being tense, When No One is Watching is also gripping, funny, and heartbreaking. The rescue is tremendously satisfying, and the ending left me feeling a bit like the little boy at the end of Time Bandits.

I’m looking forward to rereading this many more times. I think I’ll actually enjoy it more no that I know how it ends.

I received this as an arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am sure that the author hadn't thought that this would be such a timely read. Unfortunately, the events of this book could happen. Neighborhoods could realistically have this happen. The writing was really good and the suspense was plentiful.