Member Reviews
I really enjoyed this book! The story of a woman running cross country from her stalker was sooo good and there were so many suspects. I would have given it 5 stars but it just ends all of a sudden- there's no end to the story. We have no idea how the story ends. If it was a paper book, I'd assume someone tore out the final chapter. That's very disappointing!
Add a chapter and it's a 5!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!
Wow! Joshilyn Jackson delivers yet again! Top of the line story telling. This was so easy to get totally invested in. Lots of tension and twists as well as wonderful characters. Really enjoyed it.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book
Well, that was a wild ride! This psych thriller kept me guessing throughout. I loved the character of Honor. Although the twists were unexpected, a couple were a bit far-fetched and the ending seemed a bit rushed after a lot of built up intrigue. I enjoyed it for overall.
Thank you very much to NetGalley and William Morrow for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Oh how I wanted to love this. I love a good stalker thriller and that part was great but the rest is the book was kind of silly. The multiple men vying for her attention and the dropped bowling ball ending lacked finesse. I'm not sorry I read it but I'm not thrilled by it either
Overview: Terrorized by a stalker who sends her creepy fruit-scented messages, Meribel moves back to Atlanta from LA to escape. When the letters appear at her new home thanks to a neighbor's thoughtless doxxing, Meribel must find a way to keep her and her daughter safe.
What I loved about this book:
I liked Cooper a lot, in the beginning. <spoiler>And then, uh... we found out some stuff.</spoiler>
Honor. This kid is awesome and I love her to death. She needs more stories. I'm not sure how representative she is of a kid with autism but I loved seeing her growth, her blooming friendships, even if they were a little strange. I think she's a little super hero.
I really liked Cam in the ending. I thought his last scene in the story held some incredibly thoughtful and caring actions. He was enough of a good guy anyways, but that last scene was really heartwarming.
I will say, Meribel's ending scene was fantastic - smart, well played, well executed, and ultimately a huge redeeming scene for a character that I felt was otherwise a little lacking. <spoiler>And we will not mention the myrid of choices she had other than 1) going with Marker Man or 2) going into her home. Maybe freeze, like she was saying her auto response was? Go into the cafe? Give the teenagers <b>a look</b> before driving off? </spoiler>
What I didn't love about this book:
I feel like the real story - Honor's story - was totally obscured by Meribel's pattering about. Meribel didn't really do much aside from playing catty with the woman down the hall, stalking her ex's insta (James felt like a really flat red herring that just added one too many men to keep track of), and just... hang out, waiting to be murdered. And this whole, like, wishing her stalker was her ex but secretly harboring feelings for him felt really odd. I found her character a little flat and just couldn't identify with her or understand her.
Honor, however - oh man, this kid. I would have gladly read endless chapters about her and her new friends diving way deeper into this mystery of who the man upstairs is. I would have gladly read chapter upon chapter of Maxene slowly teasing out her story, ending with a "and that's why I'm here to kill him."
<spoiler>I also kind of expected Cooper and Marker Man to be related somehow... so when we got to the ending I was waiting for a big punch that never came. Just two creepy guys who... happen upon the same family.</spoiler>
Overall:
Meribel was super meh but I'm in love with Honor. The book was pretty well-paced, with a few too many love or pseudo love interests. I would pick up another book by this author.
Thanks to William Morrow & Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
This was my first Joshilyn Jackson read and I was excited! This thriller had some unexpected twists for sure! I can usually see them coming, but I was honestly surprised by this one. I really don't want to give anything away. This is not your typical "famous woman vs stalker" storyline. I enjoyed the surprise subplots. You just can't trust (almost) anyone.I enjoyed the multiple perspectives in this story, as well. I highly recommend this thriller.
Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this arc
This book was high on my TRB 2023 list because I loved her other two thrillers (Never Have I Ever and Mother May I), but this one fell flat. The ending felt very rushed and the final reveal of the “Marker Man” didn’t even really make sense. This book could also have benefited from an Epilogue as well. I really wanted to know what happened between the MC and her love interest. While I thought the subplots and mysteries were interesting, I felt like they took away from the main plot.
Thank you for the ARC.
Big thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for a chance to read this ARC! This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it did not disappoint! 4.5 stars, rounded up. If it wasn't for having 2 young children, I could have binged this all in one day! The storyline was engaging and tense in the best way. As the sister of a brother with autism, I absolutely loved how Honor was portrayed as imperfect but also quirky, capable and loving. My main criticism is that it ended so abruptly. I would have REALLY liked a wrap-up chapter bringing some closure to all of the characters storylines. Highly recommend giving this a shot!
Meribel Mills is a mom, approaching 40 and still struggling to hold on to B list acting credentials. She has a very disturbing stalker that police cannot seem to assist with. When she finds evidence that the stalker has been in her condo she travels back to her hometown of Atlanta to protect herself and her autistic child.
Pretty soon she is engaging with a neighbor who might end up being a romantic interest. Her daughter, who struggles with daily social cues has made a friend. But it's not long before the stalker catches up to them and she has to make a choice.
I really enjoy Joshilyn's writing and was fully immersed in this story to start. I love Meribel's stream of conscious, her love for her daughter and her struggle in There are just too many coincidences however in the conclusion for the story to play out in a realistic way for me (I don't mind unrealistic, but the beginning tone does not match the end) .#WilliamMorrow #WithMyLittleEye #JoshilynJackson
I am a total sucker for a book that makes me drop my jaw and clamp my hand over my mouth multiple times and this book is IT! Right up until the very end… I love the first person perspective from the main character and I loooooove the chapters told from her autistic daughter’s POV! Absolutely fascinating! I was warned about the ending and yet I still lost it when it happened! Well done, Ms. Jackson!
Actress Meribel Mills lives with her autistic daughter, Honor, in Atlanta. She has already had to move once to get away from her stalker who she calls "Marker Man" because of the scented notes he has left her at her home in LA.
She meets some neighbors, Cooper, his on-again, off-again girlfriend with her daughter, Sheila. Sheila, along with Honor meet up with a homeless girl who calls herself Xena.
Throw in Meribel's former and possibly future boyfriend, Cam, and other assorted characters, and you have a fast-paced, though sometime confusing, cat-and-mouse game with Meribel trying to figure out who her mysterious stalker is.
A few times it got a little confusing, but in the end all is resolved, though not quite in the way I expected.
It was a pretty good book overall; although, I will admit not one of my favorites by Joshilyn Jackson. I would still recommend it for a thriller.
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.
3 1/2 ⭐️
This was a twisty, fast-paced read that kept me entertained. Unfortunately I never really connected with the protagonist the way I have in other books by this author. The story was compelling but felt a little far fetched at times, and the ending was a bit abrupt.
I enjoyed the perspective of the daughter with autism, and I found myself turning (virtual) pages quickly to see what would happen next. All in all a fun read but not one that will likely stick in my memory for long.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Great book! Flew threw this one and really enjoyed it. Would recommend to anyone. This book caught my eye with the cover alone!
I'm a fan of Joshilyn Jackson's books — and this is by far my favorite. While I generally don't connect with multiple perspectives, With My Little Eye is an example of how this device can be done really well. The suspense was excellent, with layered mysteries and a few surprises. While there are some plot holes and unexplained aspects, overall, this was a fresh addition the thriller genre.
This book was quite different. The beginning seemed to be more about the adults, but as it went on, the teens took more of the center stage. Then the ending tied everything together in a nice, neat package.
Mirabel is our protagonist, an aging actress best-known for a character role on a show called “Belinda’s World”. People still recognize her as “Didi”, and while living in Los Angeles, she developed a stalker. “Marker Man” was named as such because for years, he has been sending Mirabel letters written in those old markers that smell of different foods.
These letters might be love letters in the Marker Man’s mind, but getting letters from a stranger that show drawings of her dying or cut into pieces is, needless to say, chilling. Mirabel packed up Honor, her adopted pre-teen daughter who is on the autism spectrum, and they ran to Atlanta to get away and hide. When she left, she left behind her boyfriend, Cam, but when letters start arriving in Atlanta, she wished she had the military veteran around for help.
She does meet a man in her building named Cooper, and while they have no romantic feelings for each other, they become fast friends and she now has someone close to depend on. She needs it, because the letters arriving in Atlanta aren’t being mailed from LA anymore. The postmarks are getting closer - Marker Man is obviously driving across the country to find her, and she’s desperate to keep herself and her daughter safe.
Speaking of her daughter, I thought the author did a great job of writing from the point of view of a person on the spectrum. From the lack of emotion, to not being able to recognize humor, to not knowing social cues, to the stimming, this was written very well and in a way that people who aren’t very familiar with autism can understand it.
I’d definitely call this a slow-burn mystery/thriller, which slightly turned me off at the beginning of the book. It picked up steam as it went along though, and soon I was invested in the story and who Marker Man may be. We meet a couple of other teenagers, and they added quite a bit to the story. The ending was tense and done very well. I’m giving this a solid four stars - it was far from formulaic and quite a good story!
(Thank you to William Morrow Publishing, Joshilyn Jackson, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on April 25, 2023.)
I was thrilled to get this ARC by one of my favorite authors.
The book is fast-paced, exhilarating (in parts) and has great character depth for the most intriguing cast member, Honor. At the same time the book is glacially slow (in parts) and has a superficial main character who seems to be rooted in adolescence with her juvenile fascination with herself and men - past and present. The ending is crazily abrupt as if someone set a page limit and the book suddenly had to be over.
I enjoyed more parts than not and Honor takes the cake (since she would be honored by these phrases) to bring this in at four stars.
Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read this ARC.
A tense thriller, about a woman, an actress and her daughter, who move across the country to escape her stalker, only to have him follow her there. Many suspects, and not predictable which I liked. This is also a story of a woman learning to love again and her almost teenage, daughter who is autistic, making friends and becoming her own heroine. Likeable characters. Enjoyed this book a lot. 4.5
•Plot: 5/5 (a B/C list actress deals with a stalker)
•Characters: 5/5
•Writing: 5/5
•Ending: 3/5 (so abrupt!)
I should preface this review with the fact that I am a Joshilyn Jackson fan girl. I absolutely adore her- years ago, she got me into Southern fiction and I haven’t looked back. I wish I had 1) filmed my reaction reading this book and 2) had some way to post it said imaginary video. My palms got sweaty, I dropped my Kindle, at one point I even lifted my arms to the heavens in a fit of disbelief. This book is MASTERFUL. My goodness. I don’t want to give anything away, but the way I flip flopped on these characters with each chapter! Jackson’s writing is beautiful, the story is fast paced and layered, I honestly could not put it down. My only (minor) complaint was the abrupt ending. This is a can’t miss.
Special thanks to HarperCollins, William Morrow, and Joshilyn Jackson for my advance copy.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61745949
I received an ARC copy from #netgalley. I have mixed feelings about this one. I liked parts of it. I felt like other parts were confusing and all over the place. It’s my first time reading a book by this author. I didn’t like any of the characters aside from Honor. I just couldn’t get invested in the book. I just reviewed With My Little Eye by Joshilyn Jackson. #WithMyLittleEye #NetGalley