Something to Read: ‘When No One Is Watching’
Mysteries are not usually my genre of choice, but the premise of Alyssa Cole’s “When No One Is Watching” caught my attention. The novel has been described as a combination of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” and Jordan Peele’s “Get Out.” After reading it, I have to say that’s pretty accurate.
At the center of the story is Sydney Green. Sydney is a Brooklyn native who has returned to her beloved borough after her marriage meets a traumatic end. She finds comfort in the rhythm of her block: the neighbors she’s known all her life, the bodega on the corner. But then the neighborhood begins to change. Rapidly.
Overnight, her Black neighbors are being replaced by affluent white newcomers. Her former neighbors vanish without a trace and with no notice, almost as if someone or something removed them. Sydney begins to dig into what is going on, and what she finds is astounding but also entirely believable.
Swarthmore Public Library is hosting a virtual conversation with the book’s author, Alyssa Cole, on March 8 from 7 to 8 p.m. Participants will receive the Zoom link two days before the event. Register here.
