Watching You: A Novel

“It’s an innocuous room, bland even. A kitchen like a million other kitchens all across the country. A kitchen for drinking coffee in, for doing homework and eating breakfast and reading newspapers in. Not a kitchen for dark secrets or crimes of passion. Not a kitchen for murdering someone in.”

The author emphasizes the crime scene’s ordinary and unremarkable nature, highlighting its function as a space for everyday activities and emphasizing the contrast between the mundane space and the “dark secrets” and “crimes of passion” of the text’s central mystery. This juxtaposition heightens the initial tension and establishes a world in which appearances frequently differ from realities. The novel’s domestic setting is also reminiscent of the suburban environment of many novels within the thriller genre.

“The houses of Melville Heights popped like a row of children’s building blocks: red, yellow, turquoise, purple, lime, sage, fuchsia, red again. They sat atop a terraced embankment looking down on the small streets of Lower Melville like guests at a private party that no one else was invited to. Iconic was the word that people used to describe this row of twenty-seven Victorian villas: the iconic painted houses of Melville Heights. Joey had seen them from a distance for most of her life. They were the sign that she was less than twenty minutes from home on long car journeys of her childhood. They followed her to work; they guided her home again.”

The passage depicts the houses of Melville Heights, heavily relying on figurative language to establish their effect on the residents of the neighborhood. The contrast between the physically elevated and colorful houses and the small streets of Lower Melville creates a tension between exclusivity and inclusivity. On the one hand, the houses fill Joey with a sense of familiarity and homecoming. On the other, they are the “guests at a private party that no one else was invited to.” This interplay between public and private spaces hints at the frequent tension between surfaces and interiorities in the novel.

“She saw his face as he turned left out of the shop. It held the residue of a smile. His upturned mouth made a different shape of his face. It turned up more on one side than the other. An eyebrow followed suit. A hand went to his silver-tipped hair as the wind blew it asunder. The smile turned to a grimace and made another shape of his face again. His jaw hardened. His forehead bunched.”

Joey first sees Tom, and this initial description develops his ambiguity. The text never provides access to his interiority, forcing other characters to interpret his appearance and actions. The shape of his face continues to change, contributing to the sense of uncertainty and revealing the need for context to make sense of his expressions.

“But what do you do with an unattainable crush once it’s yours to keep? What does it become? Should there perhaps be a word to describe it? Because that’s the thing with getting what you want: all that yearning and dreaming and fantasizing leaves a great big hole that can only be filled with more yearning and dreaming and fantasizing. And maybe that’s what lay at the root of Joey’s sudden and unexpected obsession with Tom Fitzwilliam. Maybe he arrived at the precise moment that the hole in Joey’s interior fantasy life needed filling.”

The quoted passage explores the nature of fantasy. The author highlights the potential irony of wish fulfillment: when a character gets what they desire, instead of satisfying them, the fulfillment leaves a void that can only be filled with more yearning and fantasizing. The object of fantasy, Tom, is a convenient prop for Joey’s “interior fantasy life.” In this context, Tom becomes an enigmatic figure, described through the eyes of others and serving as a projection of Joey’s desires. The ambiguity surrounding Tom’s character adds to the allure and mystery that fuel Joey’s obsession with him. This also raises questions about the nature of fantasy itself—is it simply a means of filling a void or does it serve a deeper purpose?

“Freddie was not a voyeur. Voyeurism was a form of control, like mental abuse, like rape, like bullying. It was nothing to do with the physicality of the action, and all to do with the feeling of power it gave the perpetrator, the balancing out of delicate ids and egos. But Freddie wasn’t a pervert. He wasn’t a bully. He wasn’t a criminal. He watched girls in order to understand them. He was just trying to work it all out. It was just another project.”

Freddie demonstrates his attention to language, developing the theme of Complex Identities and the Power of Labels. He denies being a “pervert” or “criminal.” Instead, he watches girls in an effort to understand them. Watching people is his solution to both his personal, social difficulties and the larger epistemological challenges of the novel. To him, surveillance is “just another project.” His greatest moment of insight comes later in the text, when he realizes that people aren’t “projects” for him to explore and that his well-intentioned voyeurism is still invasive.

“But Joey’s overriding memory of the weekend was looking at her amazing brother’s slightly mousey new wife and wondering why she wasn’t smiling.”

While this detail—Rebecca’s inability to smile on her wedding day—stays with Joey, she neither understands it nor its importance. On her wedding day, Rebecca is preoccupied by the absence of her dead sister, and her hidden desire for revenge drives the plot of the novel. The novel introduces and quickly moves past Joey’s memory, and its significance is only explained at the end of the text. Throughout the text, characters wrestle with the questions of what matters and why.

“‘Oh, Dad. You’re such a thoroughly good guy, not just saving schools but now rescuing damsels in distress too!’ Freddie couldn’t help himself sometimes. His dad was just so fucking perfect. Or at least that was the overriding narrative. Amazing Tom Fitzwilliam. Isn’t he handsome? Isn’t he clever? Isn’t he charming? Isn’t he tall?”

The quotation showcases the theme of Social Appearances and Deceptive Facades and relates it to Complex Identities and the Power of Labels. The “overriding narrative” of their society paints Tom as an ideal man. According to Freddie, he is “fucking perfect,” and the use of explicit language hints at a possible discrepancy between the facade and reality.

The complex nature of identity is also explored in this quotation. Freddie navigates between admiration and skepticism, raising questions about Tom’s true nature. Commonly available phrases such as “good guy” or “damsels in distress” help shape people’s perception of Tom, but they lack the necessary nuance to describe a complete, complicated individual.

“I really thought that I was growing up at last, Mum. I really thought that getting married and moving back to Bristol was going to be the start of the big new grown-up me. But if anything, I’m regressing. Because that’s the problem […] I’m still just me. Joey the fuckup. Joey the pain. And I wish you were here because I know that was always enough for you. And I’m not sure it’s enough for anyone else.”

In this quotation, Joey expresses her disillusionment with the Fantasies of Adulthood. She had hoped that getting married and starting a new chapter in Bristol would mark a significant change in her life but realizes she is still fundamentally the same person—someone she perceives as a failure and a source of pain. She longs for the unconditional love and acceptance of a mother, wanting to retreat into the safety of childhood. Her monologue highlights the contrast between the idealized fantasies and social markers of adulthood and the reality of personal growth and development.

“‘Nothing much. Just, he’s one of those guys, isn’t he? Women want him. Men want to be him.’ He said this in the style of an American voice-over. ‘Do you want to be him?’ she asked. ‘No,’ said Jack. ‘Not really. But I can see why he might send some more, you know, vulnerable people a bit over the edge. He’s very charismatic. Very attractive. And he has this charm about him. Dashing, almost. As if he could save you from yourself.’”

Jack describes Tom in the tone of voiceover, his guise consciously theatrical. His style emphasizes the performative nature of Tom’s persona. The qualities Jack mentions are all superficial: “charm,” “charisma,” and “attractiveness.” They say nothing about the person within but provide an easy surface for “vulnerable people” to project their salvation fantasies onto. Jack is simultaneously penetrating and oblivious. His observation is astute, but he doesn’t realize that his sister (to whom he is speaking) has adopted this fantasy.

“And then the word came to her, the elusive word she’d been chasing through her thoughts. The look that Mr. Fitzwilliam had given. It had been predatory.”

This quotation ties into the theme of Complex Identity and the Power of Labels. Jenna’s dislike of Tom is largely instinct-driven and relates to a desire to protect her friend and prevent distance in their relationship. It is only once she puts a word to his look, “predatory,” that she begins to evolve darker suspicions about his relationship with Bess.

“He’d done this a hundred times: watched people, followed them about, photographed them. […] something about having his private computer files hacked into had made him feel vulnerable and foolish. Someone had seen the unique mechanics of his own personal world, the world where he was the boss […] it made him feel as though he was doing something wrong, as though he himself was in some way wrong. Freddie did not like feeling wrong. Freddie was never wrong.”

In this passage, Freddie wrestles with evolving perceptions of right and wrong when it comes to other people. His discomfort stems from the realization that someone has opened his private computer files, undermining his sense of control and challenging his perception of himself. The intrusion into his “own personal world” forces him to confront the consequences of his behavior. For him, it raises the question of whether his surveillance is truly harmless or if it is inherently problematic.

“There was crazy stuff swirling about his consciousness, disconnected things randomly hurtling toward each other.”

All three of the POV characters wrestle with conflicting emotions and facets of themselves, setting up the theme: Complex Identity and the Power of Labels. The novel returns to the image of multiple fragments churning about characters’ minds several times.

“‘Stop it, Joey. Please. Just stop it. Because the thing is, the longer you tell yourself you’re a loser, the more likely it is that that’s what people will see you as. And you’re not. You’re superb. And you know…’ She plucked at the cuffs of her thin blouse. ‘I knew someone very like you, once upon a time.’ […] ‘She killed herself.’ Joey gulped and stared at Rebecca. ‘Oh my God,’ she said, ‘who was it?’ Rebecca pulled her cuffs down over the heels of her hands. She looked up at Joey again and said, ‘She was my baby sister.’”

This quotation is the only conversation in which Rebecca discusses her sister, the motive for her revenge, before the murder. She relates Joey to Viva, and talks about self-perception, the impact of negative beliefs, and the tragic consequences of low self-esteem. It highlights the theme of Complex Identity and the Power of Labels. When repeated, these words have power—the more that someone looks at themselves as something, the more others will perceive them that way.

“And so, although I think my father is a great man I also, at the exact same time, think he may be one of the worst men I know. […] And I want to know, in a way; I want to know a truth-based bad fact about him so that I can properly decide what I think. Because it’s hard having two opinions, two types of feeling, both at the same time. I would prefer just to have one.”

Freddie struggles to understand his father Tom, trying to reconcile polar extremes into a singular viewpoint. Both his characterizations of Tom and his rejection of their contradictions get in the way of his relationship with his father. Tom is neither the hero nor the villain of this story. Both people and relationships are complex in this novel and attempts to demonize or idolize them backfire for characters.

“And slowly the hurricane inside her head had started up again. And then Tom Fitzwilliam had appeared above the maelstrom, looming tall and handsome, floodlight bright over the whirling and the wheeling of her thoughts, and it seemed that every minute she spent thinking about Tom was a minute not spent thinking about her crap job and her overgrown roots and her stultifying fear of taking the necessary steps toward a solid and fulfilling adulthood.”

This quote exemplifies the appeal of the novel’s Fantasies of Adulthood. Metaphor-rich language highlights the allure of Joey’s fantasies. She prefers to reimagine herself and other people, losing herself in a “maelstrom” rather than dealing with her immediate problems. Within this storm, Tom appears as a bright light, a beacon of hope and distraction, but this coping mechanism interferes with actual improvement and growth.

“‘I am clever,’ he said. ‘But I am also quite shy and find making friends very difficult, and I think I make some really bad mistakes with people, and I misunderstand them, and it might be useful for me now, maybe, to have some extra support. I’d like my label please.’”

The quotation reveals Freddie’s burgeoning self-awareness and his desire for a framework to understand himself better. The language is more straightforward than Freddie’s usual style, which is otherwise marked with irony or poetry. His diagnosis of autism provides him with a commonly available framework for difficulties that have otherwise felt unique and almost insurmountable. In addition to self-understanding, the label offers him access to better interpersonal communication and “support.” This moment in the text highlights the importance of language and labels.

“Joey suddenly realized that the ache inside her, the burning flame of desire that had informed her entire existence for the last three months—it wasn’t profound. It wasn’t meaningful. It was simply an itch that needed to be scratched, no more profound than any other itch she’d ever had. And surely her life should be more than just a long, unfulfilling process of itch-scratching.”

When Joey enters the hotel and plans to take real, irrevocable action on her infatuation, she realizes that her feelings aren’t “profound” at all. The grandiose depiction of a “burning flame of desire” gives way to the classification of her fantasy as an utterly banal “itch.” Disillusioned, she wants to reclaim control of her life. Instead of the “unfulfilling process of itch-scratching,” she believes her life can be “more.” In this passage, Joey exposes her previously held ideas about Tom and their connection as romanticizations of a common urge.

“‘She’s cruel and she’s dark and you—you’re the opposite! From the moment I saw you that day in the bar at the Melville, when you knocked over those leaflets, I could just tell; you were so good and so bright and so pure. Everything that Nicola isn’t. And I wanted you so much, more than I ever wanted anything in my whole life.’

[…] Tom Fitzwilliam had not brought her here to scratch an itch. He’d brought her here to rescue him.”

Joey grapples with her illusions about Tom, which can’t survive an encounter with the real person. She also discovers that Tom has been using her in just the same way, fantasizing about someone who is “good and bright and pure” as an escape from his relationship with Nicola. Each has identified the other as a potential source of salvation. Between the two, it is the superficially perfect Tom in the more immediately dangerous, violent situation. The quote explores the fantasies characters develop about one another instead of taking proactive action in their lives or genuinely connecting. It ties into the themes of Social Appearances and Deceptive Facades and Fantasies of Adulthood.

“‘And look!’ He held a sheaf of paper in his hand, large paper printouts of photographs. ‘These were left on her body. I don’t understand!’ Freddie stared at them for a moment or two before he realized what he was looking at. They were his photos. Of Jenna. And Bess. He hadn’t looked at them for so long, and blown up to this size they looked obscene, crude, twisted.”

Freddie confronts his mother’s death and the role that his pictures played in it. While he has largely stopped his surveillance, unsettled by its invasiveness, he here confronts his actions in an exaggerated form. The pictures of Jenna and Bess are here doubly “twisted.” He had no right to take them in his quest to understand teenage girls and has since accepted that there’s an “obscene” element to his appropriation of their images. On the other hand, the blown-up pictures don’t belong to Nicola or Tom. Rebecca hacked into their computer and misidentified their source, which confirmed her decision to kill Nicola. Both Freddie and Rebecca invade other people’s privacy, and their resulting insights are distorted.

“Rose casts her gaze across the room, taking in the things she hoped to find in here. There, on the desk, a photograph of a smiling teenage girl with long dark hair, her arm around a Border collie. Tucked in the corner is the cutout of Jack Mullen. Rose moves to the bay window. From here she can see virtually the whole of Lower Melville Village. She can also see into the mirror bay of the Fitzwilliams’ house. She looks down at the spot below where Mrs. Tripp sat last night in the undergrowth watching the houses of Melville Heights and then glances back at Rebecca’s desk, her chair tucked neatly beneath it.”

The quotation offers us a detective’s perspective of Rebecca’s domain, the office in which she spends the bulk of the novel. We see the picture of teenage Viva and the various lines of sight, both what Rebecca would see from the bay window and the extent to which she is visible to other people. Rebecca found a position from which she could observe the Fitzwilliams and brood over their crimes against her sister. She would be mostly hidden from view unless she stood at the window, making it impossible for Frances to have seen her sitting at her desk the night before. Standing where Rebecca has stood allows Detective Pelham to recreate the other woman’s literal perspective and better guess her thoughts and feelings.

“[Joey] wondered if that was how it worked, that while most women spent their lives searching for the perfect man, men sat around waiting to be chosen and then made the best of it.”

The quotation explores the theme of gender dynamics and Joey’s perception of male passivity within romantic relationships. The contrast between women and men challenges traditional stereotypes of male pursuit and female receptivity. Men are left to make “the best of it,” and the element of resignation reinforces their passivity. The quotation also ties into the novel’s many failures of understanding. Both Jack and Tom find themselves married to murderers they never understood, in part because their approach to their relationships was passive.

“Babies did that to you: they pinned you down in the moment at precisely the same time as hurtling you into the future and hitching you back to the past.”

This quotation asserts the transformative impact of taking care of a child, which forces a person to navigate three different temporal experiences: being present (“pinned down in the moment”), looking ahead (“hurtling you into the future”), and reflecting on what has been (“hitching you back to the past”). Joey has struggled to move forward in her life, and the bulk of the narrative is divided between a present investigation and the past leading up to the crime. In Part 4, the novel jumps forward in time, reflecting the characters’ growth.

“Daddy will have told you about my little sister, Viva, and what happened to her. But I really want you to hear it from me, because the answers to all your questions are contained in the way I felt about her, and that’s not something anyone but me can really express.”

This quotation reinforces the importance of personal narratives and firsthand accounts in understanding complex situations, particularly given the subjective nature of experiences and feelings. The “answers” are “contained” in the emotions that shape Rebecca’s viewpoint, which no one else can convey. The text highlights the challenge of bridging the gap between differing viewpoints.