When No One is Watching – Cannonball Read 17

“People bury the parts of history they don’t like, pave it over like African cemeteries beneath Manhattan skyscrapers.”

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

August 17, 2022 by faintingviolet 6 Comments

Thrillers aren’t usually my genre. Is that why When No One Is Watching is good but not great for me? Possibly. But we read out of our comfort zones on purpose so that maybe the next one is better, or that we’re more ready for it. This is another book that hopped to the front of the to read line based on this year’s Read Harder Challenge which has a task specifically for reading a political thriller by a marginalized author and this fits the […]

This one was a win for me!

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole

October 28, 2020 by narfna 3 Comments

This was a little funky in places, a little shaky on its feet, but overall I really enjoyed reading it. This is billed as a thriller, but it also has elements of romance, horror, and mystery in it. I was super stoked when I heard Alyssa Cole was trying her hand at another genre (she normally writes romance, both historical and contemporary). I’ve been hit or miss with her books, particularly her contemporary stuff, so I was really curious to see what she could do […]

Thrills and Chills

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole

September 16, 2020 by Jake 2 Comments

This is one I was eager to get my hands on given the premise and the reviews. It didn’t disappoint, being one of the best books I read this year and, along with Long Bright River, one of the best new releases of 2020. This book is so many things but at the heart, it’s really a tale of suspense. A lot obviously depends on your perspective (I’m a cishet white guy) but Cole is excellent at blending the existential dread of the Black experience in […]

The Devil at Your Elbow

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

August 31, 2020 by Emmalita 2 Comments

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 […]

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