Watching You by Lisa Jewell Review

I have recently gotten back into listening to audiobooks, and one author I’ve been enjoying is Lisa Jewell. I started with a book by her called None of This is True and proceeded to listen to other works of hers. The book I wish to discuss today is Watching You. I’m not sure what the theme of the book was, but there were a lot of neighbors watching each other, thinking they knew what was going on with their neighbor, and the end of the book contained lots of surprises. The character I wish to focus on is Freddie. Freddie is a high school-aged child who wants to understand girls/ women but doesn’t understand how to interact with them. He takes photos of girls he likes from his bedroom window. The internal conflict Freddie has about taking these photos was quite interesting. The images aren’t inappropriate, necessarily. Somebody could argue that he’s taking pictures of them, to begin with, and that behavior is unacceptable. Freddie spends a lot of time wrestling with whether he should be taking the photos. He decides to stop taking the pictures and get to know the young women he’s been photographing for the individuals they are. 

In high school, I wanted to be able to date. I desperately wanted a boyfriend, especially in my junior and senior years. I never took photos of the young men I had a crush on, but I can relate to how confused and frustrated Freddie was trying to get to know the opposite sex. Besides taking photos, he does follow some of the girls home. I didn’t understand how, in the story, they didn’t hear or notice him following them. After following one girl to the mall, he buys her the skirt he saw her admiring in the window of a store. He then drops it off at her home with a note that says it’s from an admirer. He does this again with a girl he likes; he buys her the dress she wants for a winter formal. In this case, he sees a picture she posted of her trying on the dress on Instagram. I don’t condone Freddie’s behavior, but I can relate to his utter confusion regarding dating. I did not understand how to get a date or date or have a boyfriend in high school. I would read articles about how to have a successful romantic relationship. I had plenty of knowledge of what to do when I was already in a relationship, but the articles were scant on finding someone to date. I didn’t start dating until college, which worked well for me. Freddie finds his way and eventually starts dating, having found someone he connects with and understands. 

Freddie’s existence in his family dynamic was interesting. I didn’t understand why his parents didn’t take more interest in his activities. Did they never go into their son’s bedroom? If they had, they would have noticed the camera he was using to take photos of those in their neighborhood. He has to ask them for money to buy the skirt and dress; he tells his mother that this is for a school project. My parents would have asked to see the details of said project. Throughout the book, it becomes clear that his parents are engaged in a rather unhealthy dynamic that eats up a lot of their emotional energy. I can only guess this is why they aren’t more involved in his life. Freddie often wonders if his family’s dynamic is typical. He has difficulty trusting his judgment and can’t tell what is normal for a family in reference to his family dynamics and what is not normal. I did not grow up in a family dynamic close to what Freddie experiences. What I can say is that I did have a hard time trusting my instincts because, often, I wasn’t aligned with the correct or polite way of doing things. It took a lot of therapy to understand that my instincts are, in fact, healthy and good. 

I enjoy works of fiction that compassionately and accurately portray the experiences of those with autism. I enjoyed this work of fiction, and I’d be curious to hear others’ opinions on this character.