When No One Is Watching

When No One Is Watching

Adult Dystopia
"'This building has recently been the center of controversy, as
it's one of the proposed sites for the next VerenTech Pharmaceuticals
campus,' Zephyr said. 'There have been many protests by community
activists who don't want the company here, despite the promise of
hundreds of new jobs and the revitalization of the area. Those
against the campus are also upset that an opiod research center is
being placed in a community that they feel was over policed during
their own drug epidemic."
Following a divorce from an abusive ex husband, Sydney,
protagonist of Alyssa Coles' When No One Is Watching, has returned to
her childhood home in the Brooklyn neighberhood she grew up in. She
finds it greatly changed, and not for the better.
Gentrification, probably due to the new corporate entity
mentioned above, is in hyper drive. Long time Black residents are
disappearing, some never to be heard from again. They're being
displaced by well off whites, the kind with an us vs them attitude,
the kind who call the police on every little, usually quite legal,
thing their darker skinned neighbors do. Remaining Black residents
are being targeted relentlessly by realtors looking to make a quick
buck buying properties cheap and selling for a whole lot more.
Sydney is doing historical research for a tour she's doing for
an upcoming neighborhood party. Between what she learns and what she
observes she's realizing that something truly sinister is afoot.
But who's she gonna call? Certainly not the police.
Once you get drawn into the chilling narrative you won't be able
to put it down.
When No One Is Watching is billed as a thriller. I categorize
it as a dystopia because I want you to see the book through a
different lens. Even when thrillers contain a lot of real information
they're purely entertainment. The well written dystopia also calls
for reflection and even action by creating a world just little bit
more sinister than the one its readers inhabit.
Gentrification. Police brutality. Corporate abuse of power in
the service of greed. The scariest thing about the narrative is how
easily it could happen in the not so distant future.
On a purrrsonal note, well I have reached a milestone today. My own
personal 1619 project has been to read and review one race related
book for every year between then and now. Today, June 29, 2021 at
11:21 in the morning I finished reviewing my 403rd book!!! (Remember
some of these reviews haven't been posted yet because they're in my
backlog for when life gets more hectic. It's one of the ways that in
nearly 10 years I've never failed to provide new content.) (Jules)
It is still much too hot. Tonight I hope they turn on the noisy cold
air box thingie. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to all the librarians across the state
of Maine who have given us access to so many fine books.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway



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