Actual Rating: 3.5

Wow, this was a hard one to rate. It wasn’t a bad read and I actually was quite invested in the outcome, but it was not necessarily a captivating book.

This book follows Karen. When her mother suddenly dies, she’s forced to move back home to Nova Scotia and take care of her disabled sister Kelli. Even though she’s new to everything, at least Trevor, a hired caregiver — and close friend of her mother — is always there to help. Karen grows to depend more and more on him, while at the same time feeling uneasy with his presence; he’s pushy and bossy and seems to make himself a tad bit too comfortable in their home. But what right does she have to say anything when she was the absentee daughter who left to live her own life, the one who only called home once-a-month because it was what was expected?

The plot for this book definitely started out a little too slow for my liking, and it also wasn’t the type of story I was expecting. From the original blurb I thought it would be more thriller/mystery and to be honest I think it does the book a disservice to market it that way — it’s a lot more contemporary/family. I didn’t really get into it until about 40% in. After that, even though I was more invested in the developments between Trevor and Karen, it still very slow, as if we were trudging towards an end result that I already saw coming. Nevertheless, I really appreciate the realistic and subtle way in which emotionally and mentally abusive relationships and questionable power dynamics were portrayed.

At its core, Watching You Without Me was not very character-driven, and Karen was not very likeable because it felt like she kept making bad decisions. HOWEVER. And this is a huge however: I get it. I completely understand the difficulty of recognizing toxicity and bullying when it’s happening to you, and the difficulty in taking any action at all. It feels like Karen does well not as an individual, but in representing a concept, and I’m okay with that.

The writing style was overall pretty good. There were no lines that jumped out at me for their eloquence and it took me a while to get invested, but as a whole I felt like the book wrote a good story and made its reader think.

Overall, I think this would be good for a reader of contemporary fiction, especially one who reads about navigating dysfunctional family dynamics or taking care of a family member with disabilities.

I had previously read Coady's book The Antagonist and was curious to try another. Watching You Without Me is easy to slip into and enjoyable to read although it never quite caught fire for me. I finished it a few weeks ago and have already forgotten many details, which is never a good sign, but it was a solid reading experience/distraction while I was reading it. That was pretty much all I needed and it delivered.

Special thanks to Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

I read this book out of sheer boredom and it peaked my interest. It's about two sisters, Kelli and Karen, Kelli is at home in need of caretakers and her mom, then mom suddenly dies, so Karen finds herself moving back home to care for Kelli.

One of Kelly's caretakers Trevor is always around acting like the perfect caretaker and a shoulder to cry on and someone to talk to, and they get close, but as time goes on, Karen starts to wonder just what kind of relationship Trevor had with her mother before she died and it turns a little sinister. Nothing crazy and a twist I saw coming a mile away. My rating: Lukewarm compared to other books I've been reading lately, but altogether not a bad read.I could've read it in one day, but found myself wanting that thrill of not being able to do anything else but read this and I didn't get it. Shucks!

Well written, I was just hoping for something more sinister. 3 stars!

First, I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book. Karen is back home after her mother dies, and leaves her disabled sister in her care. Karen is a character that I grew to love as the story went along. I understood what she was going through being the sister of a mentally challenged older sister, that requires a lot of work that a girl her age just couldn’t understand at that time. But now that her mother is gone, she has no choice but to take on her mother’s responsibilities.

Karen thought it was going to just drop her sister at a home and head out to her own life, but as she starts to get to know the routines that her own mother has to create for Kelli, her older sister, she started to find out that one of the caregivers, Trevor, is a little OFF. Even when she finally got to understand him, pretty much he was gaslighting her and I find this out as the book was ending, she ends up finding out that he is CRAY!!!!

Oh wow, the things she discovered! I had to stop for a few, and I kept wondering why is it that I waited this long to finish this book? The ending was horrible, I didn’t understand it, it was a little off for me, but the rest of the book was pretty good. This comes to show that you have to always be careful of the people you bring around you, even those who work for you.

Why do we feel the need to be polite to people who cross the line and act inappropriately? Maybe it is part of the Maritimes etiquette which requires us to be friendly and polite. I'd like to believe I would never be a naïve as Karen, but what makes this story so scary is that maybe it actually could happen to me.
“I had forgotten how smallish cities like this one worked, the way people found out about one another—and east coast people had a knack for this in particular.”
Karen’s mother has just died, and her older sister, Kelli, needs a caregiver. So Karen takes a month off work in Toronto to come home to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, to transition her sister into a care home. Her mother left a binder called “Kelli’s World!” which details the programs and helpers that are part of Kelli’s schedule.
One of these helpers is Trevor, who takes Kelli for walks twice a week. Right from the get go, Trevor is annoying. After a few chapters, I want to punch him in the face, and slap Karen because she refuses to set boundaries.
And Trevor is SO inappropriate. Looking back, Karen chalks up her gullibility to grieving for her mother and being overwhelmed with Kelli’s care. But everyone around Karen knows that Trevor is bad news, and his behavior just gets creepier. Karen continues to enable him until she finds herself in a scary situation.
“What was wrong with you, friends always ask when I get to this part of the story.”
Watching You Without Me is a compulsively readable story. It's set in east coast Canada, and I feel right at home among the tea and pop and Coach’s Corner—there is even a nod to Mr. Dressup.
Lynn Coady is a skilled writer. I love it when I discover a great Canadian author. I will be reading more of her novels.

Triggers: gaslighting, sexual abuse

I would like to express my thank to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader's copy of this book. This is my honest review.

Thank you so much to Knopf/Doubleday Publishing, Lynn Coady, and Netgalley for my advanced review copy of Watching You Without Me. This book was a psychological family drama that was just short of creepy. Part of me still doesn’t know what to think about this book, and the other part is WOWed by the great writing.

Thoughts: This story was more of a slow-burn that you could see building over time. It wasn’t necessarily a thriller, but was psychological and was dramatic. I enjoyed the writing style and could easily imagine myself inside this story. I think the character of Kelli is what made me enjoy the book so much, and I was captivated and entertained by her parts of the book. I found myself getting so mad with the main character and found her to be weak-willed and frustrating. I dislike when characters just go along with what is happening and then wonder how they get into terrible situations.

I enjoyed the heartwarming moments in this book, but found myself getting stuck by how annoyed I was with Karen. I liked all of the real life elements to this story and can imagine how realistic this story would be to a health worker. There weren’t many surprises in this book, but I still enjoyed the journey it took me on. In the end I would give it 3.5 stars for a solid and eerie story.

I haven’t read a book set in Nova Scotia before, so I was really looking forward to this book. Karen has returned for the first time in ten years. She’s been dealing with the guilt over the death of her mother from cancer< now she finds herself the caregiver of her developmentally disabled sisters. Trevor, a home care worker, comes to help. And the reader hears the alarms going off, but Karen doesn’t. She needs the help, being a caretaker is exhausting. I’m stopping right there. The story is somewhat predictable, but that ‘s okay. Its also about maturing after you have grown up and how family is important.

In the new psychological thriller, Watching You Without Me, Karen returns home to Nova Scotia to close down her deceased mother’s house. But her original plans to put her “250-pound mentally handicapped” older sister, Kelli, in a group home are upended when she meets the charismatic caregiver, Trevor.

The pacing in this book is more like woman’s fiction or even gothic novels than like a modern thriller. It’s more a slow-boil of atmospheric dread than a race to the conclusion. However, the character building is finely honed. Everyone, even the “villain”, only act as a real person would in the same situation. Nothing they do feels solely like a plot device. Unfortunately, I found the conclusion disappointing so 3 stars. If you like slice-of-life literary fiction, you will probably rate it higher.

Thanks to Knopf Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This novel centers around Karen, who just lost her mother and decides to move back to home to care for her older sister who has severe developmental issues. Cue in Trevor who was a caregiver for Kelli. Trevor tries to worm his was in to this family which leads to the setup for this book.

I expected this book to be a thriller or more high-stakes and it just wasn’t. The story was entertaining enough, but I just wanted more.

http://obsessedbookaholic.com/2020/07/05/watching-you-without-me-book-review/

Thank you NetGalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Fall down the rabbit hole of domestic suspense when you read the pages of WATCHING YOU WITHOUT ME. Not really a thriller, per se, but a haunting, fiercely written tale of secrets and tangled relationships from a fascinating voice in fiction.

This was my first book by Lynn Coady, and I will definitely read others. This particular one wasn't as high-octane as I was thinking from with it being classified as a thriller. Karen returns home once her mother dies to take care of her sister Kelli, with the presumption of transitioning her into a group home. When she arrives, however, she starts to reconsider and also falls under the influence of a caretaker Trevor.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

I felt like the "thriller" aspect was a little forced. I think they could have written the whole book as just a creepy novel about families, disabilities and friendship without the thriller bits. I liked the Canadian setting and the idea was good but it didn't scream thriller or mystery to me. I liked the peek into boundary issues so many women grapple with.

So well written characters that come alive.There are moments that had me on the edge of my seat terrified by what I was reading.#netgalley#knopfdoubleday

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of Watching You Without Me.

This is my first book by this author so I was pleased when my request was approved.

The writing was good; sadly, the plot didn't capture my interest as I thought it would mainly due to the main character, Karen.

Karen has returned to her childhood home to care for her mentally disabled sister, Kelli, after the death of their mother, Irene.

Karen and Irene were estranged for many years and had never reconciled before the older woman's death. As a result, Karen discovers Irene had been relying on Kelli's caregiver, Trevor, a slimy worm who had insinuated himself into the womens' lives.

The story was not as suspenseful and dramatic as I had hoped.

The majority of the narrative is focused on Karen's reminiscences of her mother and childhood, how much she resented Irene caring for Kelli, and her guilt over not having patched things up with her mother.

Karen is an unlikable character; she lacks self esteem and basic street smarts.

She is a doormat, weak, insipid and the decisions she makes is uncharacteristic of an educated woman with two degrees (as she tells the reader herself) who was previously married to a man with similar tendencies.

She allows herself to be bullied, psychologically and emotionally manipulated and continually makes excuses for Trevor's behavior, which is the worst thing anyone can do, validating the actions of an abuser.

The writing was good, but Karen and her ridiculous actions made this a frustrating read.

Suspenseful and wonderfully well written. I appreciated how well formed all of the characters were each one of them resonated with me in some way. Even if it was to terrify me. Highly recommend.

Unfortunately this was a no go for me. I’ve started and stopped it multiple times, but finally gave it a good try. Just not for me.

Lynn Coady explores the complicated and emotional dependency between two caregivers in Watching You Without Me. When Karen (aptly named character, by the way) goes back to her childhood home to care for her mentally challenged sister in the wake of her mother's death, she strikes up a hesitant friendship with one of her sister's caregivers, a man who from the very beginning shows disturbing manipulative tendencies, but Helen refuses to see them.
As the relationship progresses and Trevor burrows himself even deeper with Karen and her sister Kelli, the former begins to have some uncertainties about Trevor, but even so she continues to allow him into her house, yell at her when he pleases and never takes away his key.
The reader will be left confused even in the end, stuck between praising Coady's clear writing talent and wondering how she could have written such an insipid and lackwit character as Karen.