Her neighbors are in real, impending danger.Ĭole illuminates the history of gentrification, its effects on the housing market, and the overwhelmingly negative effects on predominantly Black communities. However, despite their initial dissonance, their bond deepens when Sydney and Theo begin to uncover mysterious happenings in the neighborhood that are not just Sydney’s imagination. Theo is white and trying too hard to be 'woke,' often to the annoyance of Sydney. Sydney reluctantly tasks her new neighbor, Theo, with helping her research. Frustrated by a walking tour of her neighborhood that fails to recognize the contribution of Black residents, Sydney decides to create her own walking tour to preserve Black history. She can’t help but notice the changes in her neighborhood and the character and structure of the people and places she has cherished as a child rapidly fading. Fresh off a divorce, Sydney returns to her Brooklyn neighborhood to help care for her sick mother. Sydney is smart and confident, whose expletive-laced dialogue masks a vulnerability. Is this just a case of sad economic reality? Or is something more sinister happening?Ĭole creates a strong Black female heroine in Sydney Green. Lifelong Black residents of the neighborhood are suddenly vanishing without a trace with their beloved homes up for quick sales as white residents assume ownership. It was a completely different take on thrillers with the social commentary of gentrification and racism and the importance of history and different cultures to make one really important story about how we have to do better at making sure that we are silenced, and that we continue to make sure our history is written down so when people come in to take our spot we know what we’ve gone through and they know we won’t back down." When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole is a psychological thriller that explores Gifford Park, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that is seemingly evolving overnight.
If you’re a lover of thrillers you know exactly how the book is set up, you know how it’s a slow burn from beginning to end and Alyssa really set it up to where when the fire caught? It caught fast and the last 100 pages of the book was by far the most exciting part and I don’t think I have been that pleased with the ending of a thriller in a very long time. Not to mention I just wanted to reach out and tell her I would shoot for her ANYDAY. I actually learned so much from this book and it was humbling to see how many terrible acts of violence against Black people don’t make it into the history books because white history is the standard and we continually get pushed out of places that we have cultivated for our own communities.Ĭan I also get a shout out for the mental health representation in this book? A Black woman going through depression, anxiety, and just overall struggling with the white people in her neighborhood while being a bad bitch and keeping it together? I loved how real and upfront Sydney was. I absolutely loved the duality of perspectives that Alyssa Cole provides as you get to see gentrification from the lens of a Black woman, who is desperately trying to hold onto her community's past and present, and white man, who is navigating his way in a Black space." loved the Black history tidbits that were thrown in there right from the beginning. Can we get an amen? Oh, and he reconciled with how although he meant well, his ignorance about the ramifications of how he came to live in the neighborhood did not absolve him of being part of the problem. When Theo and Sydney pair up to dig into the history of the neighborhood, it is refreshing to see how Theo is confronted with his white privilege. The funny thing is Theo's background is low key not what it seems, so there's that.
Now, enter one of her new white neighbors, Theo, who is intrigued about his new neighborhood and attempts to immerse himself in the community.
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