When I was reading through the categories for Read Harder 2023 challenge, I was stymied by number 23: Read a social horror, mystery, or thriller novel. I had no idea what a social horror novel was. I had never heard of this genre. I did a quick search for “social horror” and found a few lists. Wouldn’t you know, it turns out I love this genre! The Only Good Indians, Lovecraft Country, Mexican Gothic (which admittedly I loved in concept but not execution) are all social horror. When No One is Watching was on a few best-of lists and it was available at my local library as an audiobook, so I snagged it. What a ride!
Rich white folks and other non-black people of color are moving into Gifford Place, a historically Black New York neighborhood. Sydney, a Black woman, grew up in the neighborhood and she’s seeing the neighborhood transform over night. People are being pushed out of homes that have been in their family for generations. Businesses are shuttering. And a police presence is way up. Theo is a white man who has purchased one of these homes while caught in a tricky relationship with an absolute nightmare of a woman, who is also white. This woman has a framed photo of Michelle Obama on her mantle but also threatened to call the cops on Sydney because Sydney pointed out that this lady cut in front of her at the bodega. And then she cried on Theo’s shoulder because she was scared after Sydney “attacked” her. Yikes! These are the people moving into a historically Black neighborhood.
Anyway, Theo and Sydney team up to do research together for a tour of Gifford Place that Sydney wants to put on. She wants to educate people on the real history of Gifford Place from as far back as the Indigenous People who first lived on that land all the way up to the generations of Black residents still there. But the threads of the neighborhood continue to unravel as Sydney and Theo uncover insidious plots to “rejuvenate” the neighborhood.
Author Alyssa Cole manages to build an incredible amount of tension throughout the entire book. In addition to the neighborhood changing so rapidly and the stress those changes cause the long-term residents, Sydney is not sure how much of what she’s experiencing is really happening. Her mother is away in a nursing home and her best friend won’t talk to her. Sydney has to hold everything that she’s feeling all to herself creating a powder keg. And what an explosion she causes in the end. But Cole keeps things balanced; she offsets the tension she builds with frequently hilarious but always acerbic social commentary and satire.
Read Harder Challenge #23 – Read a social horror, mystery, or thriller novel
CBR Passport Challenge #4 – New to you authors
