WATCH ME
For fans of dark and twisty psychological thrillers, Watch Me is a riveting novel of suspense about how far obsession can go.
Kate Youngblood is disappearing. Muddling through her late 30s as a creative writing professor at Blackwood college, she’s dangerously close to never being noticed again. The follow-up novel to her successful debut tanked. Her husband left her for a woman ten years younger. She’s always been bright, beautiful, independent and a little wild, but now her glow is starting to vanish. She’s heading into an age where her eyes are less blue, her charm worn out,
For fans of dark and twisty psychological thrillers, Watch Me is a riveting novel of suspense about how far obsession can go.
Kate Youngblood is disappearing. Muddling through her late 30s as a creative writing professor at Blackwood college, she’s dangerously close to never being noticed again. The follow-up novel to her successful debut tanked. Her husband left her for a woman ten years younger. She’s always been bright, beautiful, independent and a little wild, but now her glow is starting to vanish. She’s heading into an age where her eyes are less blue, her charm worn out, and soon no one will ever truly look at her, want to know her, again.
Except one.
Sam Grist is Kate’s most promising student. An unflinching writer with razor-sharp clarity who gravitates towards dark themes and twisted plots, his raw talent is something Kate wants to nurture into literary success. But he’s not there solely to be the best writer. He’s been watching her. Wanting her. Working his way to her for years.
As Sam slowly makes his way into Kate’s life, they enter a deadly web of dangerous lies and forbidden desire. But how far will his fixation go? And how far will she allow it?
A gripping novel exploring intense obsession and illicit attraction, Jody Gehrman introduces a world where what you desire most may be the most dangerous thing of all.
- St. Martin's Griffin
- Paperback
- January 2018
- 320 Pages
- 9781250144027
Buy the Book
$15.99
About Jody Gehrman
Jody Gehrman has authored several novels and numerous plays for stage and screen. Her young-adult novel, Babe in Boyland, won the International Reading Association’s Teen Choice Award and was optioned by the Disney Channel. Jody’s plays have been produced or had staged readings in Ashland, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and L.A. Her full-length, Tribal Life in America, won the Ebell Playwrights Prize and received a staged reading at the historic Ebell Theater in Los Angeles. She and her partner David Wolf won the New Generation Playwrights Award for their one-act, Jake Savage, Jungle P.I. She holds a Masters Degree in Professional Writing from the University of Southern California and is a professor of Communications at Mendocino College in Northern California.
Praise
“Riveting, chilling, and page-turning. Be prepared to stay up all night.”—New York Times bestselling author Lisa Scottoline
“Jody Gehrman’s Watch Me is a mesmerizing, intimate, and utterly terrifying journey inside the mind of a psychopath and his prey. Sam’s obsession with Kate will make you uncomfortable, but you won’t be able to look away. Sharp, twisted, and seductive, Gehrman has written the ultimate cat-and-mouse thriller.”—Jennifer Hillier, author of Jar of Hearts
“Mesmerizing and provocative, Watch Me is a riveting tale of a writer, her student, and an obsession that has gone too far. Page by page, Gehrman turns up the tension on a story that is intricately plotted and impossible to put down.”—Paula Treick DeBoard, author of Here We Lie and The Drowning Girls
Discussion Questions
1. Sam’s obsession with Kate begins from a distance; he found Kate’s book when he was seventeen and loved it, but he could learn little about her online. What do you see as the basis for his obsession? Was it arbitrary, or can the connection between writer and reader constitute a sufficient catalyst for a passionate fixation?
2. Do you see any similarities between Eva and Kate? Does there seem to be a common reason Sam was drawn to each of them?
3. Kate puts a lot of power in the idea of being seen by another person. What does it mean to her? How does this need make Kate vulnerable and how does it make her powerful?
4. How does Zoe’s pregnancy affect Kate’s state of mind at the beginning of the novel? How does Zoe’s transformation from expecting mother to new mom over the course of the book change Kate and Zoe’s dynamic?
5. Raul seems like a potential partner for Kate in many ways; he’s financially stable, age-appropriate, and attractive. Why does Kate fail to fall for him? In what ways does dating Raul affect Kate’s feelings for Sam?
6. Sam’s mother makes several appearances in the novel. How does she deepen or complicate your perception of Sam as a character?
7. What role does Jess play in the novel? What does she represent to Sam? Is this different from Kate’s perception of Jess?
8. Kate admires Sam’s writing but frequently finds it disturbing. Do you agree with the point made by Kate’s dean, Frances Larkin, when she says it’s “absurd” for Kate to take issue with violence in a student’s work when her own books are equally violent? As a reader, do you find some forms of violence more disturbing than others?
9. Does the ending of Watch Me romanticize or condone violence? Why or why not?