To hold onto her community’s past and present, Sydney channels her frustration into a walking tour and finds an unlikely and unwanted assistant in one of the new arrivals to the block-her neighbor Theo.īut Sydney and Theo’s deep dive into history quickly becomes a dizzying descent into paranoia and fear. Their neighbors may not have moved to the suburbs after all, and the push to revitalize the community may be more deadly than advertised. Condos are sprouting like weeds, FOR SALE signs are popping up overnight, and the neighbors she’s known all her life are disappearing. Sydney Green is Brooklyn born and raised, but her beloved neighborhood seems to change every time she blinks. Rear Window meets Get Out in this gripping thriller from a critically acclaimed and New York Times Notable author, in which the gentrification of a Brooklyn neighborhood takes on a sinister new meaning…

This is a terrific read.' – Alafair Burke, New York Times bestselling author 'I was knocked over by the momentum of an intense psychological thriller that doesn’t let go until the final page. Combined with the exclusion of Black figures from Zephyr’s brownstone tour, this quote evokes the dark history of racist events in the United States that are often buried or entirely omitted from the mythology of American success.An instant NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLER! Applied more specifically, the reference to pavement in the quote alludes to the prominent road white people constructed through a Black graveyard in historical Weeksville. This thematic observation encapsulates the nature of events throughout the novel, beginning with the discarded photo album Theo finds in the trash and ending with the literal destruction of Black people through opioid experimentation in order to save white lives. Importance: This quote distills Sydney’s opening rumination on racism and gentrification into a solitary point: Black culture is destroyed for white progress. People bury the parts of history they don't like, pave it over like African cemeteries beneath Manhattan skyscrapers.

When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole