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I Hear You Watching: A Novel
A riveting first-person dive into the mind of a voice-hearer, based on the author's personal experience.
"…this novel is utterly unique and, from a certain perspective, absolutely terrifying." — Goodreads review ★★★★★
"A gripping page turner. You won't put it down." — Amazon review ★★★★★
"The honesty of the author's story telling is disarming, uncomfortable at times, absolutely poetic, and profoundly human." — Goodreads review ★★★★★
Alex hears a voice out his window.
He believes it's his neighbors spying on him. Harassing him.
Are they skilled hackers? Government agents targeting him for a secret social experiment?
Are his friends in on it? The girl he met online? The police?
He'll turn his apartment upside-down to find their observation equipment. Search his own body for microchips. Confront his neighbors face-to-face. Will he hurt the only person who can help him?
Little does Alex know, the true culprit is much closer to home.
Based on the author's personal experience with auditory hallucinations, I Hear You Watching is a relentlessly interior psychological suspense novel about the abyss gazing back.
"A deep, soul-pulling dive with a satisfying end." — Amazon review ★★★★★
"It distills the experience of social anxiety and paranoia in such a harrowing and palpable way." — Amazon review ★★★★★
"Looking over the shoulder and through the eyes of our bewildered, then panicked, always exhausted and grimly resolute narrator, I triumphed as he found little ways to win, or to lose with some human dignity." — Goodreads review ★★★★★
299 pages, Paperback
Published August 21, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 25, 2023
I don't want to give too much away, but this novel is utterly unique and, from a certain perspective, absolutely terrifying. I will say the author is much, much braver than I, as the story is partially based on personal experience, and the degree of detail and honesty is breathtaking. A seriously gripping read!
May 5, 2025
A haunting, heartfelt exploration of the mind’s shadows, Zachary Dillon’s I Hear You Watching is a masterful psychological thriller. Weaving a tapestry of suspense, I was hooked almost immediately into the labyrinthine mind of Alex. With every page, Dillon deftly blurs the line between paranoia and reality, crafting a narrative that pulses with unease where the question was: is this delusion, or something far more sinister?
At the heart of the novel lies Alex, a character so flawed I couldn’t help but root for the guy. Raw, human, and unapologetic, I was immediately drawn into his orbit. Dillon’s world-building prioritizes Alex’s internal landscape over the external, a choice that immersed me in what felt like a descent into madness and ambiguity, which kept the narrative moving forward with page-turning ease. The prose is vivid and evocative, capturing Alex’s frenetic energy with a precision that felt visceral with rich, sensory descriptions that conjured the feeling of being watched. His words hummed with a life, urging me at times to glance over my shoulder, wondering what that thump in the night was. (I read a large chunk of this home alone...the thump ended up being my cat, but still I jolted.) This immersive quality elevates the novel into a rare breed of thriller making it one that doesn’t just entertain but inhabited me, making me feel like I’d just spent the week with Alex.
The novel’s timeliness adds another layer of resonance. In an era where mental health is shedding its long-held stigma, I Hear You Watching emerges as a contribution to the conversation. Dillon approaches the subject with a blend of humor, heart, and honesty, offering a story that feels both deeply personal and completely relevant where I can only imagine the courage it took to write it, and the catharsis that followed.
This is a novel that begs for cinematic adaptation, and I hope one day we see it. Indie authors are hitting it hard these days with stories that feel off the mainstream grid. I’d love to see one of these stories come to life, starting with this one.
At the heart of the novel lies Alex, a character so flawed I couldn’t help but root for the guy. Raw, human, and unapologetic, I was immediately drawn into his orbit. Dillon’s world-building prioritizes Alex’s internal landscape over the external, a choice that immersed me in what felt like a descent into madness and ambiguity, which kept the narrative moving forward with page-turning ease. The prose is vivid and evocative, capturing Alex’s frenetic energy with a precision that felt visceral with rich, sensory descriptions that conjured the feeling of being watched. His words hummed with a life, urging me at times to glance over my shoulder, wondering what that thump in the night was. (I read a large chunk of this home alone...the thump ended up being my cat, but still I jolted.) This immersive quality elevates the novel into a rare breed of thriller making it one that doesn’t just entertain but inhabited me, making me feel like I’d just spent the week with Alex.
The novel’s timeliness adds another layer of resonance. In an era where mental health is shedding its long-held stigma, I Hear You Watching emerges as a contribution to the conversation. Dillon approaches the subject with a blend of humor, heart, and honesty, offering a story that feels both deeply personal and completely relevant where I can only imagine the courage it took to write it, and the catharsis that followed.
This is a novel that begs for cinematic adaptation, and I hope one day we see it. Indie authors are hitting it hard these days with stories that feel off the mainstream grid. I’d love to see one of these stories come to life, starting with this one.
November 17, 2024
To anyone who may struggle with anxiety, paranoia, or even just fascinated by the human psyche, you will enjoy Zac’s fictionalized version of events with auditory hallucinations. He does a great job of building the tension, and as a reader putting you inside his mind through this bizarre sequence of events. A great story to read or share with friends or family who may be struggling with mental health, to gain understanding, or just the feeling of not being alone.
January 24, 2024
Looking over the shoulder and through the eyes of our bewildered, then panicked, always exhausted and grimly resolute narrator, I triumphed as he found little ways to win, or to lose with some human dignity. And of course the afterward sets things on a yet brighter path, IRL. Assuring, hopeful. Thank you, Zach.
I love the rather dark gen-x pop culture references throughout--the bit on sugary cereal box characters, madness burning in their eyes, made me laugh out loud on an otherwise quiet evening ride home on the Tube.
I love the rather dark gen-x pop culture references throughout--the bit on sugary cereal box characters, madness burning in their eyes, made me laugh out loud on an otherwise quiet evening ride home on the Tube.
March 9, 2025
This story was fascinating in how real it felt. Mental illness is fiction is often exaggerated, here the author keeps the story low key, which often makes his experience more terrifying. This is a good book to recommend to someone who's struggling with mental illness themselves. You'll feel seen.
December 17, 2023
Captivating read. I kept rooting for the protagonist to realize what was happening. The characters are very human and well developed.
August 27, 2025
I found it very difficult to get past the first few chapters. It was almost a moral dilemma, but I’m glad I kept reading, because it did get better and it gave me an understanding of what it’s like to live with auditory hallucinations of schizophrenia. I am confident that if you read this book to the end you will be glad you did. It is a well-written work of fiction and will expand your understanding of the struggles of fellow-humans.
May 9, 2025
A superbly crafted suspenseful yarn that takes us INSIDE the experience of someone who is hearing voices and suffering the doubts and agonies of unknowing.
I was fortunate enough to catch a reading of the author giving a passionate, humorous and convincing rendition of his work and it was hufgely entertaining and moving.
But I can assure you that it's well worth picking up this book because that voice - personal, urgent and passionate - is there throughout. It's a tense tale, full of uncanny turns and events, which will leave you in turns biting your nails, giggling and gasping in recognition: hey, maybe I'm just like this character I might otherwise brush off as a nutcase?!
It's a work of radical compassion and empathy and a fascinating read. Highly recommended.
I was fortunate enough to catch a reading of the author giving a passionate, humorous and convincing rendition of his work and it was hufgely entertaining and moving.
But I can assure you that it's well worth picking up this book because that voice - personal, urgent and passionate - is there throughout. It's a tense tale, full of uncanny turns and events, which will leave you in turns biting your nails, giggling and gasping in recognition: hey, maybe I'm just like this character I might otherwise brush off as a nutcase?!
It's a work of radical compassion and empathy and a fascinating read. Highly recommended.
August 25, 2023
This book manages something that always amazes me, which is telling a very specific, rare (and in this case true!) experience like you’ve never heard before and making it feel universal and strangely familiar. The honesty of the author’s story telling is disarming, uncomfortable at times, absolutely poetic, and profoundly human. You don’t expect a journey into paranoia and voice hearing to necessarily be relatable but it catches you by surprise (through impeccable prose) when it sheds a light on our shared darkness. What a wonderful read!
June 25, 2025
this was very hard to read which i mean in the best way possible.
July 11, 2026
(Review featured in forthcoming Drek Death & Doom zine)
Good fiction is ingestive. It ingests the real world, tastes it, savors and contemplates, then spits it back out as fiction. But great fiction is more than consumption, more than observational. The greatest writing is digestive. It digests the world, breaks down its parts to render the commonplace, fascinating; the mundane, miraculous. Get close enough to a writer and you can hear the crunch of an active mind chewing the vast exterior world into a small polished marvel. Or horror.
The bite strength of a writer is dependent on this; the ability to digest the reality. The jaw of a great writer is capable of inflicting mortal wounds, injuries the reader doesn’t always recover from. But what happens when a writer's mind turns against them? When a mind bites the hand that writes it? In @Zachary Dillon’s debut novel, I Hear You Watching, the reader is put inside just such a mind — the mind of the author. The book is a retelling of Dillon’s mental experience with hearing voices, but is also a peek into the mind of a great writer. It opens on the interior life of the author, the constant grinding up of the world, teeth sunken into the everyday. Dillon observes the skin over society, sees all of the brittle bones hiding below. The reader settles comfortably into the character's head, the head of the author, knowing what the character does not — we are between slowly squeezing jaws. We sense the coming acid of self-digestion.
First, we are enveloped in Dillon’s mind. What is familiar becomes fantastic through the eating away of that thin veneer, the supple and easily-broken flesh of social convention. The world of dating, hookups, friendships, being online, and everyday life. The whole of the external world gets digested by the author and we read the result — a palatable and insightful version of reality. But when the outer world is fully digested, stripped bare of its varicose veined patina, the self-consumption begins.
A rising tide of bile overtakes the author, an acid bath that pulls apart reality into loose and severed tendons. The fat is rendered, sanity boiled off, and the mind of Dylan clamps shut. The exterior world disappears from the characters nibbling thoughts and observations. There is only the internal. Fear drives the mind, an appetite insatiable, ravenous, and latched onto unreality. The character does not know what we know — the voices are not real. Imagine a reality where your internal world is filled with voices you believe to be real and inescapable. In the words of Dylan,
… I’ll decide to run. But my feet are turned the wrong way and the floor will give like sand in an hourglass and I’ll realize I’m not worried about the person killing or catching me; my worst fear is just having them there behind me. And I’ll know they’re already past the threshold, they’re in my home, and they will always be behind me, everywhere I can’t see, and I’ll spend the rest of eternity trying to turn around.
(I Hear You Watching, Zachary Dillon, ebook p.48)
This is paranoia. This is self digestion. Canines and molars sink deep into soft pliable psyche. Fear becomes paranoia. The paranoia grips with ragged teeth and thrashes, heaves the mind into a death roll. The reader is thrown, folded into the mind of Dillon, privy to the maddening voices. We witness the shift from external observations to internal concern — the slide from a writer digesting the world, to digesting himself. No more nibbling thoughts on romantic partners or camping or friendships. Instead, the focus becomes the voices, the fear. Hours are spent disassembling smoke detectors and wondering who is in on the secret. The voices consume all.
Great fiction is digestion. I Hear You Watching is unique because it marries great writing with the mind of the writer. If you have ever wondered what paranoia is like, it’s this. Dillon delivers a powerful story that displays the digestive mind on an inward spiral. But it goes a step further, puts the reader inside that process. By the end, the reader feels digested.
Good fiction is ingestive. It ingests the real world, tastes it, savors and contemplates, then spits it back out as fiction. But great fiction is more than consumption, more than observational. The greatest writing is digestive. It digests the world, breaks down its parts to render the commonplace, fascinating; the mundane, miraculous. Get close enough to a writer and you can hear the crunch of an active mind chewing the vast exterior world into a small polished marvel. Or horror.
The bite strength of a writer is dependent on this; the ability to digest the reality. The jaw of a great writer is capable of inflicting mortal wounds, injuries the reader doesn’t always recover from. But what happens when a writer's mind turns against them? When a mind bites the hand that writes it? In @Zachary Dillon’s debut novel, I Hear You Watching, the reader is put inside just such a mind — the mind of the author. The book is a retelling of Dillon’s mental experience with hearing voices, but is also a peek into the mind of a great writer. It opens on the interior life of the author, the constant grinding up of the world, teeth sunken into the everyday. Dillon observes the skin over society, sees all of the brittle bones hiding below. The reader settles comfortably into the character's head, the head of the author, knowing what the character does not — we are between slowly squeezing jaws. We sense the coming acid of self-digestion.
First, we are enveloped in Dillon’s mind. What is familiar becomes fantastic through the eating away of that thin veneer, the supple and easily-broken flesh of social convention. The world of dating, hookups, friendships, being online, and everyday life. The whole of the external world gets digested by the author and we read the result — a palatable and insightful version of reality. But when the outer world is fully digested, stripped bare of its varicose veined patina, the self-consumption begins.
A rising tide of bile overtakes the author, an acid bath that pulls apart reality into loose and severed tendons. The fat is rendered, sanity boiled off, and the mind of Dylan clamps shut. The exterior world disappears from the characters nibbling thoughts and observations. There is only the internal. Fear drives the mind, an appetite insatiable, ravenous, and latched onto unreality. The character does not know what we know — the voices are not real. Imagine a reality where your internal world is filled with voices you believe to be real and inescapable. In the words of Dylan,
… I’ll decide to run. But my feet are turned the wrong way and the floor will give like sand in an hourglass and I’ll realize I’m not worried about the person killing or catching me; my worst fear is just having them there behind me. And I’ll know they’re already past the threshold, they’re in my home, and they will always be behind me, everywhere I can’t see, and I’ll spend the rest of eternity trying to turn around.
(I Hear You Watching, Zachary Dillon, ebook p.48)
This is paranoia. This is self digestion. Canines and molars sink deep into soft pliable psyche. Fear becomes paranoia. The paranoia grips with ragged teeth and thrashes, heaves the mind into a death roll. The reader is thrown, folded into the mind of Dillon, privy to the maddening voices. We witness the shift from external observations to internal concern — the slide from a writer digesting the world, to digesting himself. No more nibbling thoughts on romantic partners or camping or friendships. Instead, the focus becomes the voices, the fear. Hours are spent disassembling smoke detectors and wondering who is in on the secret. The voices consume all.
Great fiction is digestion. I Hear You Watching is unique because it marries great writing with the mind of the writer. If you have ever wondered what paranoia is like, it’s this. Dillon delivers a powerful story that displays the digestive mind on an inward spiral. But it goes a step further, puts the reader inside that process. By the end, the reader feels digested.
June 13, 2026
Filled with raw scenes peppered with explicit descriptions and deliciously cringe overthinking.
We take a trip into the crowded mind of a protagonist prone to bouts of anxious thought trails that are fascinating to follow and sometimes are unsettlingly relatable. Only this time, we glimpse the “what ifs” scrutinized to exhaustion, to the absolute bottom of doom- and catastrophic thinking.
With every page, the questions loom - from “Will he give in to the intrusive thoughts?” to “Are we allowed to think that?” to “Is this actually real?” And those questions keep the pages turning at a steady pace throughout the whole novel.
The pacing is exquisite. While there are enough moments of rest and contemplation, the looming threats and constantly rising stakes keep the action moving along, as gripping on page 265 as it was on page 1.
This novel made me think of Disco Elysium - a text-rich dystopian RPG featuring a police protagonist plagued by a multitude of inner voices. They are two forms of media dealing with a similar manifestation of the mind in vastly different but equally fascinating ways.
Personally, the protagonist’s shift from completely ignoring mental-health-related explanations to realizing that the mind is capable of creating the voices and “killing” them was a bit too subtle. There was no clear moment where it all clicked into place for him - and by extension for me. Perhaps I would have liked that realization to be more explicit.
But the fact that this is pretty much the only criticism I can think of says enough about the quality of the writing.
A separate respect and appreciation for the author for using own lived and felt experience to fuel the story. Tremendously brave!
We take a trip into the crowded mind of a protagonist prone to bouts of anxious thought trails that are fascinating to follow and sometimes are unsettlingly relatable. Only this time, we glimpse the “what ifs” scrutinized to exhaustion, to the absolute bottom of doom- and catastrophic thinking.
With every page, the questions loom - from “Will he give in to the intrusive thoughts?” to “Are we allowed to think that?” to “Is this actually real?” And those questions keep the pages turning at a steady pace throughout the whole novel.
The pacing is exquisite. While there are enough moments of rest and contemplation, the looming threats and constantly rising stakes keep the action moving along, as gripping on page 265 as it was on page 1.
This novel made me think of Disco Elysium - a text-rich dystopian RPG featuring a police protagonist plagued by a multitude of inner voices. They are two forms of media dealing with a similar manifestation of the mind in vastly different but equally fascinating ways.
Personally, the protagonist’s shift from completely ignoring mental-health-related explanations to realizing that the mind is capable of creating the voices and “killing” them was a bit too subtle. There was no clear moment where it all clicked into place for him - and by extension for me. Perhaps I would have liked that realization to be more explicit.
But the fact that this is pretty much the only criticism I can think of says enough about the quality of the writing.
A separate respect and appreciation for the author for using own lived and felt experience to fuel the story. Tremendously brave!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 19, 2025
Creepy novel !
Very well-written too. I was constantly on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what would happen next.
The most unsettling thing about Alex’ slow decline into madness, due to auditory hallucinations, is that it is based on the experiences of the author with those exact symptoms. It must be decidedly scary to deal with.
Will definitely read it again!
And again and again and again….
October 22, 2025
Somehow this book is absolutely terrifying and hilarious. It turns out there’s nothing scarier than having a mind, and the author makes sure you feel that.
July 14, 2026
Engrossing and uncomfortable, as all good art tends to be.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews