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Read Me
Hitchcock's Rear Window meets Messud's The Woman Upstairs in this unnerving, superbly crafted novel which takes readers deep into the mind of a serial stalker and, through him, the lives of his unsuspecting victims.
Try it yourself. Go out, pick somebody and watch them. Take your phone and a notebook. Persist. What begins as a confluence of yours and another person's journeys, on the train maybe or leaving a cinema, gets into an entanglement. You follow, feeling that it's not really following because you're going the same way, then when they at last reach their office you feel the clutch of a goodbye. It's normal. But how many times do you think the person being followed has been you?
READ ME is a seductive, haunting novel that holds a sinister mirror up to the ways in which we observe, judge, and influence people. Benedictus' prose commands and draws readers into the dark, manipulative mind of a serial stalker as he targets women across London, escalating his efforts until he settles on Frances -- a bright young professional whose career is set to take off -- whose life he proceeds to unravel from the inside, out.
A chilling rumination on power, manipulation, complicity, and anonymity, READ ME exposes just how vulnerable we are to the whims of others -- people we may not even know.
Try it yourself. Go out, pick somebody and watch them. Take your phone and a notebook. Persist. What begins as a confluence of yours and another person's journeys, on the train maybe or leaving a cinema, gets into an entanglement. You follow, feeling that it's not really following because you're going the same way, then when they at last reach their office you feel the clutch of a goodbye. It's normal. But how many times do you think the person being followed has been you?
READ ME is a seductive, haunting novel that holds a sinister mirror up to the ways in which we observe, judge, and influence people. Benedictus' prose commands and draws readers into the dark, manipulative mind of a serial stalker as he targets women across London, escalating his efforts until he settles on Frances -- a bright young professional whose career is set to take off -- whose life he proceeds to unravel from the inside, out.
A chilling rumination on power, manipulation, complicity, and anonymity, READ ME exposes just how vulnerable we are to the whims of others -- people we may not even know.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 30, 2018
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2282 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
July 7, 2018
*Cue the annoying stalker anthem Every Breath You Take by the Police*
An unnamed stalker writes about how he came into a great deal of money, quit his job, and began following people. He keeps notes on all of the people he stalks and shares bits of information on a few of them (there appear to be at least 80 because he gives a number with each name he mentions), the methods he uses to follow them without being noticed, and some rules he's created.
His main focus in this novel is on a woman named Frances. She's just been suspended from her job because of an anonymous e-mail with serious accusations and the company wants to do a full investigation. The stalker breaks his own rule against interfering in the lives of the people he follows and approaches Frances to ask if she's okay when he sees her crying in a restaurant. She shares her work situation and they exchange numbers at the end of the conversation.
Eventually he installs microphones and a camera in her apartment and even hides in the house while she's home. His obsession grows and we learn he is in fact the person who sent the e-mail to her company and set in motion the events he's writing about.
My problem with this book is that there has been a recent wave of stalker novels since You (read my review here) was released. Caroline Kepnes certainly wasn't the first author to write a novel about an obsessive sociopath, but she did something interesting and made her stalker main character Joe Goldberg not only interesting but downright charming. I loved it!
I recently read Our Kind of Cruelty and found myself comparing it to You but the stalker Mike was neither interesting or charming, just whiny.
In Read Me, the unnamed stalker goes into long winded descriptions and tries to explain his thought process but it bored me. I found myself skimming his musings to get to the story of Frances, which does build from creepy to crazy. I felt the ending was abrupt and anticlimactic after the suspense that was built up to get to the final scene. I didn't feel like I got to know any of the characters so I wasn't invested in the story.
Overall, this book was a "meh" for me but if you've enjoyed the recent novels featuring creepy stalker main characters it wouldn't hurt to give this one a try.
Thanks to Twelve Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
For more full reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
An unnamed stalker writes about how he came into a great deal of money, quit his job, and began following people. He keeps notes on all of the people he stalks and shares bits of information on a few of them (there appear to be at least 80 because he gives a number with each name he mentions), the methods he uses to follow them without being noticed, and some rules he's created.
His main focus in this novel is on a woman named Frances. She's just been suspended from her job because of an anonymous e-mail with serious accusations and the company wants to do a full investigation. The stalker breaks his own rule against interfering in the lives of the people he follows and approaches Frances to ask if she's okay when he sees her crying in a restaurant. She shares her work situation and they exchange numbers at the end of the conversation.
Eventually he installs microphones and a camera in her apartment and even hides in the house while she's home. His obsession grows and we learn he is in fact the person who sent the e-mail to her company and set in motion the events he's writing about.
My problem with this book is that there has been a recent wave of stalker novels since You (read my review here) was released. Caroline Kepnes certainly wasn't the first author to write a novel about an obsessive sociopath, but she did something interesting and made her stalker main character Joe Goldberg not only interesting but downright charming. I loved it!
I recently read Our Kind of Cruelty and found myself comparing it to You but the stalker Mike was neither interesting or charming, just whiny.
In Read Me, the unnamed stalker goes into long winded descriptions and tries to explain his thought process but it bored me. I found myself skimming his musings to get to the story of Frances, which does build from creepy to crazy. I felt the ending was abrupt and anticlimactic after the suspense that was built up to get to the final scene. I didn't feel like I got to know any of the characters so I wasn't invested in the story.
Overall, this book was a "meh" for me but if you've enjoyed the recent novels featuring creepy stalker main characters it wouldn't hurt to give this one a try.
Thanks to Twelve Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
For more full reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
March 15, 2018
Just to make my reviewing equally difficult, here is another book, that in common with the book jacket itself, I am going to tell you hardly anything about in terms of plot. I saw the author being interviewed by James Naughtie recently, and my interest was piqued by what I was liberally describing as a creepy ass psychological thriller to my bookselling colleagues….
I thought this was absolutely superb and a truly dark and deliciously twisted thriller, entwining us in the psyche of a stalker, and providing a commentary on the repercussions of his actions on just one of his many chosen targets, Frances. Benedictus is completely without fear in his representation of this despicable individual and the measures he takes to inveigle himself more and more deeply into Frances’ life, and the danger this poses to both her associates, both personal and professional, and to Frances herself. I was mesmerised by the supremely cool and dispassionate first person narrative of the stalker, whose actions seem perfectly reasonable to his own consciousness, but grow increasingly unsettling and worrisome to us, as we pre-empt the effect his actions will have on Frances. Likewise, the growing unease and persecution of Frances, slowly gathers pace, again feeding into, and adding to the chilling nervous tension that Benedictus perfectly builds. I enjoyed his depiction of Frances, as such a normal, hard working, ambitious, and unencumbered by personal vanity type of woman, as this sense of her being such an ‘everywoman’ resonates much more strongly with a female reader, and making her plight all the more tangible, and ramping up the effect on us as a reader.
I am always held in the thrall of writing that has a tangible physical effect on me as a reader, and Consent did this admirably, as I felt my heartbeat quicken on several occasions, and a slight roiling of the belly at one particularly graphic moment, that discomfited even this normally strong stomached reader. I didn’t, however, object to the use of violence in this particular context, unlike say the gratuitous violence of American Psycho (which I do have a wee soft spot for), as to my mind it actually worked extremely well within plot, and allows the book to remain on the right side of the needlessly voyeuristic. It merely elevated the fear quotient a little more, and gave the narrative a swift injection of kapow, before carrying us along to that unexpected, supremely creepy denouement…shudders…
I thought the pacing, use of language and increasingly uncomfortable feeling that this book produced in me was cleverly done, perhaps reflected by my reading this in pretty much one sitting, and putting down the book with a palpable sense of satisfaction, despite that truly dark and unsettling ending.
As it says on the cover, Read Me….
Highly recommended.
I thought this was absolutely superb and a truly dark and deliciously twisted thriller, entwining us in the psyche of a stalker, and providing a commentary on the repercussions of his actions on just one of his many chosen targets, Frances. Benedictus is completely without fear in his representation of this despicable individual and the measures he takes to inveigle himself more and more deeply into Frances’ life, and the danger this poses to both her associates, both personal and professional, and to Frances herself. I was mesmerised by the supremely cool and dispassionate first person narrative of the stalker, whose actions seem perfectly reasonable to his own consciousness, but grow increasingly unsettling and worrisome to us, as we pre-empt the effect his actions will have on Frances. Likewise, the growing unease and persecution of Frances, slowly gathers pace, again feeding into, and adding to the chilling nervous tension that Benedictus perfectly builds. I enjoyed his depiction of Frances, as such a normal, hard working, ambitious, and unencumbered by personal vanity type of woman, as this sense of her being such an ‘everywoman’ resonates much more strongly with a female reader, and making her plight all the more tangible, and ramping up the effect on us as a reader.
I am always held in the thrall of writing that has a tangible physical effect on me as a reader, and Consent did this admirably, as I felt my heartbeat quicken on several occasions, and a slight roiling of the belly at one particularly graphic moment, that discomfited even this normally strong stomached reader. I didn’t, however, object to the use of violence in this particular context, unlike say the gratuitous violence of American Psycho (which I do have a wee soft spot for), as to my mind it actually worked extremely well within plot, and allows the book to remain on the right side of the needlessly voyeuristic. It merely elevated the fear quotient a little more, and gave the narrative a swift injection of kapow, before carrying us along to that unexpected, supremely creepy denouement…shudders…
I thought the pacing, use of language and increasingly uncomfortable feeling that this book produced in me was cleverly done, perhaps reflected by my reading this in pretty much one sitting, and putting down the book with a palpable sense of satisfaction, despite that truly dark and unsettling ending.
As it says on the cover, Read Me….
Highly recommended.
December 9, 2018
Review from Tenacious Reader: http://www.tenaciousreader.com/2018/1...
Read Me is not a traditional type of story, but I found it fascinating. It takes you into the thoughts and actions of a serial stalker as he chooses and watches his prey. I am always intrigued by stories that take you into the mind of someone that is unhinged because the stories always tend to illustrate that they don’t tend to see themselves that way. They see themselves as reasonable, rational people with motives that make sense to themselves at least (if no one else).
You get their rationale and logic behind their actions, and while you may still see the “crazy” in them, it tends to be somewhat tempered and humanized to at least some extent. Although, in this case, it may not be humanizing so much as a capturing the stalker’s complete lack of human empathy and understanding of what consequences his actions could have for others. While he watches and learns everything he can about his current obsession, he also wonders if what he is doing is even a crime. His thought process on this is that if the person he is stalking remains completely ignorant of his activity, is it a crime? The way he sees it is that they are not impacted, in fact, they don’t even know, blissfully unaware, of his stalking. So how can it be a crime? He is so absorbed in his own world and his own desires and motivations, he is completely detached from everything else. This is part of what makes this a slower read than one might expect. Instead of being an adrenaline pumping thriller that has you leaping to turn to the next page as quickly as possible, you are instead immersed in his inner thoughts, processing what they mean for him and others, and how he sees things differently than you would expect. It’s a book that is interesting for the thinking it makes you do about the main character, his motivations, and the consequences of his actions.
I am honestly unsure what genre this book should fall into. The concept sounds like it could be a thriller or possibly even horror. However, the story is told in a way that it does not have the pace or tension that you would normally associate with those genres. But that doesn’t mean that it is not a very compelling read, it’s just different, and sometimes different can be a very good thing. For me this was one of those time.
While I greatly enjoyed this one, I will warn you this will not be a book that pleases everyone. It is different, unique and I obviously found it quite compelling. However, you have to enjoy the process of getting into someone else’s mind, learning about their thoughts and motivations, savoring the journey. Action is not the driving force, but diving into a character’s psyche is. If that’s the type of thing you enjoy, I definitely recommend giving this one a read.
Read Me is not a traditional type of story, but I found it fascinating. It takes you into the thoughts and actions of a serial stalker as he chooses and watches his prey. I am always intrigued by stories that take you into the mind of someone that is unhinged because the stories always tend to illustrate that they don’t tend to see themselves that way. They see themselves as reasonable, rational people with motives that make sense to themselves at least (if no one else).
You get their rationale and logic behind their actions, and while you may still see the “crazy” in them, it tends to be somewhat tempered and humanized to at least some extent. Although, in this case, it may not be humanizing so much as a capturing the stalker’s complete lack of human empathy and understanding of what consequences his actions could have for others. While he watches and learns everything he can about his current obsession, he also wonders if what he is doing is even a crime. His thought process on this is that if the person he is stalking remains completely ignorant of his activity, is it a crime? The way he sees it is that they are not impacted, in fact, they don’t even know, blissfully unaware, of his stalking. So how can it be a crime? He is so absorbed in his own world and his own desires and motivations, he is completely detached from everything else. This is part of what makes this a slower read than one might expect. Instead of being an adrenaline pumping thriller that has you leaping to turn to the next page as quickly as possible, you are instead immersed in his inner thoughts, processing what they mean for him and others, and how he sees things differently than you would expect. It’s a book that is interesting for the thinking it makes you do about the main character, his motivations, and the consequences of his actions.
I am honestly unsure what genre this book should fall into. The concept sounds like it could be a thriller or possibly even horror. However, the story is told in a way that it does not have the pace or tension that you would normally associate with those genres. But that doesn’t mean that it is not a very compelling read, it’s just different, and sometimes different can be a very good thing. For me this was one of those time.
While I greatly enjoyed this one, I will warn you this will not be a book that pleases everyone. It is different, unique and I obviously found it quite compelling. However, you have to enjoy the process of getting into someone else’s mind, learning about their thoughts and motivations, savoring the journey. Action is not the driving force, but diving into a character’s psyche is. If that’s the type of thing you enjoy, I definitely recommend giving this one a read.
June 2, 2018
Thanks to Allen & Unwin for the giveaway of Consent!
I love a great stalker thriller, but unfortunately this one missed the mark for me.
I felt the storyline was dull, over written and under delivered and jumped from past to present without any rhythm. No quotation marks! I don't know why the author even bothered with chapters. He seemed to forget about the use of grammar making this book a big mess. I was constantly confused as to who is talking, are they actually talking or thinking or if this was all in someone's head?
The characters didn't bring anything interesting to what should have been a super creepy stalker story. No back story or even an ending, which always annoys me. This has left me thinking "What the F happened?" and not in a good way.
One star for me, and that's really pushing it.
I love a great stalker thriller, but unfortunately this one missed the mark for me.
I felt the storyline was dull, over written and under delivered and jumped from past to present without any rhythm. No quotation marks! I don't know why the author even bothered with chapters. He seemed to forget about the use of grammar making this book a big mess. I was constantly confused as to who is talking, are they actually talking or thinking or if this was all in someone's head?
The characters didn't bring anything interesting to what should have been a super creepy stalker story. No back story or even an ending, which always annoys me. This has left me thinking "What the F happened?" and not in a good way.
One star for me, and that's really pushing it.
December 27, 2017
I've read quite a lot of stalker thrillers recently, it seems to be the in genre, maybe because new technology makes it easier for people to do it nowadays. In this one, the nameless narrator explains how he inherited a lot of money from an aunt, and then dedicated his life to his hobby of stalking people. It seems that he's followed more than a hundred different 'subjects' over the years, but this short novel is focused mainly on one - Frances. Some of the narration is in the third person, from her point of view, but even then it lapses into the first person from the point of view of the narrator at times - which makes you wonder if he's supposed to have made up all her thoughts and feelings, and the events when he wasn't there or able to watch her.
There's murder and torture and a lot of pseudo-philosophy from the disturbed narrator, pitching it somewhere between Crime and Punishment and American Psycho, but it's not quite as interesting or original as either of those two classics. The narrator's voice is persistent and his writing style very pretentious, but I never really got a sense of him as a real person, or what motivates him to do what he does. There's no information on his upbringing or background, or how is distorted view of life was formed. Frances is more of a rounded character, a managing consultant who finds her job and her life derailed by the narrator's schemes. But she's also a bit dull and unremarkable, and I didn't really care much for her. This book involves one of my pet hates, in that it doesn't use quotation marks, so you're never sure whose talking or whether they're talking or just thinking. I know that it's deliberate, to make you read it more carefully, but it gets on my nerves. The narrator also has that annoying technique of saying 'but more about that later', which slows the pace of the novel down.
On the whole, the story was rather lightweight and unconvincing, and by the end it's hard to know why any of it happened. If you're looking for a fast-paced thriller, or for a meditation on murder and ethics, there are better novels. For stalker thrillers, I'd recommend You by Caroline Kepnes, The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton, or Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre. If you're after something more cerebral, stick to Dostoevsky, Bret Easton Ellis or perhaps The Collector by John Fowles.
There's murder and torture and a lot of pseudo-philosophy from the disturbed narrator, pitching it somewhere between Crime and Punishment and American Psycho, but it's not quite as interesting or original as either of those two classics. The narrator's voice is persistent and his writing style very pretentious, but I never really got a sense of him as a real person, or what motivates him to do what he does. There's no information on his upbringing or background, or how is distorted view of life was formed. Frances is more of a rounded character, a managing consultant who finds her job and her life derailed by the narrator's schemes. But she's also a bit dull and unremarkable, and I didn't really care much for her. This book involves one of my pet hates, in that it doesn't use quotation marks, so you're never sure whose talking or whether they're talking or just thinking. I know that it's deliberate, to make you read it more carefully, but it gets on my nerves. The narrator also has that annoying technique of saying 'but more about that later', which slows the pace of the novel down.
On the whole, the story was rather lightweight and unconvincing, and by the end it's hard to know why any of it happened. If you're looking for a fast-paced thriller, or for a meditation on murder and ethics, there are better novels. For stalker thrillers, I'd recommend You by Caroline Kepnes, The Perfect Girlfriend by Karen Hamilton, or Blood Wedding by Pierre Lemaitre. If you're after something more cerebral, stick to Dostoevsky, Bret Easton Ellis or perhaps The Collector by John Fowles.
dnf
July 3, 2021This was insufferable for 14 solid pages. I am going to save these moments of my life and DNF this train wreck.
August 1, 2024
Story of a man who inherits around eleven million dollars and since he doesn't know what to do with himself...
He turns into a stalker. An observor. Of humans and human nature. Makes copious notes and follows around this one, that one, another one - and at first, never intending any harm, just watching. Stalking, but without the danger. Maybe. But slowly he falls into a different kind of behavior, of becoming obsessively involved in the life of one of his subjects. He's very objective about all this, and includes notes on humanity, his behavior, his subjects' behavior. His notes and routine are important to him, and become, almost exclusively, all he does every day, and then...
It gets worse, and worse until it's 'Dexter-style' worse, though he always justifies exactly what he's doing and why. Important point, though, while Dexter tried to kill only those who 'deserved it,' this fellow goes one step further...
Suffice to say that when the book got graphically graphic I skimmed past those passages to get to the end, the denoument, and even that was horrific. Really don't know why I picked up this book, but since I read almost the entire thing, am able to rate it.
Two stars.
He turns into a stalker. An observor. Of humans and human nature. Makes copious notes and follows around this one, that one, another one - and at first, never intending any harm, just watching. Stalking, but without the danger. Maybe. But slowly he falls into a different kind of behavior, of becoming obsessively involved in the life of one of his subjects. He's very objective about all this, and includes notes on humanity, his behavior, his subjects' behavior. His notes and routine are important to him, and become, almost exclusively, all he does every day, and then...
It gets worse, and worse until it's 'Dexter-style' worse, though he always justifies exactly what he's doing and why. Important point, though, while Dexter tried to kill only those who 'deserved it,' this fellow goes one step further...
Suffice to say that when the book got graphically graphic I skimmed past those passages to get to the end, the denoument, and even that was horrific. Really don't know why I picked up this book, but since I read almost the entire thing, am able to rate it.
Two stars.
June 6, 2018
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
'My subjects do not choose to be my subjects, it is true, but only because such a choice is impossible. If you volunteer to be studied, you stop being you.'
Frances doesn’t know it, but her life is going to unravel when a violent stalker choses her for his attentions. A man who has the wealth through inheritance to spend his days as he pleases choses to hunt people, through observation, manipulation and violence. His wealth inspires in him a need to “behave strangely”, one that never lets up. It all begins with his first victim, Laura where curiosity becomes obsession. Stalking the hairdresser with dreams of acting, in the beginning he studies people with no intention of harm. Just creeping about, learning everything he can never daring to interact directly. After his first, he begins to switch to other people with ease, always knowing he can return to those he has abandoned for a time.
Then he notices Frances, the main subject of this novel or should I say specimen? Frances is a consultant who ‘stirs his nerves’ in a new way. It isn’t long before minimal notes about her escalates to creeping into her house, inserting himself like a ghost haunting the living. Toying with the idea that if the victim doesn’t know, can they really be a victim? He tells us how he pulls it off, all the stalking so this book feels like a how to manual from a twisted mind. Through many chapters he stalks, and it’s hard to feel the thrill of it, all that waiting seems exhaustively pointless and boring with little reward. He spends time informing the reader that we all ‘will pay the bill’ in the future for what the person we were in the past chose to do. A little game of ‘who are you really?” which is interesting because you never quite pin down who he really is. There isn’t a solid reason why he began stalking, and as a person there is mostly detachment. He is absorbed so much in knowing everything he can about his victims that he is a half-formed thing himself. Truly, does he really know these people because he can watch them like an animal in a cage, and as with Frances when her life unravels, isn’t it true interfering alters a person? He has blown up her life, and the spoils are in watching the aftermath.
He is at times trapped in a sort of corner by his own philosophizing. It would have been a far more interesting character if we could in turn study him, but he doesn’t really have a past for us to dissect. Maybe he is meant to be without explanation, and that is the point, that there isn’t a why. He is repulsive, the novel turns to horror after a slow trudge through the watching and still I wonder… why? Did he just need something to do with himself? What the heck caused this split in his mind? Why Frances? The answer seems to be, why not?
Obviously he gets high on his voyeurism, and in a sense it’s like playing God when he manipulates things with Frances. It begins with a cup of hot tea, and ends with it as well, but will Frances still be alive at the end? It is intelligently written and the idea is horrible, people want to be seen so badly, heard, known but not like this. This is scrutiny we could all do well without. It was a decent read, and it’s disturbing, graphic in parts, but I was left scratching my head? Maybe we’re meant to feel like the victims wondering why, never really coming to any solid conclusion?
Publication Date: August 7, 2018
Twelve Books
'My subjects do not choose to be my subjects, it is true, but only because such a choice is impossible. If you volunteer to be studied, you stop being you.'
Frances doesn’t know it, but her life is going to unravel when a violent stalker choses her for his attentions. A man who has the wealth through inheritance to spend his days as he pleases choses to hunt people, through observation, manipulation and violence. His wealth inspires in him a need to “behave strangely”, one that never lets up. It all begins with his first victim, Laura where curiosity becomes obsession. Stalking the hairdresser with dreams of acting, in the beginning he studies people with no intention of harm. Just creeping about, learning everything he can never daring to interact directly. After his first, he begins to switch to other people with ease, always knowing he can return to those he has abandoned for a time.
Then he notices Frances, the main subject of this novel or should I say specimen? Frances is a consultant who ‘stirs his nerves’ in a new way. It isn’t long before minimal notes about her escalates to creeping into her house, inserting himself like a ghost haunting the living. Toying with the idea that if the victim doesn’t know, can they really be a victim? He tells us how he pulls it off, all the stalking so this book feels like a how to manual from a twisted mind. Through many chapters he stalks, and it’s hard to feel the thrill of it, all that waiting seems exhaustively pointless and boring with little reward. He spends time informing the reader that we all ‘will pay the bill’ in the future for what the person we were in the past chose to do. A little game of ‘who are you really?” which is interesting because you never quite pin down who he really is. There isn’t a solid reason why he began stalking, and as a person there is mostly detachment. He is absorbed so much in knowing everything he can about his victims that he is a half-formed thing himself. Truly, does he really know these people because he can watch them like an animal in a cage, and as with Frances when her life unravels, isn’t it true interfering alters a person? He has blown up her life, and the spoils are in watching the aftermath.
He is at times trapped in a sort of corner by his own philosophizing. It would have been a far more interesting character if we could in turn study him, but he doesn’t really have a past for us to dissect. Maybe he is meant to be without explanation, and that is the point, that there isn’t a why. He is repulsive, the novel turns to horror after a slow trudge through the watching and still I wonder… why? Did he just need something to do with himself? What the heck caused this split in his mind? Why Frances? The answer seems to be, why not?
Obviously he gets high on his voyeurism, and in a sense it’s like playing God when he manipulates things with Frances. It begins with a cup of hot tea, and ends with it as well, but will Frances still be alive at the end? It is intelligently written and the idea is horrible, people want to be seen so badly, heard, known but not like this. This is scrutiny we could all do well without. It was a decent read, and it’s disturbing, graphic in parts, but I was left scratching my head? Maybe we’re meant to feel like the victims wondering why, never really coming to any solid conclusion?
Publication Date: August 7, 2018
Twelve Books
Read
March 9, 2018RTC.
Wooooow it took me a long time to push through this short book. A week and a half for 225 pages...
I'll compile a proper review later, but for now... I can understand in essence what the author was trying to do, but I disagree with so many elements of the writing. It's true, these things could be argued for as a quirk of the narrator, but you know what? They make it such a pain for the reader to push through. At some point, you have to decide whether you want to be willy-nilly with style and lose the readers who care about grammar and tense, or you tidy it up a little.
Issues and/or peeves:
- There were no quotation marks
- The tense was somewhat jumbled (including past, present, and future tense)
- The POVs were somewhat jumbled (including first, third, and second person... And the third person scenes were shown to be told by the same person who was narrating the 1st person, though the 1st person seems to be privy to info about the third person that he couldn't know.)
- So much of the book was dull and not engaging
- A couple of extremely gory scenes were at odds with the slow meander of the rest of the book
Good/interesting things:
- It's kind've meta
- At times it puts the reader in the position of stalker/killer, at other times in the position of the stalked
- There's quite a bit of philosophical thinking, about life and love and human connection, about stalking and society and what we owe to each other.
All in all, I don't think I'm glad I read this book. I enjoyed the gory scenes, and I agreed with certain thoughts presented in the inner monologue, but there was really nothing here I couldn't have found elsewhere.
It's a little Dexter, a little Creep (the movie), and something else besides that has currently slipped my mind. But it doesn't engage the audience well enough, or show us things we wouldn't have discovered in either of those. It kinda feels like the whole book was only written in order for the author to get to the final chapter.
Wooooow it took me a long time to push through this short book. A week and a half for 225 pages...
I'll compile a proper review later, but for now... I can understand in essence what the author was trying to do, but I disagree with so many elements of the writing. It's true, these things could be argued for as a quirk of the narrator, but you know what? They make it such a pain for the reader to push through. At some point, you have to decide whether you want to be willy-nilly with style and lose the readers who care about grammar and tense, or you tidy it up a little.
Issues and/or peeves:
- There were no quotation marks
- The tense was somewhat jumbled (including past, present, and future tense)
- The POVs were somewhat jumbled (including first, third, and second person... And the third person scenes were shown to be told by the same person who was narrating the 1st person, though the 1st person seems to be privy to info about the third person that he couldn't know.)
- So much of the book was dull and not engaging
- A couple of extremely gory scenes were at odds with the slow meander of the rest of the book
Good/interesting things:
- It's kind've meta
- At times it puts the reader in the position of stalker/killer, at other times in the position of the stalked
- There's quite a bit of philosophical thinking, about life and love and human connection, about stalking and society and what we owe to each other.
All in all, I don't think I'm glad I read this book. I enjoyed the gory scenes, and I agreed with certain thoughts presented in the inner monologue, but there was really nothing here I couldn't have found elsewhere.
It's a little Dexter, a little Creep (the movie), and something else besides that has currently slipped my mind. But it doesn't engage the audience well enough, or show us things we wouldn't have discovered in either of those. It kinda feels like the whole book was only written in order for the author to get to the final chapter.
November 5, 2018
Utterly strange and briefly gruesome- I was looking forward to it because I so enjoyed the stalkerish You by Caroline Kepnes, but it fell far from the mark. There were several scenes to wake me up when I was approaching boredom, but otherwise this was a rather tedious book, though if you want a creepy read, this stalker's manifesto is certainly that. I don't think there was enough resolution and throughout I felt little investment in either MC so I felt more relief than disappointment when I got to the end.
January 8, 2019
Twisted and very dark
January 29, 2018
At a time when the headlines overflow with testimony to the ruin wrought by toxic masculinity, it takes a bold — or perhaps foolhardy — novelist to put us inside the mind of a stalker.
But Leo Benedictus goes for broke with this disturbing page-turner about an anonymous, self-styled ‘researcher’ who uses a cash windfall to maintain files on dozens of unsuspecting women, starting with a hairdresser using her phone on the bus.
He zeroes in most closely on Frances, a management consultant suspended from work after allegations of fraud — an email smear concocted by our narrator, who sits back and observes the domino-effect fallout.
The queasy set-up offers an undeniable frisson of black comedy, partly because the narrator is so implacably deadpan in the face of his wildly escalating misdeeds, as casual eavesdropping slides into surveillance-van stakeouts.
But what’s funniest — and most biting — is the book’s unexpected satire of gender relations. Perversely, the narrator’s monitoring of Frances highlights how unfairly she’s treated by her male boss (whom she can’t help suspecting of stitching her up).
It’s part of the novel’s treacherous seduction that you could see the narrator’s lethal pursuit of the men in Frances’s life as a kind of righteous vengeance — except, of course, it’s simply another element of his ardent will to manipulate.
At times almost unreadably horrible — one scene in particular had me wincing — Consent is thought-provoking as well as shocking, with a teasing parallel between stalking and the business of fiction writing itself. It’s a high-wire act, for sure but one that doesn’t trivialise the issue at the novel’s obsidian heart.
But Leo Benedictus goes for broke with this disturbing page-turner about an anonymous, self-styled ‘researcher’ who uses a cash windfall to maintain files on dozens of unsuspecting women, starting with a hairdresser using her phone on the bus.
He zeroes in most closely on Frances, a management consultant suspended from work after allegations of fraud — an email smear concocted by our narrator, who sits back and observes the domino-effect fallout.
The queasy set-up offers an undeniable frisson of black comedy, partly because the narrator is so implacably deadpan in the face of his wildly escalating misdeeds, as casual eavesdropping slides into surveillance-van stakeouts.
But what’s funniest — and most biting — is the book’s unexpected satire of gender relations. Perversely, the narrator’s monitoring of Frances highlights how unfairly she’s treated by her male boss (whom she can’t help suspecting of stitching her up).
It’s part of the novel’s treacherous seduction that you could see the narrator’s lethal pursuit of the men in Frances’s life as a kind of righteous vengeance — except, of course, it’s simply another element of his ardent will to manipulate.
At times almost unreadably horrible — one scene in particular had me wincing — Consent is thought-provoking as well as shocking, with a teasing parallel between stalking and the business of fiction writing itself. It’s a high-wire act, for sure but one that doesn’t trivialise the issue at the novel’s obsidian heart.
March 26, 2018
Consent is a stalker book. Our unnamed narrator explains how he became unexpectedly rich, allowing him to opt out of the world of work and follow (mostly) women. His motives seem unclear. Is he a harmless crank? By drip-feeding the information the reader builds up a picture.
And, at the risk of spoiling things, that picture starts to look more and more horrific.
This horror is set in relief by the apparently calm, logical narration and the dry humour derived from incidental details.
Mostly, this is the story of our narrator following Frances, a management consultant who has been suspended from work following a misunderstanding about a project called Consent. As Frances seeks solace in her local cafe, she has opportunities of seeking comfort either from our narrator, or from Patrick who is trying to make a go of a fragile parcel delivery company. Patrick wins...
Consent is a twisty, turny novel with an ending that will make the reader turn straight back to re-read the beginning. It is short, sharp and intriguing. It describes modern London to a tee, and the avaricious, careerist, selfish people who live there. The narrative voice is mostly engaging, although there is a tendency towards cod-philosophy that outstays its welcome. But this is more than compensated by the creepiness.
Consent is not the only stalkery book on the market, but it is definitely one of the best.
And, at the risk of spoiling things, that picture starts to look more and more horrific.
This horror is set in relief by the apparently calm, logical narration and the dry humour derived from incidental details.
Mostly, this is the story of our narrator following Frances, a management consultant who has been suspended from work following a misunderstanding about a project called Consent. As Frances seeks solace in her local cafe, she has opportunities of seeking comfort either from our narrator, or from Patrick who is trying to make a go of a fragile parcel delivery company. Patrick wins...
Consent is a twisty, turny novel with an ending that will make the reader turn straight back to re-read the beginning. It is short, sharp and intriguing. It describes modern London to a tee, and the avaricious, careerist, selfish people who live there. The narrative voice is mostly engaging, although there is a tendency towards cod-philosophy that outstays its welcome. But this is more than compensated by the creepiness.
Consent is not the only stalkery book on the market, but it is definitely one of the best.
April 4, 2018
Oh my days, this was so brilliant. I read it in one sitting (well lying in bed actually, which was a bit disturbing). I wish I could give it more stars. Leo’s narrative style melts through different perspectives and time frames with the surreptitiousness of boiling sugar.
The astuteness with which he weaves philosophy into the voice and story is mesmerising and he ensures you are pulled into his protagonist’s world in ways you cannot foresee. Honest, direct and a force that connects reader and narrator (I originally wrote author there... see?) seamlessly across fathoms of geographic and psychological levels. Stunning. By far one of the very few books I have to read again.
The astuteness with which he weaves philosophy into the voice and story is mesmerising and he ensures you are pulled into his protagonist’s world in ways you cannot foresee. Honest, direct and a force that connects reader and narrator (I originally wrote author there... see?) seamlessly across fathoms of geographic and psychological levels. Stunning. By far one of the very few books I have to read again.
March 4, 2018
The main character in Consent practises people studies, follows them, listens to them, watches them, lingering on the edge of their lives, never interacting, never crossing the border of observation. He is studious in his passion for detail and self-conscious in his musings of what it means to be human. And with the wealth bestowed on him by a deceased relative, free to pursue this passion. The arrival of his latest subject, Frances, heralds a shift in the equilibrium of his life, a terrifying change onto a new course, where the line between madness and sanity begins to blur.
I really enjoyed this fantastic book and this main character really got into my head. Just imagine. He knows what your hopes are, what your fears are, he knows your secrets. He is privy to the facets of your heart, those that even you are unaware of, your routine, the traits of your personality, the pendulum of your emotions, he can read you like a book. There is no such thing as privacy, no such thing as the safety of your own home, not even the sanctuary of your own mind. He has no limits and nothing can stop him. Through the book, the reader is given pieces of his past to mull over, enabling us to build a better picture of his character. And what a character he is! He’s engaging but unnerving, creepy but intriguing. I was gripped from start to finish!
There are so many elements of this book that I want to praise but its difficult not to give too much away. Our narrator, whose identity remains anonymous throughout the book is, despite his despicable flaws, an engaging, fascinating character, constantly questioning himself, afflicted with concerns for his actions and state of mind. As he gathers information on his subjects to ponder at his leisure, the reader is drawn into the intricacies of his mind, the folds of his thoughts and feelings. He’s a puzzling character, unlike any I have come across before but he is absolutely fascinating.
Leo Benedictus’ prose commands the attention of the reader, grasping them from the very first page and guiding them on a disturbing, original journey into the mind of not only a stalker but a man who will both bewitch you and terrify you. I’ve read quite a lot of books with stalkers recently but Consent is definitely one of the ones that will stick in my mind.
Compelling. Unnerving. Original.
I really enjoyed this fantastic book and this main character really got into my head. Just imagine. He knows what your hopes are, what your fears are, he knows your secrets. He is privy to the facets of your heart, those that even you are unaware of, your routine, the traits of your personality, the pendulum of your emotions, he can read you like a book. There is no such thing as privacy, no such thing as the safety of your own home, not even the sanctuary of your own mind. He has no limits and nothing can stop him. Through the book, the reader is given pieces of his past to mull over, enabling us to build a better picture of his character. And what a character he is! He’s engaging but unnerving, creepy but intriguing. I was gripped from start to finish!
There are so many elements of this book that I want to praise but its difficult not to give too much away. Our narrator, whose identity remains anonymous throughout the book is, despite his despicable flaws, an engaging, fascinating character, constantly questioning himself, afflicted with concerns for his actions and state of mind. As he gathers information on his subjects to ponder at his leisure, the reader is drawn into the intricacies of his mind, the folds of his thoughts and feelings. He’s a puzzling character, unlike any I have come across before but he is absolutely fascinating.
Leo Benedictus’ prose commands the attention of the reader, grasping them from the very first page and guiding them on a disturbing, original journey into the mind of not only a stalker but a man who will both bewitch you and terrify you. I’ve read quite a lot of books with stalkers recently but Consent is definitely one of the ones that will stick in my mind.
Compelling. Unnerving. Original.
July 17, 2025
Ok buddy
July 27, 2024
Got so close to finishing it and realised I actually didn’t care what happened
September 27, 2018
This book was written years ago by a better writer and it's called The Dark House. I love this book and still wonder where the hell my personal copy went.
October 27, 2019
I don´t know if I´ve read to many really good books in the "stalker"-genre or if this just didn´t fit me but I am sad to say this story didn´t engage me at all. The characters feel flat, the story uninteresting and jumps back and forth in a way that neither builds on the story or the tension. And there is really nothing to build up to because it ends in an anticlimax.
February 5, 2018
“Consent” is the latest offering in the recent wave of mainstream ‘stalker thrillers,’ and it did not disappoint. Told from the perspective of an unnamed narrator whom we accompany into ever more disturbing situations, as well as from the point of view of his most recent subject Frances, it is a short novel, but one which will stay with you for some time.
The story begins with our narrator making tea in the home of the object of his affections whilst she sleeps peacefully upstairs. Needless to say, she has not invited him in. And so the scene is set for what is to become an uncomfortable and ultimately gruesome story, albeit interspersed with some interesting philosophical questions and blackly comic moments.
As our narrator becomes increasingly fixated with Frances, we ponder some of his previous subjects and the mystery of the human condition, although we are given little explanation of why he is the way he is. Some readers may find this unsatisfying, but I felt that it added to the creepiness of the whole thing, as there is no rationale or reasoning for the events which unfold.
“Consent” has been compared to “American Psycho,” and so, will not be everyone’s cup of tea. Whilst it is certainly not for the faint hearted, it is a compelling and clever read.
Honestbookaholic.com
The story begins with our narrator making tea in the home of the object of his affections whilst she sleeps peacefully upstairs. Needless to say, she has not invited him in. And so the scene is set for what is to become an uncomfortable and ultimately gruesome story, albeit interspersed with some interesting philosophical questions and blackly comic moments.
As our narrator becomes increasingly fixated with Frances, we ponder some of his previous subjects and the mystery of the human condition, although we are given little explanation of why he is the way he is. Some readers may find this unsatisfying, but I felt that it added to the creepiness of the whole thing, as there is no rationale or reasoning for the events which unfold.
“Consent” has been compared to “American Psycho,” and so, will not be everyone’s cup of tea. Whilst it is certainly not for the faint hearted, it is a compelling and clever read.
Honestbookaholic.com
April 18, 2021
I really struggled with this book, the main thing being the lack of quotation marks. It made a difficult book even harder to read.
It almost felt like there was a complete lack of a storyline, and I really didn't know what was going on half the time. The ending left me completely underwhelmed, and wondering what I had just read.
It almost felt like there was a complete lack of a storyline, and I really didn't know what was going on half the time. The ending left me completely underwhelmed, and wondering what I had just read.
August 14, 2023
Have read no other stalking novels to compare this too so I thought this was pretty interesting. I can understand a few things in it that would be love or hate to a lot of readers: no speech marks, ambiguousness, narcissistic male narrator, and a reasonably plotless story. Luckily for me, I like all of these things so I had a pretty enjoyable time with this one!
September 2, 2017
Crime, psychological thriller, horror - 'Consent' has it all! The unusual style, including the author's use of the third person present tense and his omission of speech marks adds to the suspense of this unusual thriller with its unpredictable ending. An original and thoroughly gripping read.
March 14, 2018
I loved this book it’s so interesting but disturbing at the same time I want more
August 2, 2019
Note to self: Never meet this author.
April 14, 2022
[[spoilers within]] I picked this book up because it was advertised as a thought-provoking thriller in a description for a "blind date with a book." There was nothing thrilling about this story. There wasn't even anything interesting about this story. The description of this story within the inside fold was more interesting than anything the narrator ended up offering.
If I were to give a generous reading of this story, I would say that the writing style is purposefully choppy, erratic and jumpy because we're reading a tale told by a serial stalker/somewhat serial killer who is trying to explain to his most treasured victim why he does what he does. But the problem is, even if books are written purposefully to demonstrate the headspace of its narrator, the book still has to be good. It still has to be interesting - take Flowers for Algernon, for example. But this book doesn't do that. It's like if you took YOU, stripped it of the plot that makes it a page-turner, stripped Joe of his inner monologue and reasoning, stripped the primary stalking victim (Beck in YOU, Frances here) of anything that resembles a personality, and then vomited it onto 200 pages of rambling.
I read this entire story and I couldn't tell you why the narrator does what he does. That might be part of the point - the narrator himself is unclear about his motivations. But there's no underlying commentary, unless it's just a hopeless capture of senseless violence, motivated by vague interest in a woman who can capture a room during a sales pitch. I couldn't tell you why he's so captivated by Frances, to the point of being willing to kill for her, twice, once unnecessarily. And it isn't even to get to her! The narrator doesn't rid the world of the two men he kills to clear a path to Frances, as we see with Joe in YOU, he just kills to ... kill? He's detached from his actions but not in a way that surfaces anything interesting about himself or his worldview. Speaking of his worldview - this book is filled with philosophical ramblings that amount to absolutely nothing. It's pompous without being written well.
I don't know why I pushed myself to finish this book. Usually, I can't handle not knowing the details of a plot or getting to an ending, even if I have to push past really poor writing to get there. That's how I pushed myself through the Shadow and Bone series. But there was no plot to this. A business woman tries to find out who wrote an anonymous letter that eventually costs her her job and all the time she's unaware that a man (who only has the time to do this because he literally stumbled into a huge inheritance that erased his need to work. THAT'S the justification here) is stalking her and picking off men who cross her. She spends a good 20 pages just sitting in a coffee shop trying to find our narrator. And she probably had a better time doing that than I did reading this book.
This was my first really disappointing read of the year. And honestly, I'm going to retain the hatred I have for it, but it was so unremarkable I'll probably eventually forget why I even hated it so much.
If I were to give a generous reading of this story, I would say that the writing style is purposefully choppy, erratic and jumpy because we're reading a tale told by a serial stalker/somewhat serial killer who is trying to explain to his most treasured victim why he does what he does. But the problem is, even if books are written purposefully to demonstrate the headspace of its narrator, the book still has to be good. It still has to be interesting - take Flowers for Algernon, for example. But this book doesn't do that. It's like if you took YOU, stripped it of the plot that makes it a page-turner, stripped Joe of his inner monologue and reasoning, stripped the primary stalking victim (Beck in YOU, Frances here) of anything that resembles a personality, and then vomited it onto 200 pages of rambling.
I read this entire story and I couldn't tell you why the narrator does what he does. That might be part of the point - the narrator himself is unclear about his motivations. But there's no underlying commentary, unless it's just a hopeless capture of senseless violence, motivated by vague interest in a woman who can capture a room during a sales pitch. I couldn't tell you why he's so captivated by Frances, to the point of being willing to kill for her, twice, once unnecessarily. And it isn't even to get to her! The narrator doesn't rid the world of the two men he kills to clear a path to Frances, as we see with Joe in YOU, he just kills to ... kill? He's detached from his actions but not in a way that surfaces anything interesting about himself or his worldview. Speaking of his worldview - this book is filled with philosophical ramblings that amount to absolutely nothing. It's pompous without being written well.
I don't know why I pushed myself to finish this book. Usually, I can't handle not knowing the details of a plot or getting to an ending, even if I have to push past really poor writing to get there. That's how I pushed myself through the Shadow and Bone series. But there was no plot to this. A business woman tries to find out who wrote an anonymous letter that eventually costs her her job and all the time she's unaware that a man (who only has the time to do this because he literally stumbled into a huge inheritance that erased his need to work. THAT'S the justification here) is stalking her and picking off men who cross her. She spends a good 20 pages just sitting in a coffee shop trying to find our narrator. And she probably had a better time doing that than I did reading this book.
This was my first really disappointing read of the year. And honestly, I'm going to retain the hatred I have for it, but it was so unremarkable I'll probably eventually forget why I even hated it so much.
January 12, 2024
Really unusual both in terms of the structure, the subject and the writing style. In essence this is a stalkers memoir.
It reminded me of "The Collector" by John Fowles, in as much as you are forced into being an accomplice to terrible acts via the first (and second) person writing styles.
The narrator balances being profoundly odd with such strong strands of normality that he is all the more terrifying for that. It also throws up the question of whether characters should be, or need to be "likeable". The narrator is not; he reads like he is pretending to be human, he is devoid of empathy, but he is deliberately written thst way, and it's very effective. He is also not without self awareness and insight, which draws you in.
It's not perfect - some parts stretch credibility for example - but it's interesting and very original. In places you can see the punches coming, so to speak, but they are still effective when they land. Well worth a go.
It reminded me of "The Collector" by John Fowles, in as much as you are forced into being an accomplice to terrible acts via the first (and second) person writing styles.
The narrator balances being profoundly odd with such strong strands of normality that he is all the more terrifying for that. It also throws up the question of whether characters should be, or need to be "likeable". The narrator is not; he reads like he is pretending to be human, he is devoid of empathy, but he is deliberately written thst way, and it's very effective. He is also not without self awareness and insight, which draws you in.
It's not perfect - some parts stretch credibility for example - but it's interesting and very original. In places you can see the punches coming, so to speak, but they are still effective when they land. Well worth a go.
May 21, 2022
I gave this book only a two because despite a couple of particularly graphic and descriptive incidents within it which I feel could have been better utilised as part of a plot with more detailed characters and a less anticlimactic ending, I found the flirting between the past and present tenses difficult to decipher at times along with trying to ascertain who was speaking/ thinking at any given time. The writing of this one was just a bit too chaotic for me and I didn’t find the structure very fluid.
August 18, 2022
I slightly rounded this rating up. In complete transparency, it probably only deserved a one-star rating. I was initially really roped in, primarily in the first few pages. I don't like to compare similar works of horror or thriller fiction, as there's only so much you can do. However, this seemed very similar the novel "You" but significantly less interesting.
I found the stalker aspect interesting up until a point, it wasn't in a "this is too creepy way" either, it was just downright boring. Most of this narrative isn't even from the mind of the stalker. A lot of the book is just about Frances and her boring job.
It picks up in certain places of the book, but to be honest, if I wasn't already halfway through the book, I would have just dnf'd but it felt like such a waste of time that I decided to just finish it.
You're also left not really knowing what happens in the end. It can be assumed but there is no definitive ending.
I found the stalker aspect interesting up until a point, it wasn't in a "this is too creepy way" either, it was just downright boring. Most of this narrative isn't even from the mind of the stalker. A lot of the book is just about Frances and her boring job.
It picks up in certain places of the book, but to be honest, if I wasn't already halfway through the book, I would have just dnf'd but it felt like such a waste of time that I decided to just finish it.
You're also left not really knowing what happens in the end. It can be assumed but there is no definitive ending.
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