A few months back, I interviewed Alyssa Cole on the podcast in Episode 379. Dystopian Futures, Burnout, and More with Alyssa Cole.
We talked at length about her upcoming thriller When No One Is Watching ( A | BN | K | AB ), which is coming out in September 2020:
Alyssa: So a lot, a lot of the thriller, or a lot of the kind of terror of it in the thriller is based on those, like, moments of, like –
Sarah: I don’t recognize anything!
Alyssa: – I – seeing the things you thought you knew, the things that would always be there, like, erased –
Sarah: Oh yeah.
Alyssa: – without you even noticing?….
Alyssa: …The thriller is kind of like harnessing this kind of dread that fills you when you see something that’s supposed to be recognizable and it totally isn’t.
I’m so excited, y’all. I have a cover reveal! You ready?
First, savor the cover copy before you click the reveal because the fit is *chef’s kiss.”
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 …
Sydney Green is Brooklyn born and raised, but her beloved neighborhood seems to change every time she blinks. Condos are sprouting like weeds, FOR SALE signs are popping up overnight, and the neighbors she’s known all her life are disappearing.
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.
But 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.
When does coincidence become conspiracy? Where do people go when gentrification pushes them out? Can Sydney and Theo trust each other—or themselves—long enough to find out before they too disappear?
Now are you ready to see the cover?
Wow, huh?
I showed it to the SBTB team, and they were as eyes-wide-open-wow as I was.
Aarya: !!!!!
Sneezy: Oh WOWZA!!!!!!
That half opened the curtain is just 
Sarah: Isn’t it?? Such a great cover.
Aarya: The one yellow curtain is creepy
Amanda: I love the ivy and how it curls around the letters
Sneezy: O ya!!!! I didn’t see that!!!! Good eye!!!!
Aarya: The cover has excellent variety of textures
Sneezy: The font is also so CLEAN and FITS so well with the building!!!!
Aarya: I can’t stop thinking about why that one curtain is yellow. And now I’m thinking about The Yellow Wallpaper
Tara: That cover is gorgeous and that blurb is terrifying.
Shana: Ooh, I’m so excited. That cover is amazing.
Lara: If it’s possible to get Good Book Feels from a cover, this is the cover that would give me that ooh-ah sensation.
Sarah: The longer you look at the cover, the creepier it gets.
So, how about you? What do you think?
So I live in Seattle and tonight (last night, now I guess?) closures of all the places I go were announced. Libraries. Gyms. All the little local shops and neighborhood bookstores are limited in the number of customers they can allow. My local bar-the place where I go not for the drinks but for the companionship (but also the well-priced and excellent drinks)-will now only be able to do delivery or pickup for takeout. You don’t make the money on food at a bar, you make money on the cocktails and beer or wine. The owners are dear friends of mine, as are several of the servers. They are facing hard times now. And all of us here in this city will be living in our tiny spaces, looking out at the world most of the day (those of us fortunate enough to have housing, that is)… this book cover is extra eerie to me right now. Everything is so uncertain and we are all peeking out our windows when we are not busy working from home (or in my case, attending school from home as a much older lady switching professions mid-life) or looking curiously up at the windows lining the empty streets when we go out to walk when we cannot be contained one moment longer…
Great cover – bravo for the designer!!! BTW did you notice that the middle window on the 1st floor (under the “IS” ) looks like guillotine? (shudders…)
It’s a great cover—and the story sounds as if it will be fantastic too—however, maybe it’s not showing this way for everyone, but—even though you have the cover in a “click to reveal” box—it was already showing for me when I first opened SBTB, in the left-hand corner of the post, before I even clicked on the post to open it.
Oooh. It’s in my wishlist at B&N now.
@Penny How terrifying and eerie. I know LA did similar Last night. Here in Vegas, our hotels and schools/univeesities shut down yesterday (for 14, 5 & 8 weeks, respectively). Feels like some weird nightmare and I agree this cover captures that feeling so well.
It’s a beautiful and creepy cover.
Is that poison ivy? It looks like it is.
It’s mostly blue so I love it, perfect choice.
But also, the fact that the handrail isn’t pictured symmetrically is driving me nuts. I’m guessing it’s on purpose, and that it’s made to add to the strange unsettling feeling the story is about… and it freaking works, well done cover artist/designer, my little OCD hates you 😉
Seriously the more I look at it, the more it’s bothering the hell out of me that I can’t do a thing about it, hahaha hahAAAH I want to break my screen.
I like that yellow curtain; it adds a touch of hope. (And hope is something we all need these days.)
Absolutely love it! I can’t wait to read this book.
Is that curtain yellow or are all the lights out in the house except for the room that curtain is in?
Also, this looks amazing.
I just finished an ARC of this book and it blew me away. I’m a huge fan of Cole’s romances; this is something completely different, but just as good. It’s funny at times, super terrifying at others, and hopefully will encourage readers to take a harder look at lesser-known ugliness in U.S. history. I can’t wait until it’s out so I can talk about it with others!