Watch Me

Author and creative writing professor Kate Youngblood, the heroine of this engrossing thriller from Gehrman (The Truth About Jack), faces obscurity in her late 30s. Her ex-husband is marrying a younger woman, her best friend is pregnant, her writing career is stalled, and men’s eyes no longer seek her out. But to Sam Grist, a student 16 years her junior at Ohio’s Blackwood College, Kate is the focus of an elaborate fantasy that has sustained him for years. As Kate mentors Sam—a talented writer with strikingly disturbing ideas—she’s strongly attracted to him, but his attempts to realize his dreams threaten her career, her relationships, and ultimately her safety. Gehrman builds tension as Sam’s idealized vision of Kate collides with a reality he can’t control. The depiction of his obsession is pitch-perfect, and Kate’s reaction, alternating between desire and fear, strikes a hauntingly realistic note. This is a powerful critique of a superficial society in which only those with youth and beauty command notice—and of what one woman will risk to be truly seen. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. (Jan.)