Read Me, Leo Benedictus
Read Me, Leo Benedictus
List: $24.98 | Sale: $17.49
Club: $12.49

Read Me
A Novel

Author: Leo Benedictus

Narrator: Mathew Baynton

Unabridged: 6 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Twelve

Published: 08/07/2018


Synopsis

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Raven on 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......more

Goodreads review by Lisa on December 09, 2018

Review from Tenacious Reader: [URL not allowed] 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 min......more

Goodreads review by Latkins on 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......more

Goodreads review by Lolly K Dandeneau on June 06, 2018

via my blog: [URL not allowed] '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......more

Goodreads review by Mel on November 05, 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 cree......more


Quotes

"A fascinating, disturbing, and original thriller that erases the boundaries of the genre and draws challenging new ones."—Sophie Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of The Monogram Murders

"Such a great read, and the product of a highly entertaining and disturbingly dark mind. If I was a friend of Leo Benedictus, I'd be reconsidering my options."—Stephen Mangan

"Creepily thought-provoking."—Melissa Broder, The New York Times Book Review

"Beautiful writing and a modest, pensive protagonist contrast grisly violence as we follow a stalker through a maze of streets and shops. Intrigued by those more colorful than he, drawn to the vibrant and vivacious, the narrator is trapped in his irrelevance and we inside his head as he records the movements and the moments of his more ostentatious prey. A brilliant and goosebumpy read!"—Susan Crawford, bestselling author of The Other Widow and The Pocket Wife

"READ MEoffers a salacious, disturbing, and increasingly focused look into the mind of a stalker."—Booklist

"Ingeniously nasty...reminiscent of Vladimir Nabokov and Patricia Highsmith...Expect to be provoked by a teasing metafictional game."—The Sunday Times

"A word of warning: do not pick up this novella late at night. Not if you'd like to sleep any time soon...Darkly addictive."—Hephzibah Anderson, The Mail on Sunday

"The contrast between the narrator's tone and the unsettling nature of his actions creates a host of tension...[READ ME] suggests a reimagining of John Fowles' The Collector for an age of social media, constant surveillance, and toxic masculinity."—Kirkus

"A fiendishly clever book, though not for the soft-hearted...You'll find yourself turning pages in the most disturbing kind of grip."—Sydney Morning Herald

"Another clever, cutting riff on the book-within-a book...this strangely congenial thriller-cum-treatise ends on a note of provocative ambiguity."—The Guardian