 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A social-horror story
Book: We Are Watching Eliza Bright, by A. E. Osworth A tense, all-too-believable thriller about a woman in the video game industry being harassed and stalked. Eliza complains to her boss about a depressingly mundane incident of sexism from co-workers. The boss brushes her off, the co-workers are mad that she complained, and the situation snowballs until Eliza has been fired, doxed, and driven from her home with violent threats, and the friends who try to help her are targeted as well. The story makes great use of a "Greek chorus" style of narration, the story told by an anonymous mob of aggrieved gamer bros who see Eliza as a villainous intruder in their world. (The only other place I've seen this style of narration done as brilliantly is The Ladies' Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis.) They're the ultimate unreliable narrators, flipping from love to hate of various characters over perceived offenses. They offer multiple versions of scenes where none of them could have been present, and let the reader piece it together. (Did Eliza's boss go to her home to offer her protection, or did he have some more personal motive? The narrators desperately want it to be the latter.) A scary and timely book. I had to finish it quickly, or I wouldn't be able to sleep.
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