Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Book Review: Stalker Stalked

It feels like I haven't blogged in forever, and to be fair, that's probably true. Life has been really busy and crazy for me and I'm really struggling. It's just a really crappy season of life. 

Stalker Stalked - Lee Matthew Goldberg

Lexi Mazur is a depressed, alcoholic, pill-popper whose only joy has become her reality TV shows, often fantasizing that the people on TV are a part of her world. After her boyfriend Steve leaves her, she fixates on the show Socialites and its star Magnolia Artois, following every facet of the girl’s life on social media in the hopes of befriending and becoming more like her.

But stalking isn’t new to Lexi. She ultimately won over her ex Steve by following and manipulating every minute detail about him so he’d fall for her. In fact, she landed her other ex-boyfriend Jeremy in the same way. Being a pharma rep, she’s used to manipulation to get doctors to buy her drugs, along with the perk of saving pills for herself.

But what happens when the stalker gets stalked?

Recently, Lexi has felt someone watching her: in her apartment in Queens, at her job. At first, she thinks her mind’s playing tricks, but the watcher is behaving just like she would. And soon they begin leaving threatening clues like she starts to do to Magnolia once her obsession grows more dangerous. Is it one of her exes out for revenge? Her only real friend from childhood who she’s always had an unhealthy rivalry? A detective who may have figured her out? The reality star Magnolia trying to turn the tables? Or even someone she might not know?

Lexi learns the only way to beat her stalker is to use her own stalking prowess to outsmart them at their own game. But has she finally met her match?
I haven't been reading as much (or as fast) as I wish I was right now. I'm really struggling in all areas of life, so you'll notice my reviews are slowing down. I'll catch back up soon, but I do have a couple for you this week and they are pretty dang good. 

Today though I'm bringing you Stalker Stalked, a really interesting story that I don't know how to really explain this one.... in a good way. Our main character very clearly has mental health issues but she also drinks a lot.... and does a lot of drugs, neither of which really help the mental health issues obviously, but let's just keep that in mind as we go through this. She really believes she's being stalked, which is an ironic thing for her to deal with because she's used to being the one who does the stalking. She's basically pro level of nuts, and it almost kind of feels poetic because it's karma, right? 

I'm not going to go through the whole book because honestly, it's best to go in with as little information as possible because the whole premise is a bit bananas, and it's really entertaining to constantly be blown away as things keep happening. Every time you think it can't possibly get stranger, it does. The creepy factor keeps going up, and then throw in the absolute obsession with reality TV, and this book feels like it's going off the rails but you can't stop. You literally can't stop because every time you put the book down, your brain wants to know what's going to happen with Lexi. This isn't even the kind of book you are rooting for the character in a good way, you're really torn between wanting something to turn around and go well for her and wanting her to get what she deserves. But what does she deserve? I still don't know how I feel about the ending. The best way to describe this is it really is the car wreck you can't look away from. It's disturbing in a way, but it also makes you think about things differently, like how we consume reality television and how invested we feel in celebrities lives. 

A huge thank you to TLC Book Tours and Lee Matthew Goldberg for having me on this tour and sending me a copy of the book for review. This was a good book to break a rut, that's for sure, easily 4 stars for me. 

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1 comment:

Why Girls Are Weird said...

Okay I totally need to read this, even though stalking completely freaks me out!