Student Book Review:


A Stranger is Watching

by: Mary Higgins Clark


Review done by:

 Sydney B.
Grade 7
Van Antwerp Middle School
Niskayuna, NY

A Stranger is Watching is a thrilling mystery written by Mary Higgins Clark. It is written during the present and takes place in Manhattan. This was a very exciting book and kept me on the edge of my chair.
A Stranger is Watching is about a man named Arty Taggert (Foxy) who builds up this obsession with a woman named Sharon Martin. Sharon was on a talk show with a man named Steven Peterson, debating a current topic. Eventually, Sharon and Steve started dating and became very close. Steve had a son named Neil. Neil Peterson was a troubled young boy who's health altered ever since his mother died when he was a baby. One night when Sharon was baby-sitting Neil, Foxy decided to kidnap them both. The author goes into intricate details about Foxy's plan, which made this book even better. When Foxy kidnapped Sharon and Neil, he hid them in a place that he was sure that no one would ever find them. This place was in a Manhattan subway building in a secret room that he used to work in. Foxy was a temperamental man that couldn't be described with one word. He claimed that he was in love with Sharon but deprived her of many privileges when he was holding her captive. Sharon made several attempts to escape, but failed every time.
At one point, a woman named Lally came very close to finding this room. Lally was homeless and lived in this Manhattan subway building with several other homeless people. Lally realized that she had forgotten about this secret room that she thought was only known to her. As she was on her way to the room, a strange man (Foxy) stopped her. Foxy found out that she was about to reveal Sharon and Neil so he stabbed Lally. Foxy, thinking that he had killed Lally, left the subway building to run an errand. Lally wasn't actually dead, but was in such a bad state that she couldn't make it to the room. Throughout these events, the police were searching high and low for Sharon and Neil and to add even more suspense to this plot, Foxy had set a bomb which would go off and kill a large amount of people in the subway building.
A Stranger is Watching was an intense novel that follows the lives of Neil and Steve Peterson. I thought this book was very well-written and went into great detail which helped you feel like you were a part of the scenes. I would recommend this book to students who like to read at an intermediate level.
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