‘I See You’ By Clare Mackintosh [Book Review]

This is another creepy yet exciting book.

The story begins when Zoe, a middle-aged woman, sees her photo in the ad section of a local newspaper. It seems like an ad for a dating site, except the provided website URL and phone number do not seem to work.

Zoe tells her family and close friends about it, but they seem unmoved by it. It may just be someone who looks like her, they convince her. But of course, she remains bothered.

Eventually, she is able to confirm that it’s really her photograph—cropped out of an old picture of hers. How did it end up there? Was it some kind of mistake or coincidence? She keeps wondering.

Later on, she finds out that a different woman appears on the same spot in the same paper each day. What’s weirder is the fact that some of these women have already been victims of a wide array of crimes, ranging from theft to murder.

What follows is Zoe’s attempt to trace the person behind the ads. It is a “Black Mirror”-ish tale that gives a glimpse of how fucked up the world has become, especially with all the means to exploit data and use them to harm people.