NOW FOLLOWING YOU
Fiona Snykers
Loot.co.za (R210)
Modjaji Books
REVIEW: Sue Townsend
We all know the book shop favourite sales gimmick of ‘3 for the price of 2’, well, here we have 3 for the price of 1. Fiona Snyckers has cleverly combined a stalker thriller with a love story and a goodly dose of emails, blog, Facebook pages and twitter feeds. Jemima (akaJamie) Burchell has clearly not read the warnings that are regularly voiced by social media lawyers…do not post anything on social media unless you would be prepared to have it plastered on a billboard on the side of De Waal Drive (or in this case Jan Smuts Avenue – the story is set in Johannesburg). Our Jamie shares her every thought and feeling (especially feeling) on her twitter feed, Facebook page and blog. She is also writing a dystopic novel in short bursts on her blog. Needless to say, she has a day job, running a successful coffee shop with her clever black school friend Pumla. Somehow, along the way, she goes on 15 km runs and bakes up a storm trying out new recipes for the shop. I was exhausted just reading about it all.
But, and it’s a big but, this is a seriously well-written page turner. The tension building up as the stalker follows her every move on social media (she really does post her every movement as well as her every thought and or feeling while at the same time responding to the responses she gets.) As I said, I don’t how she manages it all. Without spoiling the story or the tension, the escalation of nastiness perpetrated by the stalker (his twitter handle is @FoullyWooingWon) is tangible.
The third strand of this story revolves around Tom, variously referred to as Hot Running Guy (before she meets him); Rude Neighbour Guy (when he is rude after she rescues his adopted son from running in the road) to the inevitable ‘guy that I love and who loves me’. The complication in this thread is that Tom, who lives next door, has a cute little adopted son (bizarre story here…cute toddler’s African mother died more or less as she knocked on Tom’s door begging for help) whom he desperately wants to protect from hurt and trauma, hence being rude to Jamie when first they meet. Needless to say, Jamie and Ben (the toddler) fall in love with each other.
It is, however, the stalking that holds the attention and reads the most authentically. It is, in fact, a cautionary tale for our times, sugar coated to be sure by the inclusion of the love story angle; Tom is a professor of criminology and so can provide very useful backup and help to Jamie as she comes to realise the danger that she is in (and has unwittingly drawn her partner Pumla into). The epilogue is however pertinent – Jamie is a digital creature and he will be waiting for her if she continues to inhabit virtual space. ‘Like a spider for a fly.’