Stalker Girl by Rosemary Graham

Stalker Girl by Rosemary Graham
"Carly never meant to become a stalker. She just wanted to find out who Brian started dating after he dumped her. But a little harmless online research turns into a quick glance, and that turns into an afternoon of watching. Soon Carly is putting all of her energy into following Brian’s new girlfriend—all of the sadness she feels about her mom’s recent breakup, all of the anger she feels over being pushed aside by her dad while he prepares for his new wife’s new baby. When Carly’s stalking is discovered in the worst possible way by the worst possible person, she is forced to acknowledge her problem and the underlying issues that led to it."- summary from Amazon

I don't think I've ever read any book about a stalker, but I kinda want to read more after this one. I really enjoyed this look into stalking and really felt for Carly. The book is told in three parts: the first dealing with the beginning of the stalking, the second (and longest) deals with how she got to that point, and the third is Carly dealing with the crimes lodged against her. Showing the whole story like that was a great way of getting the reader to sympathize a bit with Carly instead of being disgusted by her actions.

I liked how she wasn't stalking her ex, but rather his new girlfriend. It was a nice twist, but one that makes sense. If you get dumped and then see your ex with a new person, you begin to wonder: what is it about him/her that you don't have (this is provided you weren't dumped because your bf/gf was gay, in which case, correct anatomy would be the problem)? what makes him/her so special? You want to know all about them, or at least a little bit to satisfy your curiosity and then you're on your way, moving on to single life and then the next relationship.

Carly, however, just can't let it go and it was interesting to read how she went about stalking the new girlfriend and the situations she found herself in. What gave Carly depth, I think, was that she knew what she was doing was wrong; she wasn't just completely out of it and unrelatable and thought she was doing the right thing. Therefore, at least for me, the third part was tough to read because I was all about Carly's side, but I'm happy with the ending that happened because it could have been much worse.

Overall, a really interesting, unique book.

FTC: Received ARC from Around the World tours. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; all profit goes toward funding contests.