The Closer I Get by Paul Burston

This is a novel about an author, Tom, who is stalked by a reader, Evie. It’s also a story about social media and how easy and pernicious cyberstalking and cyberbullying are. Finally, it is a novel about how we construct our sense of self, how social media has both made this easier, and more fragile and vulnerable to a track by others. The Closer I Get is a psychological thriller and as such it makes great use of the unreliable narrator. While Tom is a victim, and Evie his abuser, we are never entirely sure whether everything is as it seems.

Before starting this novel I had already read that the author, Paul Burston, had himself been a victim of online harassment and stalking. Indeed his own experiences are as harrowing as those he describes in his novel. This makes The Closer I Get incredibly harrowing, emotional authenticity weaves through its pages. That said, having been a victim himself, it would have been incredibly easy, perhaps even tempting, for him to write a thriller where the difference between victim and abuser was stark. He could have portrayed Tom as entirely sympathetic and Evie as complete evil. But Burston is too canny an author to do that and instead he crafts incredibly complex characters. Tom is far from perfect and instead is a man of many flaws, while Evie is far from the cartoon caricature of a Glen Close Bunny Boiler straight out of Fatal Attraction.

This is a nuanced and chilling novel that will stay with the reader and one that will have anyone who reads it think twice about their engagement on Twitter or Facebook. Unless you’re a hermit with no social media presence, this is a book that will stay with you.

4 out of 5 stars