BOOK REVIEW: Peep Show

Peep Show

Author: Isabella Starling

Pub Date: Jan 22, 2018

Synopsis: 

She's stripping.
I'm watching.
She's playing.
I'm watching.
She's mine, I'm coming...

Bebe Hall is a heartbreaker. She's the it girl of the moment, a partygirl nobody can stop in her path of self destruction. Bebe Hall isn't the star of her own story.

She's the star of mine.

My name is Miles O'Reilly. I'm a photographer. An agoraphobic. A millionaire. A womanizer. I'm confined to my apartment. I don't leave. Ever.

But when she sees me with my latest online conquest in the window of my apartment, my attention shifts to Bebe.

And once I see something I want, I don't give up until it's mine.

Forever.

Peep Show is a 90,000 word novel with themes of voyeurism and dark scenes that may be upsetting to readers. If you are brave enough, come meet Miles. He's been waiting for you.

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Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

“I had to forget, and drinking, dancing and partying, was the only way I could do it”

Bebe is an IT girl who has lost one of her best friends and has yet to come to terms.  She’s also unsure of who she is without her friend.  As result, she uses sex, alcohol and drugs as coping mechanisms.  She does not want to go back to the unsure and unnoticed girl she once was.

Miles is an obsessive agoraphobic.  He had a very bad upbringing and now, he does not leave his home and experiences life through other people.

She is spiralling and destructive.

He is obsessive and agoraphobic.

They notice each other one night when Bebe spies on Miles through her window and sees him having sex with another woman.  They saw in each other a kindred spirit.

Can an IT girl and an agoraphobic man ever make a life together? Or, will their destructive ways destroy any chance of true happiness together?

From reading some of the many reviews on the Goodreads platform, there are a great many opinions on this book that stem from outright love to not liking this book.  I believe that weather they are negative or positive reviews that this shows how well the author has written this book.  The basis of this book is mental health and addiction.  Two topics that are very much misunderstood and hard to understand unless you have lived through it.

I didn’t like these characters or the choices they made, but I don’t have to.  The story is made to be read this way.  We are meant to see their struggle and mistakes and how they rise above.  To remember that people may do awful things that we do not understand but they are human regardless and deserve our support to overcome not our condemnation.

I don’t think I’ve ever met two characters so broken and so dependent on their crutches to survive.  It was truly heartbreaking to see them destroy each other and themselves.

I believe that in their own way, they helped each other heal and overcome.  Bebe learned that she deserved more and Miles learned to actually live life.  Together, they were hot as hell.

This book was told in dual POV.  The pace was good but did lag toward the end.  I was hoping their growth, secrets and hurdles would come to light sooner and be tamed if not overcome.

I believe that Bebe needed more than his help.  She needed an intervention with a psychologist.  She was also an alcoholic and drug abuser and would have gone through something hellish while abstaining.  These issues do not resolve on the spot and some mention of that or the struggle for recovery was warranted.

This was a dark read full of triggers, bad decisions and questionable actions.  It was well written, intriguing and kept my attention.   I would not hesitate to read another book from this author.