Stalker Stalked is a paranoid portrayal of addiction in multiple forms. The main character is like a bad car accident at the side of the road - you know her situation’s ugly, but you keep looking anyway.

Lexi Mazur has no idea how to have a healthy relationship and doesn’t take any responsibility for learning how to break her unhealthy cycle. Her mother abused her. Her erratic behavior drives away boyfriends, whom she then stalks to remain an unwelcome part of their lives. She doesn’t know how to be a friend. She’s a pharmaceutical rep who is hooked on alcohol and the blue beauties she’s supposed to sell to her clients.

Lexi fills the void of her recent breakup by immersing herself into a Real Housewives-type reality show to the point where she believes she’s a part of the show and a BFF of the cast. Just when you think things can’t get weirder, Lexi becomes convinced she’s being stalked.

Goldberg takes an altered view of reality and carries it to even higher levels of absurdity. If you’re not a reality show fan, Stalker Stalked reinforces your choice. I am a reality show fan and used to write satirical episode summaries on a reality TV show forum. I’ve encountered too many people who take the Real Housewives-type shows too seriously, so Lexi’s obsession with the show Socialites sadly makes sense.

Goldberg’s characterization of Lexi is why this book succeeds. He crashes readers right into Lexi’s rollercoaster life and doesn’t hold back on the twists and turns as the reader tries to figure out what’s real and what’s fake in Lexi’s world.

I read Stalker Stalked in one sitting. Does that make me a stalker, or just someone who appreciates a delightfully absurd trainwreck? I recommend reading the book and seeing how it strikes you.

Thank you, Blackthorn Book Tours, for providing a copy of the book. ( )

Goldberg is quickly becoming one of the first authors I look out for with new releases, and Stalker Stalked is one I’ve been looking forward to for a while now. After finishing it yesterday I have to say I am very entertained and impressed.

Lexi is an excellently flawed character, and drives a compelling and addictive plot line, especially at the point when roles are revered on her and the tension really starts to build. Goldberg’s writing is tight and the scenes flow fast making this a real edge-of-the-seat thriller. I could absolutely see this transferred to the big screen in a summer blockbuster type of movie. But in the meantime it’s on my recommended list, and one I’ll go back and read again at a later date. ( )

e.john5@yandex.com ( )

A bit more creepier than I thought it would be. About a young woman and she's involved in many things.
Story goes back to her present boyfriends and past ones, the sex is not explicitly in detail but it's mentioned from time to time.
Like the drama of the society shows and the scenes that come to life.
At times she goes to extremes to get her boyfriend back by stalking him and also dressing in an animal costume to take sex pics of a girl she wants to friend and more.
She is also being stalked and watches for the shadows. She tries to prove to herself that she knows what to look for and she's better at stalking then the stalker them self.
Lexi has a run in with the doctor she sells pharma drugs to when he starts massaging her shoulders...
She fantasizes with the detective who questions her about the doctor and his complaint against her. She's very open...
Love the relationships she has with Pria and how she's there to get her up and dressed and cleaned up when she's been laying low for a several days with no contact.
Lexi does not reciprocate. Intervention from Pria and a lot of accusations about how Lexi is really turning into her mother sets Lexi's head on straight again...
Between reality shows and being on a new tv show you wonder what parts were the drugs and hallucinations and which were real.
She takes others advice and the outcome is quite a miracle. She has her own ideas of a new show, how to help others who are being stalked but she may not live to do much of anything...
About the author and their other works are listed at the end.
Kept my interest and couldn't put it down. ( )

‘Always be looking over your shoulder…’

New York City author Lee Matthew Goldberg earned his Masters in Fine Arts from the New School in Manhattan and has created a reputation as an award-winning author (eleven novels) whose works are published in multiple languages. He is equally successful in writing screenplays and pilots, and is the editor in chief and co-founder of Fringe (publishing fiction that is outside the box), and co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series. STALKER STALKED is his newest novel in the suspense/thriller genre.

Goldberg continues to make a powerful impression as a master storyteller. His concept for STALKER STALKED is imaginative, and the prose is visceral and pungent, descriptive to the point of transporting us into the world he has created. An introduction or prologue is unnecessary as he leaps into the mystery of his book: ‘I am being watched. This is not the first time. My stalker is smart, just like I would be. He or she finds the shadows. Shows up when I’m wasted or popped too many little blue pills. So I’ll be far enough away from reality to believe they are real. When I’m sleeping they’re at the foot of my bed, exhaling in the dark. When I turn on the light, they scatter like a cockroach…’ In those few sentences the core of the plot is revealed.

The author provides a fine plot overview: ‘Lexi Mazur is a depressed, alcoholic, pill-popper whose only joy has become her reality TV shows, often fantasizing that the people on TV are a part of her world. After her boyfriend Steve leaves her, she fixates on the show Socialites and its star Magnolia Artois, following every facet of the girl’s life on social media in the hopes of befriending and becoming more like her. But stalking isn’t new to Lexi. She ultimately won over her ex Steve by following and manipulating every minute detail about him so he’d fall for her. In fact, she landed her other ex-boyfriend Jeremy in the same way. Being a pharma rep, she’s used to manipulation to get doctors to buy her drugs, along with the perk of saving pills for herself. But what happens when the stalker gets stalked? Recently, Lexi has felt someone watching her: in her apartment in Queens, at her job. At first, she thinks her mind’s playing tricks, but the watcher is behaving just like she would. And soon they begin leaving threatening clues like she starts to do to Magnolia once her obsession grows more dangerous. Is it one of her exes out for revenge? Her only real friend from childhood who she’s always had an unhealthy rivalry? A detective who may have figured her out? The reality star Magnolia trying to turn the tables? Or even someone she might not know? Lexi learns the only way to beat her stalker is to use her own stalking prowess to outsmart them at their own game. But has she finally met her match?’

Lee Matthew Goldberg is an artist of substance who makes a powerful impact on the reader. Very highly recommended. ( )