8 books to read if you loved Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey
Fans of the first thriller on Canada Reads will enjoy these other titles
Olympic swimmer Maggie Mac Neil championed Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey on Canada Reads 2025. The thriller was the first of its genre in the show's history!
Watch Out for Her is about a young mother named Sarah who thinks her problems are solved when she hires a young babysitter, Holly, for her six-year-old son. Her son adores Holly and Holly adores Sarah, who is like the mother she never had. But when Sarah sees something that she can't unsee, she uproots her family to start over.
Her past follows her to this new life, raising paranoid questions of who is watching her now? And what do they want?
Here are eight Canadian books to read if you loved Watch Out for Her.
The Whispers by Audrey Audrain
In The Whispers, the truth behind a picture-perfect neighbourhood is revealed following an incident at a neighbourhood barbecue when the seemingly flawless hostess explodes in fury because her son disobeys her. When her son falls from his bedside window one night and she stops talking to everyone, the women in the neighbourhood begin to contend with what led to this horrible incident.
Ashley Audrain is the former publicity director of Penguin Canada. Her debut novel The Push was a New York Times bestseller and won the Best Crime First Novel at the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Awards. She currently lives in Toronto.
Behind You by Catherine Hernandez
Behind You follows the story of Alma, a film editor for a corny true crime series. At a glance, her life with her wife and teenage son seems comfortable and safe. But when Infamous' latest episode features the Scarborough Stalker — who terrorized Alma's own neighborhood when she was a girl — Alma is consumed by her long-suppressed past. In present day, she must reckon with her understanding of consent to stop her young son from making terrible choices toward his own girlfriend. Unfolding in two timelines, Behind You challenges and dissects rape culture and champions one girl's resilience into adulthood.
Hernandez is a Canadian writer, author and playwright. Her 2017 novel, Scarborough, was a shortlisted finalist for the 2017 Toronto Book Award, the 2018 Trillium Book Award, the 2018 Edmund White Award and was on Canada Reads 2022 defended by actress Malia Baker.
Scarborough was also adapted to screen as a feature film and premiered at TIFF in 2021. Her other books include The Story of Us, Crosshairs and the children's books I Promise, M is for Mustache and Where Do Your Feelings Live?.
Wild Hope by Joan Thomas
Wild Hope follows Isla and Jake, a couple who are slowly drifting apart. Isla's farm-to-table restaurant is failing and visual artist Jake is haunted by his late father's legacy in the oil and gas industry. Jake's childhood friend-turned-enemy Reg Bevaqua is a local bottled-water baron and harbours a seething resentment toward Jake. Reg is a demanding regular at Isla's restaurant and Jake is keeping a close eye on him. When Jake disappears after a winter camping trip all signs point to Reg and his magnificent Georgian Bay property — and Isla is determined to get to the bottom of it.
Joan Thomas is the author of four previous novels. Her first novel, Reading by Lightning, won the Commonwealth Prize for Best First Book (Canada and the Caribbean) and the Amazon First Novel Award. Her novel Five Wives won the 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction. Her novel The Opening Sky was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction in 2014.
Hold My Girl by Charlene Carr
Hold My Girl is a dual narrative novel about a seemingly impossible situation: two women, Katherine and Tess, find out after pregnancy that their eggs were mistakenly switched during in vitro fertilization (IVF). For Katherine, who conceived her miracle baby, Rose, the news is her worst nightmare realized. For Tess, the news is a seed of hope: her IVF treatment ended in a stilborn birth.
Charlene Carr is a Toronto-raised writer and author now based in Nova Scotia. Her books include Hold My Girl and We Rip the World Apart.
I Will Ruin You by Linwood Barclay
Most people never have to answer the question of how they would react in a life-or-death situation. Unfortunately, English teacher Richard Boyle must figure it out quickly when a former student shows up at school with a bomb in I Will Ruin You. His response averts a tragedy and hails him as a hero, but Richard is pulled into a dark web of secrets with a blackmailer, drug-dealing gangsters and a truth about his town that could cost him everything.
Linwood Barclay is a New York Times bestselling author who has written over 20 books, including thrillers Find You First, Broken Promise and Elevator Pitch and the middle-grade novels Escape and Chase. Many of Barclay's books have been optioned for film and television, and he wrote the screenplay for the movie Never Saw It Coming, adapted from his novel of the same name. Barclay championed the memoir Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston on Canada Reads 2025.
The Lost Sister by Andrea Gunraj
In The Lost Sister, Sisters Alisha and Diana are growing up at Jane and Finch in Toronto, a neighbourhood where many immigrants have come to start their lives in Canada. A terrible sadness descends when Diana, Alisha's role model and light of the family, doesn't come home. Her body is found in the woods and Alisha thinks she knows what happened. This novel is partially inspired by the experiences of a former resident of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children.
Andrea Gunraj is also the author of The Sudden Disappearance of Seetha. Gunraj was longlisted for the 2020 CBC Short Story Prize for her story Back to Where You Came From.
Are You Sara? by S.C. Lalli
Are You Sara? revolves around a case of mistaken identity. When two women, each named Sara, get into separate rideshares one fateful night, one of them is murdered. But when the surviving Sara realizes that she might have actually been the target, it sets off a mystery involving race, class and ambition.
S.C. Lalli is a Punjabi and Bengali writer based in Vancouver. Her other novels include Jasmine and Jake Rock the Boat, A Holly Jolly Diwali, Grown-Up Pose and The Matchmaker's List.
The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal
In The Lost Ones, Nora Watts receives a phone call informing her that the daughter she put up for adoption has gone missing, so she decides to go and search for the teen girl. As Nora embarks on a harrowing journey of deception and violence, she will face her most terrifying demon, all to save a girl she wishes had never been born.
Sheena Kamal writes crime novels and YA fiction. Her book The Lost Ones, featuring the hard-boiled investigator Nora Watts, won the 2018 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. Based in Vancouver, her other books include It All Falls Down and No Going Back, and the YA novel, Fight Like a Girl.
