In Watchlist's introduction, editor Bryan Hurt describes the tender surveillance of his newborn son on the family's high-tech baby monitor, and from that anecdote, it's clear that the anthology bears more in common with daily life than the spy thriller its name might evoke. In this diverse and daring fiction collection, writers of all stripes deal with the act of watching and being watched, subverting and challenging surveillance's obvious connotations and raising questions about our intricate dance with privacy and transparency.
The collection's bare-bones theme works in its favor; Hurt mentions that he gave few rules or guidelines, and the result is a series of pieces that speak to each other in novel, unexpected ways. Cory Doctorow's "Scroogled" gives an unsurprising nod to Google, our current Information Overlord, but also manages humor and warmth, exploring two friends' relationship and the government's ineptitude at organizing the information it gathers. Alexis Landau's account of a young mother who miscarries explores neighbors and the strange comfort of daily interactions with the cashier at a corner store. Often, the ways in which people are inherently unknowable serve as the center of these stories, as with Sean Bernard's excellent "California," where neighbors meet to watch mysterious, voyeuristic footage of a TV host's private life.
Certain pieces have more polish than others--in any anthology, there are standouts--but on the whole, the collection is an enjoyable, provocative treatment of a timely topic. Watchlist encompasses a wide swath of voices and ideas, and in doing so, does justice to a subject that's equally multi-faceted. --Linnie Greene, freelance writer