Esther Is Now Following You by Tanya Sweeney

 

Esther becomes obsessed with an up-and-coming Canadian actor, Ted Levy. Convinced they are destined to be together, she leaves everything behind, including her husband, and jets off to Toronto to make her dream come true.

I'm going to start this blog post by discussing the cover; the colours, the illustration, even the title, all shout "fun". When I read the synopsis for Esther Is Now Following You by Tanya Sweeney, I was expecting satire, along the lines of Callie Kazumi's Cuckoo or Julie Tudor Is Not A Psychopath by Jennifer Holdich, both books I adored. However, Esther is something completely different.

When we meet Esther, she's thirty-six and has been married to Johnny for four years. They're in a bit of a rut relationship-wise, but it's clear from their interactions that they're ideally suited. The biggest problem in the relationship is the lack of a baby, despite the desire for one. There's euphoria when Esther discovers she's pregnant, only for their world to come crashing down when she miscarries. It is this miscarriage that triggers Esther's drastic actions.

I found my feelings towards Esther swinging between horror and sympathy. This was a woman deeply in need of counselling and support because of her grief and depression, support she shied away from. Instead, we saw her growing obsession take control of her life as she manipulated her way into the lives of those close to Ted. Much of the obsession was fueled by other infatuated fans who stalked Ted and his girlfriends online. The way in which these fixated individuals hounded anyone they deemed unsuitable was quite an eye-opener. It was also quite shocking how the tiniest detail shared on social media could be mined for clues to someone's whereabouts.

We know not to expect a romantic happy ending; fairy tales rarely happen in real life. The big question is, what does Esther achieve in her pursuit? You'll just have to follow Esther's journey yourself to find out.

Esther Is Now Following You by Tanya Sweeney will be published on 29th January 2026. My thanks to NetGalley and Bantam Publishing for a review copy.

Author Details

For the last fifteen years, Tanya has been a columnist in a number of Irish newspapers and magazines, among them the Dubliner, STELLAR, U, Irish Tatler, and the Irish Times Magazine.

She is currently a journalist and Weekend magazine columnist at the Irish Independent and is a regular contributor on Irish radio & TV. Her work in the music, film & TV industries helped inspire her debut novel, Esther is Now Following You, a funny, fresh and deeply affecting story about celebrity fandom and what happens when it all becomes a bit too real.