STARRED Book Review: Unfollow Me by Kathryn Caraway

Reviewed by Melissa Suggitt

A powerful story of survival about a woman who escaped but still has to hide

The name Kathryn Caraway is a pseudonym. The author had to do it that way; her stalker, like most, was never truly held accountable. This book is not a who-dun-it. It’s a testimony. A warning. A gut-wrenching portrait of how easily women are targeted, disbelieved, and left unprotected.

But Kathryn’s story isn’t about him. This book doesn’t give the monster center stage. Todd is present, of course; his manipulation, charm, persistence, and escalating violence drive the plot. But the lens never shifts away from Kathryn’s experience. She refuses to sensationalize his behavior. Instead, she shows the slow erosion of safety, autonomy, and trust through her own eyes, her own thoughts, her own fear. Kathryn isn’t making him more human; she’s here to remind you that she is. And she’s done hiding in the dark while society looks the other way.

Kathryn lets us into the daily reality of being stalked: the obsessive hyper-vigilance, the isolation, the exhaustion of documenting everything only to be dismissed anyway. “Being stalked is like being a rabbit caught in a trap. Waiting. Always waiting.”

She’s not exaggerating. She’s speaking from experience, one backed by devastating statistics she includes in the Foreword, reminding us that most victims never see justice.

And yet, she keeps going. She logs every incident. She testifies in court. She fights for a system that was never built to protect her. And still, she is the one forced to live under an alias.

I felt so angry reading this. Not because the book is frustrating—it isn’t; it’s magnificently written—but because Kathryn had to endure all of it. Because women like her are still blamed. Because the patriarchy still shrugs when a woman says she feels unsafe or calls her hysterical or asks, “Well, why didn’t you leave?” As if she didn’t try. As if she didn’t scream. As if her silence wasn’t survival.

Kathryn’s storytelling is as structured as it is emotionally raw. Her recollection of events is precise and purposeful, yet deeply personal. She admits to the shame she felt, the self-doubt, the fear of what her loved ones would think if they knew everything. She owns her moments of hesitation, the instinct to protect others from the truth, and the heartbreak of realizing that even when you do everything right, justice may never come.

The specificity of emotion, the physiological response to trauma, and the intellectual clarity she brings to her experience give this book its power. “He is a predator, but you won’t know this the first time you meet him,” she writes. “He looks normal.”

And that is the most chilling—and familiar—part.

If this is where true crime is going, toward centering victims—elevating their voices, and exposing systems instead of glamorizing predators—I am absolutely here for it. I want stories like this. I want women like Kathryn telling us exactly how it felt, exactly what happened, and exactly how hard it was to survive it.

Unfollow Me doesn’t just document what happened. It calls out every person and institution that allowed it. Kathryn Caraway doesn’t just survive. She speaks. And in doing so, she forces the world to listen.

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