On a Quiet Street

In the seemingly ordinary community of Brighton Hills, the residents keep a close eye on one another. To do so, they use a variety of cameras and surveillance devices. These devices are used to various ends, including spying on the neighbors and Forms of Control in Abusive Relationships. In Chapter 1, when Paige is introduced, she has “a pair of binoculars on the small table next to her Adirondack chair [in her backyard]” (17). She uses them to monitor her neighbors’ activity because she suspects them of being involved in the murder of her son. Later, she uses them to observe Finn’s infidelities. Her best friend, Cora, is likewise introduced using a camera to monitor her neighbor, Nicola. When Cora sees Nicola in the backyard, she “run[s] out to the edge of the deck and open[s] the camera on my phone, zooming in, to get as close a view as [she] can” (22). Paige and Cora’s surveillance of their neighbors initially appears to be evidence they are unreasonably “paranoid,” although their suspicions are later justified in the narrative.

In keeping with this motif, Nicola is the target of her husband Lucas’s intense surveillance. Lucas has cameras and motion sensors all over the house designed not to prevent people from coming in but to prevent Nicola from going out. It is only when she discovers the remote that she can use to pause the porch camera that she is able to plan and execute her escape. Ultimately, the protagonists use the surveillance devices to their advantage when Cora puts a camera outside the Kinney residence and Paige places an audio recording device in Lucas’s briefcase. This represents their reclamation of their power by turning Lucas’s modes of control against him to provide evidence of his abuse.