Looker is the slow unwinding of a woman as she deals with infertility, the loss of her marriage, infidelity, and obsession with a neighbor. The entire book is basically a run-on of mental conscience of the woman as she makes up situations that don't happen, relates events that do take place, and falls deeper and deeper into mental illness. On one hand, the story felt very flat, just a day to day telling of her life. Thankfully, for the reader, there are a few moments that provide a story arc. I almost thought the story might end without one. At less than 200 pages, this book should be viewed more as an essay or short story rather than a novel.

This book was disturbing for sure. My issue with it was my lack of sympathy or feeling I felt for the protagonist. She just seemed nutty to me. It was a quick read, however, and it kept me interested.

Thank you to NetGalley, Scribner, and Laura Sims for an ARC ebook copy to review. As always, an honest review from me.

Looker is the tale of a sad, obsessed lady. I would consider the book more of a character study in the literary fiction genre with some aspects of suspense. The main character is obsessed with her neighbor, who is an actress. Most of her day is spent daydreaming about scenarios involving the actress. One of the great but also frustrating aspects of the book is the inability to determine what is real and what is a daydream until after the event possibly occurs. There are a thousand reasons why I don’t like the main character, which usually means that I will dislike the book. However, I ended up absolutely fascinated by the story.

The downsides: there are many inappropriate sexual fantasies … and realities. Also she’s a terrible pet owner.

Trigger Warning (and also SPOILER ALERT, but I wish someone had told me this before reading): death of a pet by murder. This deeply upset me

Overall, a horrifying yet fascinating read.

'They look like they’re being filmed right now, like they’re co-staring in a shampoo commercial, but there’s only me watching.'

Our narrator’s life is falling apart and she is descending into despair, unraveling and channeling her dissatisfaction and rage at the beautiful ‘actress’, her neighbor whose life has every blessing that her own is missing. A perfectly beautiful baby, while she suffers infertility, not riding buses with other ‘sad sacks’ oh no, not the actress. She has a driver to whisk her off to anywhere her heart desires. “Does she remember these and other indignities of “regular person” city life?” She can see the actresses life playing out like a movie, broadcasting everything she herself will never have nor be, the glamor, the success, the beautiful husband, a screenwriter, of course. Their smug confidence that no one would dare disturb their beautiful, safe world guarantees our narrator can watch them live their lives. When Nathan was still around, she wasn’t so concerned with her neighbor… but now… that’s all gone, Nathan’s warm loving hand.

It’s watchful torture, everything she wanted, the actress has, can conjure or grow, like that damn baby. She is nothing now, just ‘a woman shaped shadow’. No husband, no child, no beautiful home, the only thing left of Nathan, his cat. Her job is glamourless, teaching adult students, a ‘non-professor’ though. Life gives her nothing but resounding no’s, just like her body betrays her, denies her what for the actress and many other women is so simple. Soon, she is emboldened by her toxic envy, becomes a disturbance in couple’s perfect life. As she says “everything inside me has scattered”, spiraling with nothing to stabilize her, no one who cares. She begins to horde pieces of the actresses life, imagines what she can do to get reactions out of her. She gets involved with a student, who of course tries to manipulate her, the world and everyone in it is out to get her from the old woman Mrs. H, whose always on the stoop, to Nathan demanding his cat back, the cat he abandoned, left like a piece of luggage in his rush to desert her.

The nightmare is in our narrator’s breakdown, she is in desperate need of help that will never come, isn’t she? The actress represents everything she wants and can’t have, but why should the actress be so special, and she cast aside? This is a hell of a book, it’s crazy to relate to the madness, but the hits just keep coming don’t they? This isn’t going to end on a happy note!

Publication Date: January 8, 2019 Out Tomorrow!

Scribner

Looker is a psychological character study that focuses on an unnamed narrator that is quickly losing her grip on reality. After suffering ongoing infertility issues, the narrators husband decided to separate and the narrator is left alone in their apartment with his cat. She then develops an obsession with a famous actress that lives on her street. What follows is her day to day life along with her disturbing inner dialogue while she slips further and further from reality. If you are looking for a thriller or suspense, this is not the story for you. But if you enjoy getting an idea of what it looks like for someone to slowly lose their mind, this you will enjoy.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Looker is a deep, long trip into a mind that is slowly falling apart. Our woman, who is never named, is in the midst of a marriage breaking up. They had tried for a long time to get pregnant and unfortunately, they are never able to have a child. She becomes obsessed with an actress who lives in their neighborhood. And I mean obsessed! She has these fantasies of having sex with her husband, of them being friends. Her envy is palpable. She thinks about scenarios constantly. Her job as a teacher suffers and she also becomes involved with a student. At times, it is hard to know what is reality and what is in her mind. That is how wonderfully written this novel is. I hope it is the closest I get to a breakdown!

There is also a deep sadness in it all. I felt so sorry for her, even when she was at her meanest. She does some despicable things and the last being so very sad. It is hard to read at times but it is well worth the time put into reading on and on. It is marketed as a thriller but it is so much more than that. I don’t even know if I can categorize it properly. Isn’t that the kind of book you want to read?

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for a copy of this ARC.

This is not Girl on the Train, Gone Girl, The Woman Sitting the Back Left Corner of the Bus on the Way to Nowhere (mental note to use that title sometime.). Looker by Laura Sims defies category.

We have the named narrator, who we can also call 'the Professor." She lives in an ritzy neighborhood, and has a movie star neighbor. Under the stress of her recent separation, and after year of trying to get pregnant, the Professor becomes obsessed with the actress. Actually, obsessed isn't really the right word. Fixated, is more like it. She imagines conversations, and long term friendship. She imagines sexual encounters. She loses time, quite frequently.

Looker is the story of one woman's decent into madness. The actress is just a small factor in the larger story of mental illness. It's fabulous.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and Laura Sims for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was an engrossing novel. Not the mystery/thriller I thought it to be, but an interesting look into the mind of an obsessed woman as she slowly begins to lose it. Although there was little dialogue, I was intrigued by the way most of the book took place in the main characters thoughts. There was one scene I could do without - with Cat - I found that to be off putting and unnecessary.

A woman is obsessed with a neighbor. The obsessed woman's life is slowly unraveling, and the neighbor is a beautiful actress who appears to have the perfect life.

This novel is narrated by an unnamed woman who is going through a divorce, infertility, and a failing career. While struggling with various areas of her life, she becomes entranced with her neighbor's perfect life. As the narrator's life continues to unravel, she becomes more and more obsessed with her neighbor.

A dark tale of one woman's descent into madness. This is a slow-paced story, but one that kept my interest. If you're looking for a twisty thriller, then pass on this one. If you're looking for a dark character study, pick this book up. Dark, complex, and disturbing.

I received a free eARC of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC.

WOW. I read this in one sitting. I just inhaled it. It was spectacular. The writing was light and quick and the storyline was just heartbreaking. I fell in love with the narrator, related to her struggles and her loss, and followed her every high and low. I really loved this. I highly recommend it for a quick, heart-pounding read.

I felt some sympathy for the character at first. She was obviously going through a mental breakdown and it was oddly interesting to watch her decline. But with the final scene with Cat , all sympathy and any understanding was instantly gone and replaced with disgust and horror. And it ruined for me what had been a fairly decent book. I can only dredge up 2 stars based on the book until that point.

Sadly, a disappointment. The scenario is familiar, the events - and there aren’t many - predictable. Yes, the author achieves a degree of compulsion in the narration, but the downward spiral is depressing. The blurb promised more originality.

IMHO, Scribner is doing Laura Sims no favor by touting this book as a thriller. It is not, and if that's what you're expecting from this book, you will no doubt be disappointed. Please go into it viewing it as a character-driven novel about a very troubled and (no pun intended) driven woman whose life is quickly unraveling all around her. If you do so, you will admire this book and its author for the talent it sets before us like a feast.

Sims shows us the life of a woman (we never know her name) recently separated, who becomes increasingly obsessed with an actress living in her neighborhood. The story is told through her own thoughts, words and deeds. As she slips deeper and deeper into her own thoughts about what she has lost, and the seemingly ideal life of the actress, she comes closer and closer to the edge, and she takes the reader right along with her.

Taut (yes, I agree with that promotional word), edgy and raw, Looker drew me into ?'s world. I looked upon it with equal parts of horror and fascination. It will draw you in too, if you let it!

Kudos to you, Laura Sims for a memorable debut! I look forward to reading your future books.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Scribner, Laura Sims, and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

A thought-provoking, in-depth look at a woman’s loneliness as she loses her husband, motherhood dreams, dignity, and sense of reality… she’s even fallen so low that—to the readers at least, and most of her acquaintances—she doesn’t even have a name anymore, thus reinforcing this feeling of seclusion, from the world, from her very self. It’s the downward spiral of an unnamed, unknown, friendless, and anonymous woman falling into the dangers of obsession, comparing herself to and fantasizing over this other woman whose life has it all, her Yin-and-Yang opposite. Fantasy and crazed dreams mix with reality in this non-stopping train of madden internal monologue, leaving little space to breathe, even in the formatting of the text itself.

It’s well-written, with a style that completely fits her dementia… BUT… I expected more and it left me with a feeling of half-finished business.

The ending was too rushed, and I found myself wondering if the author hadn’t known how to end the story or how to thoroughly push her character over the edge of reason. I had already envisioned how she was going to lose it over her students and soon-to-be ex-husband, sneak into the actress’s children’s bedrooms at night, trick the actress’s husband in the park, and so on and on until she finally stole the life she craved. But maybe that’s just me and I’m not completely out of the character’s head yet.

This debut novel by Laura Sims has one of the more interesting covers that I've seen lately. The lipstick smeared all over the photo of this anonymous woman makes me want to read more. Looker is the story of an obsessed neighbor, an actress who has no idea, and an incident that changes the narrative from peeping Tom to over the edge madness. 

Although the cover pulled me in, the story, to me, felt like what I read in The Girl on the Train and so many more of these "obsession" thrillers that have become popular lately. I felt no connection to the narrator in this book, I didn't want to know why she obsessed over the actress, nor did I care to find out what happened in the end of the book. This was one of those books that I was hoping was going to be one of my favorites of the year, but it fell short, very short, for me.

Sadly, this book gets a 1 star from me. I wanted to like this, I wanted to be invested in the story, but it didn't do anything for me.

A non-stop but quiet thriller, one that I could not put down until I found out what the full-speed train was heading towards. The main character was scary, yet oddly relatable, and the world Sims created around her was rich, frustrating, and dynamic. A quick but fun read.

This was quite a book. I started reading and didn't want to stop. I seriously loved this book!

Thanks to author, publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book. While I got the book for free, it had no bearing on the rating I gave it.

This story got my attention initially and had the potential to be a unique thriller but fizzled midway. I did not warm up to the main ‘un-named’ character nor the style of writing which had way to much of this character imagining what she was going to do as opposed to doing and her obsessiveness with everything from soup to nuts, not only in her personal life but also as it relates to other characters. I didn’t catch the wittiness or playfulness as portrayed in the summary.

Looker is about a woman who is obsessed with her neighbor to the exclusion of almost everything else. Yes, there are other plots, such as her job as professor and one dealing with her soon to be ex husband and his/her cat ownership issues, but mainly it is about the neighbor who is an actress.

Was it interesting? Hmmm, not really. I found it to be over the top obsession, which is not something I can relate to so it didn't grab me and get me invested in finding out how this obsession would end. An ok story, not a great one.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Good book, I coukd not predict where it was going. Must say I was a little disappointed with the ending