This is a very mis-categorized book. Its said to be mystery/thriller .. but it is not ... It just ... boring, slow, confusing, and someone losing their grip on reality.

I couldn’t put this one down. It was mesmerizing, disturbing and vividly portrayed. I loved it. The whole time, I kept thinking—-“oh my god! What next?” It felt like going through a haunted house and I loved every minute of it.

Travel between heaven and hell, the author transport us between light and darkest of internal demons of people with a sparkle of suspense and humor.

#Looker #NetGalley

Looker, by Laura Sims, was the sad journey of a woman's psychological breakdown.
The unnamed narrator's deteriorating sanity was realistic and very well written.
Her descent into darkness had me uneasily turning the pages.
More of a psychological character study than a thriller, this debut novel has this author of poetry successfully delving into another genre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

This book was advertised as a thriller but it doesn’t quite hit that mark. There was some suspense to it towards the very end but it was more of a look into the mind and obsession of a very sad, unhinged woman. It was well written and enjoyable but just not what I was expecting.

The main character whom is unnamed in this book, quickly becomes obsessed with her beautiful, actress neighbour. Her neighbour seems to have everything she doesn’t – a handsome, doting husband, children, happiness, successful and fulfilling career. She becomes literally obsessed with this woman and her family, watching her when she is either outside, peeking through their windows, following her, etc.

She was so obsessed with her famous neighbour that it was interesting to read what she would do next. She was such an unpredictable character, you never knew what she would be up to next and what crazy thing she would do. I found myself wanting to flip through the pages to read more crazy ideas and thoughts that flitted through her mind.

What started as a simple encounter turned quickly into a dark obsession. Imagine someone becoming obsessed with you and your family, and watched your every move. Would you know that you were being watched?

I found that this story dragged on. The main character is obsessed w a movie star who lives down the street and focuses on the obsession. I didn't feel the that there was that feeling of oh no or oh my what's going to happen. For me the last few pages were what I expected throughout the rest of the book.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36553406-looker

Looker is Laura Sims' debut novel.

I found the cover interesting - a woman's image defaced by what seems to be various shades of lipstick. And the title as well. A looker can be used to describe an attractive woman or someone who simply watches. I was curious to see what I would find inside.

The narrator of Looker is unnamed throughout the book. She's a woman working a job she doesn't enjoy, living in a run down three floor walkup and her husband has left her. But the Actress lives at the end of her street. A woman who has everything the Narrator wants - a beautiful home, a family, a loving husband, fame and fortune. And the Narrator can't help herself - she watches, she imagines and she wants that life. When she actually has a small interaction with the Actress at the neighbourhood block party, the Narrator spirals even more out of control.

Sims' concept was a good one. I did find I had been expecting a different sort of book based on some of the publicity. This is not really a crime read. Instead, I found it to be a character study of a truly unhinged and mentally ill woman. We only hear from the Narrator - no one else. I was initially drawn into her narrative, but found myself drifting a bit as the book progressed. She goes over the same territory multiple times. But what is truth and what is her imaginings? I was waiting for 'something' to happen. It does, near the end, and it was good, but I found it somewhat anti-climatic after such a prolonged build up. I do want to say that Sims did a really good job of putting to paper the obsessive thinking processes of the Narrator. A decidedly different read for me.

Strange Novel

This is one of the most bizarre novels I have read in a long time. It is well written. It is the story of an unnamed woman, unhappy with her job, childless and recently split from her partner, who becomes obsessed with a celebrity actress who lives on her street nearby. At first what appears to be unhealthy curiousity develops into a dangerous obsession as the story unfolds and she intrudes into the private life of her neighbor.. The unnamed narrator moves from a mentally unbalanced state into something resembling madness or insanity as we reach the conclusion. And yet the author does not provide a compelling case for this transition into madness.

Fans of Gone Girl and The Woman in the window will love this book. The unnamed narrator spirals toward insanity as her dreams for her life are shattered. Unable to become pregnant and deserted by her husband she makes one horrible choice after another as her insanity grows.

I was given this book by the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review. Thank you.

I enjoyed this novel. It did keep me reading and interested. However, I also understand why people were disappointed with what they read as it is not necessarily marketed properly.

This is not your typical thriller. I find, personally, that it is more of a suspense read. I also wish that there were chapters in this novel to give a definitive break point for the reader. This novel reminded me of "You" by Caroline Kepnes due to the similar aspect of a stalker type persona.

Overall, I feel it was a good read, and look forward to reading more by Laura Sims.

When I first heard about Looker, I was intrigued. The synopsis was giving me some slight The Woman in the Window vibes, which was one of my favourite books of 2018. I decided to request it and was fortunate enough to receive a copy via NetGalley.

The problem was, it seemed like it was going to be a mystery or a thriller. It’s not that. Sure, the ending is intense (literally the last 10% at most), but otherwise this story fell a little flat for me. While it started of interesting enough, it seemed overly repetitive and I never felt for the narrator in a way that I probably should have considering the struggles she had to endure with her infertility and her husband leaving her along with her crappy job.

The one thing I thought was nice was that because the narrator was so unreliable, I wasn’t entirely sure what was real and what was conjured up in her mind. Were her negative interactions with people as bad as she thought they were? Were her positive interactions only in her mind because she needed them to be positive in order to not lose her mind?

All in all, I would say that Looker is a fascinating character study about one’s obsession with another caused by a string of terrible events in her life. But because it sounded more like a thriller than anything else, I was a little disappointed. However, I think if you go into it knowing it isn’t a thriller and there is no big mystery to solve, it would be an enjoyable book.

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for allowing me to review The Looker by Laura Sims.

The Looker is a powerful character study of one woman’s life when it spirals into loneliness and despair. Recently separated in a job that is going no where, she becomes obsessed by the famous actress who lives down the street with her husband and two kids. Obsessed with her seemingly picture perfect life while hers has nothing but disappointment and failure.

I think that this is a case of right book wrong reader for me. I am and always have been a plot reader and as much as I would love to enjoy character studies, they just don’t work for me. I am glad I read it and gave it a chance. Like The Yellow Wallpaper, you will not forget this woman’s loneliness and desperation for a long while after reading this short book.

Less a thriller than it is an account of a woman's psychological breakdown on the heels of a bad break-up. Our narrator, still stinging from the dissolution of her marriage, redirects focus to the new neighbors - and, specifically, the pretty young actress who has moved in next door. In time, this interest becomes an obsession, giving rise to bizarre behavior like stealing a child's bicycle, cast-off items, and an awkwardly aggressive salad delivery. Other aspects of this woman's life begin to fall apart, accelerating her descent.

In many ways, this book reminded me of Leila Slimani's The Perfect Nanny, with its focus on a woman, seemingly very much in control, who suffers a frightening mental collapse. But, unlike The Perfect Nanny, the stakes here never fully engage, mainly because the entire story is told from our extremely unlikable narrator's POV. Also, in Slimani's novel, we are tipped off early on to the horrific consequences on the horizon which results in an engrossing, edge-of-your-seat read. Here, we know we're joining our narrator on her trip to Crazy Town, but there's no logical progression to her actions. Also, hate to be THAT reader, but when the cat is introduced as an element in the divorce proceedings, I honestly gave the author the benefit of the doubt. Surely she wouldn't go the cliche route and have our vindictive narrator kill it off? After all, if nothing else, this unlovable damaged woman's love for the damn cat would go such a long way toward allowing the reader to sympathize her on some level.

But no. Our narrator comes off as a sociopath, self-absorbed, completely devoid of empathy and, as a result, any redemptive qualities.

A quick and interesting read but one lacking in emotional depth or resonance.

Looker is the debut novel of Laura Sims. It's a short and quick read and it's written from the point of view of an unnamed female character. I wouldn't categorize it as a mystery or thriller personally, but as a character study. It's a tale of obsession, and a woman's descent into madness. We see into her mind and are privy to her darker thoughts as her life continues to unravel.

I thought the story moved forward at an appropriate pace, and it was interesting enough that I finished it in one evening. I did find that there were more inner thoughts and monologues and less shared dialogue between characters. I would have preferred a little more interaction between them. I also felt as though the ending could have been more thought out and detailed. It wasn't impactful or memorable.

Overall, Looker was a satisfactory read. I likely would not read this particular novel again, but I would be interested to read future work from this author.

I loved this book! Special thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for my ARC of Laura Sims book “Looker”, Follow this character whose name we never learn who lives in a world of fantasy and wild imagination all the way down to obsession and her descent into madness. Good creepy fun! When our protagonist finds out that the “actress” lives on her block she will stop at nothing to get to know her.

"I see you. But I also know how hard it is to be seen."

Looker is a character study of a woman struggling with loss. It tracks her emotional and mental turmoil and her descent into obsession. At the outset, the unnamed narrator has lost nearly everything - her marriage, her hope of becoming a mother. She becomes fixated on the blockbuster star actress who lives on her street, with her gorgeous home, seemingly perfect family, and ideal life. The narrator feels like nobody. Like nothing. We watch her as she makes increasingly unhinged choices, with each one isolating her further, as she moves farther away from reality.

Looker was not what I expected. Other readers have noted this too. Based on how it was marketed, I expected a thriller. Looker isn't one. It is a study of a person suffering from intense loneliness and mental illness. It always takes some adjusting when you're reading a book and it isn't what you'd thought it would be. The strengths of this work include the sense of claustrophobia as you move through the narrative. Sims does well in making us feel how the woman's world is shrinking as her grip on what is real loosens. There's almost a whirlpool like quality to the narrative. The main character keeps returning to certain thoughts and emotions and this creates a believable feeling of things spinning out of control. So once again, this is not a thriller. It's a book about loneliness, and what it can do to someone who is already fragile emotionally.

My main objection comes from how tired I am of seeing female characters like this one (especially in thrillers, which is what I expected this to be, even though it wasn't in the end). How many more novels do we need with a central female character who is at rock bottom, who is desperate for a man and motherhood because she sees both as the only imaginable pathway to give her life meaning? At one point she observes herself, "zero kids, zero husband, a woman-shaped shadow." I'm tired of this. I've read enough characters like this one that I'm actually starting to feel angry when I encounter another one. A woman so lonely that she is losing her grip on reality. That could be a very interesting story. It was disappointing that Sims didn't create a character who felt new. Also, the ending is one of the most abrupt I've read in a while. I don't need to have things tied up neatly - far from it. This one felt jarring and a bit random.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is told from the perspective of the main character, a woman whose name we never learn. Her life is falling apart sending her into a dark void of bad mistakes. Her husband has left her after many failed attempts at IVF treatments and she begins to reflect on her life and how she thought it would be at this stage of her life. Her happy life of marriage and children is something that will never happen now. She starts to obsess over the family down the street. The actress, her adoring husband and their three beautiful children. She wonders what her life would have been like if she had a successful career and family life. We become witness to her losing everything as she slides into madness.

There were times in this book where you, at first, weren't sure if she was fantasizing or actually experiencing the moment. The plot actually seemed pretty mundane to me until the last 25% or so where it told a deep dive into the dark and disturbing. The ending was very abrupt without much of a satisfying conclusion.
If you're looking for a thriller this probably isn't the one for you.

I really enjoyed this book. It kept me guessing until the end. I would recommend this book to everyone.

2.5/5 Stars

I received a copy of this from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

A woman, in the middle of a divorce after many failed attempts at bearing a child, becomes obsessed with her neighbor down the street, the actress.

I don't know how to feel about this book... it almost felt as though nothing actually happened. I kept waiting for a big plot twist to happen but was utterly disappointed in the end. I definitely don't think that it was a mystery/thriller like it was marketed as. I didn't particularly care for the main character, but I wanted to know what was going to happen, which is why I kept reading until the end.