Laura Sims’ debut work takes us into the chaotic mind of an unnamed narrator who is obsessed with the actress who lives across the street from her. Reminiscent of Caroline Kepnes’ You, the plot is a stream of the unreliable narrator’s sordid, mixed-up thoughts which lead her to commit unconscionable acts that she entirely justifies with her flawed perceptions.

I found this to be refreshingly different and thoroughly enjoyable. It was a quick read and only took me a day to finish. As much as I disagreed with the narrator’s warped decision-making, I could clearly see how her thought patterns influenced her actions. A credit to the author for pulling off this difficult feat flawlessly. This was not a typical psychological suspense, but it is definitely a character-study of a woman with psychological issues, which causes a taut and suspenseful story.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Scribner and Laura Sims for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

From the description, my impression was that this would be a thriller. It’s not—it’s slow-burn, claustrophobic literary fiction, somewhat similar to Jami Attenberg’s All Grown Up, but with a much eerier ambiance. The narrator, a recently separated woman who wants but does not have children, is obsessed with her famous actress neighbor. She is obsessively attached to her soon-to-be ex-husband’s cat, Cat, refusing to hand her over as they begin divorce proceedings, and battling bizarre feelings for a pushy student in her undergraduate poetry seminar. The book is a creepy character study. Just don’t go into it expecting the plot or pacing of a thriller.

Edge of the seat type book that I found myself so confused on how to feel. Very crazy look into the mind of a woman unhinging. Her downward spiral into darkness is heart wrenching like a car wreck, honestly. I found myself almost uncomfortable trying to continue reading to see what atrocities the main character would commit next, but in a good way. The book really draws you into the character's mind well.

Thank you Netgalley and Scribner for this advance copy. This book was fine. The writing was fine. The characters were purposely despicable. This will be an enjoyable book for fans of all of the Girl in title books, you know the ones; bitter upper-middle class or wealthy white women who obsess and hate other women because they have more than them. Personally, this was just one of the many books that just made me so annoyed and angry that this type of portrayal of women is considered a complex portrait of modern women. No. This is not an improvement or a sign of progress. These types of books are just as bad in their depiction of women as exploitation novels of the ‘50s. The packaging looks a little different now but there’s still nothing inside.

An unnamed female narrator is living in a big city, next to a famous actress. She is a night school professor, teaching poetry to a small class.
Her husband Nathan leaves her after grueling IVF treatments have failed and she is despondent over her infertility. He leaves without his cat, who becomes her only companion. She is engulfed in loneliness and despair, beginning to obsess over the actress and her family. Watching them furtively, coveting all the actress has that she does not.
When they meet at a neighborhood block party, the narrator attempts to connect with the actress and fails miserably. It fuels her compulsion and she surreptitiously begins to collect items she finds near the actress's house.
Nathan tries to get his cat back from her, and their pending divorce becomes more vitriolic. Her descent into madness is accelerated and she is pushed over the edge.
A psychological character study, more than a thriller. There is a deep sadness in our protagonist that made me sympathize with her, until she begins acting cruelly and becomes extremely unlikable.
A fast read with excellent writing, filled with darkness.
a 3.5 star rating, rounded up to 4 stars.
Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

You really need to enjoy a disturbing plot to enjoy this book.

I enjoyed this book. Sigh...

The unnamed narrator is a newly separated woman, living a "lonesome and loathsome" life (damn, I love that). She is lonely, crawling out of her skin practically, and she needs something to become the focus of her of her frenetic energy. So relatable for someone like me who went through a divorce and started over and felt like I was going to go CRAZY! Moving on...

She finds her focus, practically a totem, in the form of the famous actress who lives on her street. Her obsession, in my layperson opinion, borders on Love Obsessional. She is convinced that she and this actress would be great friends if she only get herself noticed. She also thinks that she looks similar to the actress, even going as far to imagine people in the neighborhood confusing the two ladies. I'm not sure if this is the case since we don't get the best descriptions of either woman.
The narrator is pretty sure that they wear the same lipstick (which explains the cool cover for this book), and I love that she specifically names L'Oreal #762 Divine Wine. It's a pretty shade, but I digress.

The narrator obsesses over other people in the book, and things, and animals, but I will leave that to the reader to discovery. Really, it's brilliant.

I'll obsessively say it again: what works about this book is the obsession (who else thought she should have just worn the damn perfume as a fun little Easter egg for the reader?). It's beautifully written, perfectly described, shamelessly real. In fact, the narrator's obsessive tendencies almost complete lost me at one point in the book. No spoiler here, but I'll just say I was enraged. But, after I calmed myself down, I gave the author props for really GOING THERE. I can't be that discpiplined in my writing, which is probably why I've never finished the many books I've started. She truly commits to this story.

I have to give this book 4 stars in stead of 5, however, because I think the author could have done a little something more with this plot. A little more interaction between certain characters, or perhaps some more bizarre behaviors by this narrator. I wanted one more thing to really hit me in my sweet spot.

I love this book, though. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my advanced copy.

Although this story made me incredibly sad, I liked it. It's like a description of one woman's spiral down into something scary. Looker is dark and compulsively readable. It pulls you in and keeps your interest. I recommend this one.

The unnamed narrator of Looker is having a bad year. After years of unsucessful infertility treatments, her husband has left. Her job as adjunct professor has shrunk to only one poetry class. Despite having a PhD in Literature, she can’t find another job.

The professor falls into an increasing obsession with her famous actress neighbor. She envisions them becoming great friends despite never meeting her formerly. As her fixation grows, the professor watches the actress and her family through their uncovered windows day and night.

Marketing Looker as a thriller is a mistake. For the first half of the book, I kept waiting for a murder or something exciting to occur. It never did. Instead, I realized this a story of woman’s descent into delusion and insanity. Readers who like woman’s fiction will gobble this short novel up in one sitting. However, thriller readers will be bored silly. 3 stars.

Thanks to Scribner Books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

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.

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.

I was totally sucked into this downward-spiral of a novel. It kind of felt like TAMPA in that it was a little irreverant/almost dirty feeling but the story was so completely compelling that you just have to know what happens to our mess of an unnamed narrator. I'd recommend this to anyone who is not afraid of a little impropriety and loves an ugly ending. 4 stars, may round up later.

Looker was not at all what I expected – a psychological/mystery thriller. Once again, I had to question whether those writing the publicity had actually read the book. On the other hand, I will say this one was hard to describe as well as label and would probably be a hard sell unless current buzz words were attached to it.

Because I had mixed feelings about this book, I only gave it three stars. It is a character study told through the eyes of a woman, a literature/poetry professor, who is delusional. After suffering losses, including unsuccessful IVF treatments and a failed marriage, she becomes overly focused on an actress and her family who live just houses away. She is seemingly without a support system or is that simply her perspective? I quickly realized she was an unreliable storyteller and increasingly unsympathetic as are most of the other characters.

As much as I had a difficult time sorting through this book, I read it in one sitting (just under 200 pages) so it did keep me engaged – and guessing.


FYI - I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Looker is a dark, lonely view of one woman's undoing - we follow her as she unravels and drowns in her unhappy life while wishing she had the life of her neighbor.
I enjoyed this book - while not a "thriller" it is a fantastic read and allows you to have a front row seat into one woman's unhappiness and decent into mania.
Thank you to Laura Sims, Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC of this great book!

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.

This is yet another book that will suffer in the ratings for no other reason than it doesn't fit into any genre.

There really needs to be a category for deep, dark psychological studies devoted to primarily one character. If a reader chose this book based on that description and because they enjoy those types of stories, then this book would easily have a 4+ average rating. Instead it has been billed as a psychological domestic thriller leaving fans of thrillers disappointed.

I, however, love these dark descents into the mind of one character without all of the distractions involved with a true thriller. Stories narrated exclusively in the psyche of an unstable person as they battle their own demons makes for an incredibly intense read and Looker ticked all of the boxes for me.

Looker follows an un-named woman whose husband recently left her after a long battle of infertility. Everything she ever wanted in life just fell apart and now she herself is following suit.

The internal dialogue of this woman is equally disturbing and fascinating as the reader follows her slowly circling the drain until she finally disappears.

Laura Sims is a brilliant writer and Looker is a triumph in foreboding cerebral storytelling.


I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Too much bitterness and absolutely nothing to hang onto as a reader. I have no problem with unlikable characters, but I simply did not care about this one at all. DNF at 20%.

The main character of this novel is a hot mess. She is going through a divorce, is obsessed with her neighbor who is a famous actress, and her reproductive clock is ticking. The narrator unravels, and it’s hard not to find it entertaining. There are so many deliciously awkward moments, some you may even identify with from your own awkward situations or brief, unacted-upon impulses. Her obsessions mirror our culture’s stalkerish treatment of celebrities. Our need to know everything about them, our desire to imitate their styles and behaviors so we can be just like them. Or, in this day of social media, the promise of Instagram or Pinterest, that if you can just do this thing like you see in the post, then you can have the glamorous life it portrays. This story was fairly brief, but was a darkly humorous and engrossing read.

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.

I had the toughest time getting into this book because I had nothing but hatred for the main character and regretted RSVPing to her destructive pity party. The description sounded so interesting and original - but the Debbie Downer main character was absolutely horrible that I could not proceed with the book.

Pre-review note: Looker is, for reasons I can't fathom, being billed as thriller/pseudo-thriller. It is not that, but it is a harrowing and haunting look at one woman's unraveling, and for those interested and willing to travel to a very dark place, this beautifully written novel is absolutely worth checking out.

Ok, review:

I loved Looker. Loved it, even as its brutal rawness left me reeling. It is unflinching and unafraid in its depiction of how its unnamed narrator, newly separated and living in an unnamed city, veers to ever deeper, bitter, and angry despair while becoming increasingly obsessed with a famous actress who happens to live next door. She becomes the representation of everything the narrator wishes she has and feels she does and doesn't deserve.

It's this fracture--the narrator's belief she deserves a better life than the increasingly painful and bleak one she has while wrestling with a simultaneous belief that she cannot do better, isn't worth anything--that leads to the ending, to her ultimate fracture.

I don't want to spoil the ending but I will say I think it's perfect as our narrator breaks just as she sees/gets the kind of moment, the interaction that she has been dreaming of because by the end, she's part of something that cannot be erased, cannot be undone, which is what she fears and what she's become.

I also have to say that Looker is gorgeously written. I'm not normally one to highlight passages when reading but I left Looker devastated by what happened to the narrator, by all the moments that lead to her loss of everything, including herself, while elevated by prose like this:

"She will swoop in, bearing bags full of delicacies, and redeem the rotten mess of my life with one swift touch of her bird's wing. I close my eyes to everything else."

And my favorite:

"...feeling everything that is rich and terrible and dark and lonesome in this life, feeling abandoned and full of despair, and beaming it out to us. Beaming it to me."

Overall, Looker is an audacious and powerful and unflinching look at the way we can unravel, the darkness that can overtake us. An absolute stunner, that I preordered (it will be released on January 8th) as soon as I finished the ARC and is already (in my mind) solidly on the list of best reads of 2019.