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    Looker: A Novel
    Looker: A Novel
    Looker: A Novel
    Audiobook5 hours

    Looker: A Novel

    Written by Laura Sims

    Narrated by Katherine Fenton

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    *Featured on Best of Lists in Vogue, People, Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, Southern Living, and more*

    In this “wicked slow burn” (Entertainment Weekly) of psychological suspense from the author of How Can I Help You, a woman becomes fixated on her neighbor—the actress.

    Though the two women live just a few doors apart, a chasm lies between them. The actress, a celebrity with a charmed career, shares a gleaming brownstone with her handsome husband and three adorable children, while the recently separated narrator, unhappily childless and stuck in a dead-end job, lives in a run-down, three-story walk-up with her ex-husband’s cat.

    As her fascination with her famous neighbor grows, the narrator’s hold on reality begins to slip. Before long, she’s collecting cast-off items from the actress’s stoop and fantasizing about sleeping with the actress’s husband. After a disastrous interaction with the actress at the annual block party, what began as an innocent preoccupation turns into a stunning—and irrevocable—unraveling.

    A riveting portrait of obsession, Looker is “a sugarcoated poison pill of psychological terror” (The Wall Street Journal) and an immersive and darkly entertaining read—“by the end you’ll be gasping” (People).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJan 8, 2019
    ISBN9781508267782
    Author

    Laura Sims

    Laura Sims is the author of How Can I Help You and the critically acclaimed novel Looker, now in development for television with eOne and Emily Mortimer’s King Bee Productions. An award-winning poet, Sims has published four poetry collections; her essays and poems have appeared in The New Republic, Boston Review, Conjunctions, Electric Lit, Gulf Coast, and more. She and her family live in New Jersey, where she works part-time as a reference librarian and hosts the library’s lecture series.

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    Reviews for Looker

    3.5/5

    230 ratings21 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a psychological suspense novel with an unreliable narrator. The book delves into the mind of a woman who is mentally unraveling, exploring her thoughts and behaviors as she spirals deeper into mental illness. While some readers found the narrative to be boring and rambling, others appreciated the well-written portrayal of obsession and the intense character development. The audiobook narrator received praise for her performance. Overall, this book offers a scary and interesting look at the effects of mental illness, although it may not be suitable for sensitive readers.

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Oh my gosh! The main character in this book is absolutly nuts, but it was so well written and keeps your attention from the first word to the very end. Also the narrators reading made this book that much better. This one I'd definitely listen to again.

      4 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A real life look at obsession.Scary! But it's a real issue.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Takes the concept of the “unreliable narrator” to the extreme; at least in its audio version the reality vs. fantasy element is so murky that the story loses tension. You wind up spending most of the novel waiting for her to kill the cat.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      I thought this would be a psychological suspense novel in the “unreliable narrator” genre, but it turned out to be a fairly boring, rambling narrative much like reading the diary of a bitter teenager. Well written novels in this genre create suspense and tension by providing a realistic point of view to counterpoint the crazy character ‘s rant. This just had the rants and ramblings, no real suspense, as the main character falls apart. I did make it through the whole audiobook and the narrator is fine so the one star goes to her.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Another really good novel/novella from Laura Sims! The protagonist in this story is so unhinged yet you can't help but feel for her and what she's been going through in the story. As the story progressed, most of the time was focused on things that were not what I expected which only added to the main character's spiraling mental state. Once things reached a tipping point, the story spiraled quickly to an unexpected ending. Really good debut for Laura Sims!
    • 3/5
      Interesting but boring with no real payoff. Could have been a great full length novel with more plot. Great portrayal of a woman devolving into mental illness though.
    • 2/5
      Author spent an inordinate amount of time building up the main characters mania or psychosis brought on by failed IVF and the eventual dissolution of her marriage. I assume this is what lead to the obsession however it didn’t gel well. The book ended flat. The way most Netflix movies do where they spend an entire film belaboring the point that a person is crazy, house is haunted and then the point is confirmed but the movie ends! That’s exactly how this book ended! I was annoyed I invested so much time listening to a book for it to end on a cliff hanger.
    • 2/5
      26 chapters in on the audio book and NOTHING has happened.
    • 1/5
      I hated this book. I listened to the entire thing because I must be a masochist. I just kept waiting for something to happen. The protagonist spirals deep into mental illness and it's really difficult to listen too. Which might prove that it is well written book, it will definitely stay with me. Though whether or not it is a good thing I do not know.
    • 3/5
      It was a good story but no action, your just waiting for something to happen and nothing
    • 2/5
      If you’ve ever found yourself avoid conversations with bitter, negative, constantly complaining people you should avoid this novel! The protagonist spends most of the time bitterly complaining about everything in her life. The plot is about a woman who desperately wants a child but cannot have one devolving into obsession with her actress neighbor. Unfortunately it’s confusing trying to distinguish her fantasies from reality. It’s poorly written, difficult to follow, and everyone in the book is unlikeable except “the actress” who is only seen from the stalker’s 2 dimensional perspective. However the audiobook narrator does a wonderful job of sounding bitter and sinister. Content warning: animal death/murder.
    • 1/5
      This was one of the worst books I have ever read...

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I love any novel featuring the “scorned woman slowly falling into a rabbit hole of madness” trope, so this book was a treat. Forewarning- might not be great to read aloud around any sensitive ears as it is a bit randy at times, and even some non-erotic parts got me a few raised eyebrows from the roommates lol. Truly loved our main character and found myself beginning to resent her or want to scream at her to stop or get help during the last third of the novel, which felt like a reflection of her suppressed inner voice/conscience/etc. Such fluid and relatable writing, definitely going in my re-read pile to revisit when I’m feeling a little bit Gone Girl mode

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Scary picture of a woman losing her mind. This book will make you cringe. The narrator is great.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Very interesting look at the thoughts and behaviors of a woman who is mentally unraveling. You’re along for the ride as her thoughts and behaviors spiral. You’re wondering what brought her to this state. She explains major issues that are depressing her and as you see her interactions with others, you try to figure out if she was this way before her issues or as a result of them.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      The complete and utter self-destruction of the main character (unnamed) is hard to read. She is obsessed with her actress neighbor in NYC, spying on her and her family through their windows, fantasizing about seducing her husband, picking up discarded items the family leaves out for Goodwill and other psycho moves. Her own marriage to Nathan has fallen apart over fertility issues - we only get info about him through her, so hard to tell if he is really the jerk he is portrayed to be. They are fighting for custody of a cat (Cat) which she didn't even want, but has become possessive of and won't let him have back at all costs. And her work life, the one area she had control and competence as an adjunct English professor teaching poetry, she destroys by having a relationship with a student. I get that the point of the book is her unraveling reality and her inability to cope, but it is not pleasant to be party to and I really couldn't muster up any sympathy for her. She is consumed by envy and it renders her incapable of seeing reality.
    • 4/5
      This is a slow burn thriller, in which an unsympathetic main character becomes less and less sympathetic as the novel goes on, and by the time the climactic scene is reached, the reader has been cringing for some time, knowing that something terrible will happen and that it will all happen because of this narrator who tells her story in an increasingly interior and claustrophobic way. So I really liked this. In it, a woman who has recently been unsuccessful in getting pregnant, despite expensive fertility treatments, is left by her husband, who packs up all of his things, leaving only his cat behind. As her life becomes smaller, the casual interest she has in a neighbor, a famous actress, becomes more and more intense. It's clear that something bad will happen. The narrator in whose head the reader is trapped, becomes increasingly irrational, transforming from someone who had a career and a social life into a woman who creates illusions and imaginary connections, reacting to the story in her mind rather than how things really are. Sims does a wonderful job of both portraying how her character experiences people and events, while giving small glimpses into how things really are. It's a fun, uncomfortable read for anyone who likes Otessa Moshfegh, noir and watching someone making very bad decisions.
    • 1/5
      I don't like to be negative because I know that everyone involved in the making of this book worked hard, but I absolutely hated this book. This was not a mystery, suspense, thriller or anything that you would think by reading the synopsis or marketing. I don't even know what this book was, to be completely honest. The main character doesn't have a name. The neighbor that she is "obsessed" with, doesn't have a name other than "actress". There is little dialogue in this entire book. The story is written as though the reader is living inside the main character's head. Remember when the USA Network started on cable and would have those made for TV movies that just ended, this book is exactly like that. There is no reasoning for why the character became the way she is, no reasoning behind her husband leaving her, he is just gone. There is no resolution at the end. This is very bizarre story. None of the characters are likeable, except Cat. And by Cat, I mean an actual feline named Cat. I won't recommend this book to anyone, in fact I would warn people away from it. I'm sorry Laura Sims, 1-Star.
    • 2/5
      This is a small book with a protagonist who once had it all and her obsession with her actress neighbor.I am completely disappointed in this book. It has been marketed as a thriller but if anything it should be labeled boring.
    • 3/5
      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.I chose to listen to Looker. Katherine Fenton was the reader and she did an absolutely fantastic job of capturing this mercurial, unpredictable and downright frightening character. The madness that is the Narrator's thoughts was really well conveyed through tone, inflection and intonation. Her reading absolutely matched the character. Five stars for her performance. Listen to an excerpt of Looker.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 listen for me.
    • 2/5
      Looker is a short novel about a woman who started off having "it all," buts ends up with next to nothing. Her circumstances are contrasted and exaggerated in her own mind when compared to a neighbor whose life seems perfect, "The Actress."(did anyone else think she must be based on Scarlett Johanssen?) The narrator spirals out of control and makes bad choices at every opportunity.

      This had a promising start, but left me feeling unsatisfied. The ending was too abrupt, and I kept trying to reload my ebook, wondering if it had only partially downloaded.