Looker by Laura Sims

Thanks, but no, thanks.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller
Published: 8th January, 2019
Goodreads
Series: N/A
Rating: 1

Have you ever wanted to steal someone else’s life?
The Professor lives in Brooklyn; her partner Nathan has left her; she can’t have a baby. All she’s left with is Nathan’s old moggy, Cat. Who she doesn’t even like.
Then a celebrity actress moves into the area. She’s beautiful, with long auburn hair, perfect skin, a lovely smile. She’s got children – a baby, even. And a husband who seems to adore her. She leaves discarded household items and toys outside for thrift collection. She leaves her windows open, even at night.
There’s no harm, the Professor thinks, in recycling those items. Or looking in through the illuminated glass at that shiny, happy family. Is there?

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So we have lived the day when my first, and so far only one star review has been born. Knowing I’m such a ruthless monster who drops books at the first sign of displeasure, you may be wondering why on earth did I suffer through this. Well, let’s just say I became quite obsessed with finding out just where exactly are we heading with this one. The irony isn’t lost on me.

What the hell did I just read? No, seriously… First of all, let me tell you, this is not a thriller. Maybe a character study of sort, albeit not an enjoyable one, unless you like some truly fucked up shit. A 180 pages of drivel and never-ending crazy talk…

Because what is a thriller?

“…what gives the variety of thrillers a common ground is the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill. By definition, if a thriller doesn’t thrill, it’s not doing its job.” James Patterson

The Looker not only didn’t do its job at giving me exhilaration, and all kinds of excitement, it was rather boring. Our unnamed protagonist a totally deranged nut-job, sure, but even as a stalker she’s not a very good one. Annoying? Yes. Scary? Not really. After her husband left her, apparently because of the failed IVF attempts, but I suspect more because she’s just simply insufferable, this woman spends her time obsessively watching the also unnamed actress across the road, imagining she can become that other lady. All day long, fantasizing about her, her husband, she sinks deeper and deeper into despair.

She has this woe-is-me attitude, even though the whole time she made it sound like she only went along with attempting to get pregnant, because her husband wanted a child. Not her. Considering she’s the sort of person who should never become a mother, is almost beside the point.

She’s petty and vengeful. When her husband files for divorce some drama ensues and all of a sudden they are fighting for custody of Cat, the unnamed cat who belongs to the husband. After he made multiple attempts to pick up his cat from the house, the woman suffocates poor kitty with a pillow, because that’s obviously what anyone would do in this situation. I pretty much had enough of it at this point.

Even though I accepted the fact that this book has been marketed as a thriller for basically no reason, I just couldn’t find anything to enjoy about it. I mean, maybe the cover. That’s nice.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.