Looker by Laura Sims

A study of a lonely and disappointed woman.
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This relatively short book is told from one perspective, the unnamed narrator, as she unravels. It begins with the news that her husband has left her because, she believes,  of her inability to have children. Her neighbour is a glamorous actress with a loving, handsome husband, and they have three children. She begins to fantasise what the actress's life may be like and plays out scenarios in her mind of them meeting.

In her professional life she teaches poetry and becomes involved with a student in an inappropriate way. Here, like her fantasies about the actress neighbour, she imagines how the student thinks and feels.

This is a dark and often humorous book. It looks at the superficial aspects of life but also touches on some very disturbing things including the process of depression. Bitterness, obsession and loneliness make this a sad story but the destructive, base and insensitive elements turn the novel into a chilling and tense account.

There is no storyline to speak of other than the workings of the protagonist's mind, and yet at times it is as tense as a thriller. Easy to read, engaging and a little disturbing. Recommended.

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Published by Headline Tinder Press on 25 July 2019.
Advance review copy supplied by the publisher.