Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

Looker by Laura Sims

6 reviews

jahoffie's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Would not read again, will be donating the book. I'm feeling quite disturbed following reading it.

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marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There are lots of really interesting themes woven into this short novel by the inimitable Laura Sims.  The narrator is a poetry professor who is incredibly bitter about her infertility and the consequent dissolution of her marriage.  Surrounded by the invasiveness of motherhood, she becomes increasingly obsessed with her neighbor—a famous actress—and the seemingly idealistic life she leads with husband and children in tow.  Does she want to know her, be her, or keep her?  Looker is a novel about personhood as performance with phenomenal narration by Katherine Fenton, for whose performance I’d listen to nearly anything.

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angelakay's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0


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erinbarton's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0


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rosie_mac's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Like many other reviewers, this book wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s not really a thriller at all, but focuses on the gradual unravelling of the protagonist’s mental state. In this regard it was pretty successful, and it did well at highlighting the pressure that women are put under to have children - this was one of the main causes of her anguish, even though I couldn’t tell if she even actually wanted them (she certainly didn’t come across as maternal). But overall I can’t say I really enjoyed it, the characters weren’t at all likeable, which isn’t necessarily a problem for me, but they weren’t even particularly interesting - so I wasn’t invested in any of them, and didn’t have anyone to root for. 

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imallergictoavocad0s's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It was a very strange book but it wasn’t bad. It was a bit underwhelming but otherwise it was fine 

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