How Can I help You by Laura Sims
How Can I Help You
by Laura Sims
Thriller | Mystery | Fiction
256 Pages
Released July 2023
Rating: ★★★1/2
Goodreads
Content Warnings
What’s this? A book blurbed by Mona Awad? Of course that means I have to read it.
This book was a spy vs spy take on a nurse with a questionable past and an aspiring, down-on-her-luck writer. After a precarious end to her nursing career, “Margo” has reinvented herself and entered the quiet, organized life of a librarian. No one knows who she really is, and that suits her just fine. All is well, until Patricia shows up. Patricia is an aspiring writer, having escaped to same town as Margo after she fails to get her first book published. After an unfortunate incident with a library patron in the women’s bathroom, Patricia soon realizes that Margo may not be quite who she says she is.
For a dark book, this one was a lot of fun to read. Switching perspectives between Margo and Patricia kept things fresh, and it was interesting to see events that transpired in the book from both perspectives. Both Margo and Patricia are rather unlikeable characters which added a layer of interest because I found myself not really rooting for either character - only curiosity to see who (if anyone) would come out on top of this cat-and-mouse game.
Speaking of cat-and-mouse games, the dynamics in this book were constantly shifting so there was never a clear cat or mouse in this story. Both characters are (thankfully) perceptive but ultimately self-driven.This book is definitely dark (though not quite horror, I think), but there’s an almost humorous quality to the darkness which made it a pretty quick and entertaining read.
If you were a fan of Bunny or any type of dark humor, I’d give this one a shot.