Look Closer

Content Warning: This section briefly mentions racism, abuse, and violence.

Look Closer is an example of the thriller genre. Thrillers are novels that focus on emotions such as suspense, danger, and excitement. They usually employ cliffhangers, plot twists, and unreliable narrators to surprise and sometimes scare their audience. Crime thrillers often follow a detective or other character who tries to solve a crime and pursue justice. These novels are popular for their entertainment value and fast-paced storytelling. David Ellis, the author of Look Closer, is a practicing attorney and uses his knowledge of the legal system to craft thrillers that are factually accurate. His main character, Simon, is a law professor and specializes in government surveillance through technology, knowledge that comes in handy when he needs to frame Christian for a crime he orchestrated. In Look Closer, Ellis uses his knowledge of the legal system to craft a tightly woven plot with many twists and turns.

The forerunner to the thriller was the detective novel, and the Golden Age of detective fiction in the 1920s and 1930s codified many of the rules of the genre. Author S. S. Van Dine wrote down several of these rules in 1928, including the following: “The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described” and “[t]he detective himself, or one of the official investigators, should never turn out to be the culprit” (“Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories.” Clarion, 2022). Many contemporary authors take pleasure in breaking these rules and playing with readers’ expectations. Novels like Gillian Flynn’s 2012 thriller Gone Girl rely heavily on unreliable narrators and are unafraid to make the main character villainous or a criminal. Look Closer also engages with these genre expectations by breaking them. Vicky and Simon are criminals, though readers’ judgment of them will be tempered by their likability and the immoral actions of their victims. Vicky and Simon also frequently lie to readers and the twist retains its ability to thrill and shock because it is contrary to usual ideas about what a narrator can do.

Though they are lauded for their entertainment value, many contemporary thrillers also offer a way for authors to explore societal issues such as violence, corruption, or misogyny. Some of these novels also critique the modern legal system and the way it can fail to achieve justice for everyone. Several of these themes are present in Look Closer. Simon openly comments on the racism and classism embedded in the practice of law, saying, “Why do privileged old white men in black robes get to decide what it’s like to be an African American kid stopped on the street by a cop?” (12). Both he and Vicky step outside the law to pursue justice for their families and feel that there will be no adequate recourse through the legal system. In her work and in her past experiences, the character of Vicky also draws attention to problems of misogyny and gender-based violence. Her work at the domestic violence shelter focuses on women who are often not protected by the legal system.