The Man

By: Laura Sims

Narrators: Will Damron, Cassandra Campbell

ISBN: 979-8217177677

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Publication Date: 07/07/2026

Format: Audiobook

My Rating: 5 Stars +

JUL 2026 MUST-READ BOOKS

TOP AUDIOBOOKS OF 2026

PRAISED BY ANA REYES, MONA AWAD, ANDREA BARTZ, VANESSA CHAN, DANIELLE TRUSSONI, AND MORE!

"Fiercely intelligent and deeply chilling. . . . The perfect book club read." —Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines

From the highly acclaimed author of How Can I Help You, a New York Times Best Thriller of the Year: a singular take on the psychological suspense novel that follows a 1960s housewife turned amateur photographer who begins to fear for her life when she notices the dark silhouette of a man in the background of her self-portraits.

The photos Judith Stanley takes are just for her, a private passion to fill her suburban days. But when she shares them with Paul Sorenson, her new photography instructor, she's unprepared to hear his astonished praise. "Stunning," he calls her photos. "Extraordinary." She has an uncanny eye, he says, and should consider publication. He could help. Except Judith has no interest in sharing her work; in fact, the mere idea of it frightens her.

Still, emboldened by Paul’s encouragement, Judith ventures out beyond her quiet neighborhood to the city in search of increasingly striking images. When she starts to notice the dark shape of a man in the corner of her self-portraits, Judith is certain he's an attacker from her past. She doesn't know why he has returned, but she's sure of his presence: the hoarse sound of his breathing, his hard grip on her elbow. Perhaps it would appease the man if she were to put her camera down and give up her private passion. But she can't; she refuses. Until one night when the man finally emerges from the shadows, and Judith’s story suddenly and irrevocably becomes his own.

Chilling and heart-poundingly propulsive, The Man is a phenomenal and timely novel exploring the inescapable fear of living as a woman, the tantalizing seduction of artistic freedom, and the very real dangers that lurk both inside and outside the confines of the mind. The Man marks Laura Sims as an extraordinary talent at the top of her game; and this, her third novel, is her greatest achievement yet.

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My Review

"Shadows in the Viewfinder" Laura Sims Cleverly Blindsides Readers with a Mid-Century Masterclass, THE MAN!

"An uncompromising, structural marvel that shatters the boundaries of psychological suspense."

The Hook

A mid-1960s housewife turns her camera lens inward for self-reclamation, only to find a dark, persistent silhouette invading her background prints—igniting a terrifying psychological unraveling where the act of creating art triggers a lifetime of deeply buried trauma.

Elevator Pitch

When suburban empty-nester Judith Stanley enrolls in a community college photography course, her magnetic professor immediately recognizes her raw, avant-garde talent. Yet as Judith’s self-portraits grow more daring, a recurring shadow of a man appears in the corner of her film prints. Convinced she is being tracked by an attacker from her past, Judith fights to hold onto her artistic autonomy. At the same time, everyone around her dismisses her mounting terror as mid-century housewife hysteria.

Setting

~Time & Place: The suffocatingly manicured, socio-politically rigid landscape of mid-1960s suburban New Jersey.

~Atmosphere: High-contrast, insular, and toxic—vibrating between the domestic isolation of Judith’s home and the chemical, claustrophobic heat of the college and darkroom.

Vibe

Moody, intense, claustrophobic, and deeply cinematic psychological noir.

A slow-burn, agonizingly tense psychological nightmare. It feels like a vintage domestic noir stripped of all glamorous artifice, trading cheap thriller pacing for an intellectual, creeping sense of inescapable doom.

Genre

Feminist Literary Fiction / Psychological Noir.

Themes

~The Violence of the Male Gaze: How women's bodies, art, and autonomy are systematically scrutinized, policed, and claimed by men.

~Institutional Gaslighting: The weaponization of a woman's past trauma to actively invalidate her present sanity.

~The Cost of Creative Liberation: The brilliant, volatile, and deeply dangerous line between personal artistic awakening and catastrophic exploitation.

Standout Characters

~Judith Stanley: A phenomenal, highly complex protagonist who is navigating the precarious edge between intense artistic discovery and psychological fracturing.

~Paul Sorenson: The charming, manipulative photography professor whose encouraging mentorship slowly reveals a chilling, deeply rooted patriarchal entitlement.

Author Writing Standout

Laura Sims—an award-winning poet—handles prose like a practitioner working with a visual negative. Her writing is sharp, extraordinarily sparse, and entirely devoid of the bloated, conversational filler that bogs down contemporary mainstream thrillers. Sims’ background in poetry is evident in how she layers symbolism into the mundane; the chemical development bath of the darkroom isn't just a physical backdrop—it acts as a brilliant, extended metaphor for how memory and trauma slowly crystallize and darken over time. By utilizing brief, propulsive chapters, her prose formally mimics the steady, clinical click of a mechanical shutter, forcing the reader to view Judith’s unraveling through an agonizingly tight frame.

Takeaway

The ultimate horror of the novel isn't merely the physical specter lurking in the shadows; it is the calculated social framework that instinctively convinces a woman she is losing her mind for pointing him out.

Title Significance

On the surface, "The Man" represents the physical silhouette tracking Judith through her lens. Metaphorically, however, it serves as the ultimate, sweeping shorthand for the oppressive mid-century patriarchal structure—the husband, the professor, the doctor, the institution—that demands a woman surrender her autonomy the moment she steps out of her designated box.

Metaphor

The camera lens serves as a profound double-edged sword. It is Judith's singular vehicle for self-expression and viewing her world with absolute clarity, yet it is the exact tool that exposes her inescapable, punishing vulnerability to being watched.

Why You Should Read

This is a masterfully executed, historically acute character study that completely bypasses formulaic thriller tropes in favor of an atmospheric, intellectual interrogation of power dynamics, trauma, and artistic ownership.

My Thoughts

As a 12-year book blogger, reading/revwing up to 30-40 ARCs/ALCs a month (plus interviews), I am rarely caught off guard by a narrative structure. Sliding into Laura Sims' The Man—an audiobook I missed during its July release cycle and actively hunted down, performed by my two favorite narrators—reminded me precisely why independent backlist deep-dives are so vital. This is an extraordinary piece of psychological noir that fundamentally understands how to use acoustic format as a narrative weapon.

Initially, the book’s atmospheric setup heavily reminded me of the 2002 film Unfaithful, starring Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Olivier Martinez. In that movie, you have a suburban New York wife who breaks out of her comfortable, insular life by traveling into the city, where an unexpected encounter sparks a passionate, highly secretive affair with a younger foreign book dealer.

Sims constructs a very similar aesthetic allure in the beginning of this novel. When Judith leaves her quiet, small suburban town to capture the gritty, magnetic allure of the city through her viewfinder, the story hums with that exact vintage, clandestine energy—the intoxicating temptation of finding an identity separate from home.

But Sims takes that familiar domestic-noir vibe and violently turns it on its head!

FIRST HALF: The entire first half of the audiobook is a masterclass in slow-burn isolation, commanded completely by Cassandra Campbell (all voices). Her performance is totally mesmerizing and spellbinding, casting a quiet, hypnotic trance over the listener. Campbell tracks Judith's psychological awakening with such fragile intimacy that she keeps you entirely suspended in the dark regarding the true history of her past trauma. You are locked inside Judith's perspective, entirely secure in the insular world Campbell builds.

I kept thinking, where is Will? Never fear. Part Two.

PART TWO: Then comes the systemic shock to the narrative framework. The transition to Will Damron in the second half comes in like an absolute wrecking ball! I was totally blindsided by this shift; it is a jarring, entirely unexpected structural bisection that shatters the comfortable, protective bubble established in the first half. By introducing Damron's voice with such unyielding precision, the production delivers an immediate, visceral shock treatment.

An absolutely brilliant bloody move!

Without relying on cheap gimmicks or giving away spoilers, Sims uses this structural disruption to deliver a true psychological shock treatment, keeping the listener in an agonizing state of suspense until the very last moment. The sheer momentum forced me to absorb all 8 hours and 56 minutes in a single, uninterrupted sitting. When the final act closed, the psychological payoff was so intricate and calculated that I had to rewind the final sequence twice. I wasn't lost; I was simply so floored by the acoustic architecture that I needed to re-hear the nuance to appreciate exactly how the trap had been sprung.

MOVIE-WORTHY / BOOK CLUB PICK: The Man is prime for book clubs and further discussions. Movie-worthy! Trust me, you will want to discuss this with someone who has read/or listened. The ending of The Man delivered such a psychological punch I had to rewind it twice just to process the sheer brilliance of the execution.

I appreciated the author's inspiration behind the novel and I found myself immediately thinking of two cases and in one particular as I have recently read a fictional book which referenced this in the author's notes and then later saw it on a true-crime show. Cindy James or Ruth Finley. Both are legendary 1980s true crime cases that match the timeline.

~1. The Death of Cindy James (1982–1989).

And the one I recalled which came to mind immediately while reading was The Poet story.

~2. Ruth Finley and "The Poet" (1977–1981) Wichita, Kansas

Another landmark case from the same era that perfectly bridges the 1970s and 1980s. Documentary The Killer Inside.

The Man concludes with an ambiguous, psychologically charged ending that refuses a neat resolution, leaving the truth about the stalker and Judith’s trauma open to interpretation. The narrative emphasizes the unresolved nature of patriarchal control and exploitation by cutting abruptly to dark while shifting focus to Paul's egocentric co-option of Judith’s past experiences.

In interviews regarding her novel, author Laura Sims stated that the book's narrative was inspired by two "bizarre," real-life stalking cases from the 1980s. However, in her official press features—including her exclusive cover reveal with People magazine—she has kept the exact names and specific identities of those real-life 1980s cases private.

Instead of adapting one specific true-crime file, she blended the overarching paranoia of those 1980s cases with the real-life biography of mid-century street photographer Vivian Maier. In the book, this manifests through the main character, Judith Stanley, a private 1960s housewife who takes up photography and becomes terrorized when she notices the same shadowy silhouette of a man appearing in the background of her self-portraits.

This sudden shift shatters the reliability of the narrative. The "Man" as a Collective Symbol: By leaving the identity of "The Man" unconfirmed, Sims emphasizes that he represents the inescapable, overarching fear of living as a woman. The threat isn't just one physical stalker; it is the societal forces—including the controlling or dismissive men in Judith's life—trying to suppress her artistic freedom.

Audio🎧 Standout

The acoustic triumph here is the intentional, unyielding boundary line drawn between the two voice actors (my favorites) Cassandra Campbell's spellbinding control over the first half deliberately lowers your defenses, making Will Damron's sudden, wrecking-ball entry a devastating subversion of the traditional dual-narrator format. It completely strips away narrative control from the protagonist, forcing the listener to feel the exact moment the trap snaps shut.

Verdict Rating: 5 / 5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"The Man" is an uncompromising, structural marvel that shatters the boundaries of psychological fiction. While Laura Sims executes a flawless high-wire act of absolute domestic dread on the page, the definitive audiobook production transforms it into an unmissable masterpiece! Cassandra Campbell and Will Damron turn a sharp literary text into a visceral, relentless, one-sitting experience. This will easily land on my Top Audiobooks of the Year list—out of the hundreds of productions I evaluate annually, this is an absolute standout. A masterclass in audio production!

Recs or Read Alikes

If you enjoyed the dark, haunting and chilling creative obsession in "The Man," add these to your TBR list.

~Looker by Laura Sims

~How Can I Help You by Laura Sims

~Bunny by Mona Awad

~The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

~Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon

@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks

My Rating: 5 Stars +

Prb Date: July 7, 2026

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July 2026 Must-Read Books

#TopAudiobooksof2026

Praise

One of PEOPLE’s Best Books of July 2026

One of CrimeReads' Best Psychological Thrillers of July 2026

One of CrimeReads' Best Crime Novels, Mysteries and Thrillers of July 2026

One of The Real Book Spy's Must-Read Mystery & Suspense Novels of July 2026

One of Publishers Marketplace’s "Buzz Books" Fiction for Spring/Summer 2026

"The Man by Laura Sims is an original and deftly crafted novel of unrelenting suspense the will resonate with readers who have themselves experienced (in the author's words) 'the inescapable fear of living as a woman, the tantalizing seduction of artistic freedom, and the very real dangers that lurk both inside and outside the confines of the mind'. Showcasing Sim's impressive and genuine flair for the kind of character and narrative driven style that is so apt for the psychological suspense thriller genre."

—Midwest Book Review

"An engrossing, haunting thriller that explores society’s reluctance to believe women."

—PEOPLE Magazine

"This book is one of the few stories I’ve ever read that successfully pulled off the mid-novel twist . . . Sims’ latest profoundly captures the essence of Cicero’s favored saying: cui bono? Who benefits, indeed."

—CrimeReads

"Suffice it to say that [The Man] succeeds in its use of doubt and suspicion and in highlighting how youthful trauma can ripple through an entire life—sometimes by tragically inhibiting development, wellness and human thriving. There’s also an undercurrent of misogyny in the story that feels legitimately menacing . . . Life is an oscillation of light and dark, of illumination and shadow, and so are people. In The Man, Sims explores this unsettling yet exhilarating swing in concrete and more abstract, philosophical ways."

—NewCityLit

"[The Man] explores obsession, fear, art, and the danger of being watched."

—The Hoboken Girl

"[The Man] is a fast-paced, twisty, thrilling tale, probing the line between artistic creation and exploitation and the persistent dangers women face, set in a noir-tinged, unsettling suburban world."

—Booklist

"This atmospheric exploration of trauma, obsession, and the uneasy space between truth and perception is recommended for readers who enjoy ambiguity, psychological tension, and narrators whose reliability is in question."

—Library Journal

"Laura Sims returns with The Man, a suspenseful domestic thriller set in the 1960s . . . A tense exploration of perception and truth."

—Out South Florida

"Sims delivers a devilish psychological thriller set in the 1960s and centered on empty-nester Judith Stanley, who’s taking a photography class with professor Paul Sorenson. . . . Sims artfully handles their parallel paranoias, and the novel’s unsettling ending boldly denies readers the comfort of certainty. The result is an appealingly disturbing tale that will linger in readers' minds." —Publishers Weekly

"Fiercely intelligent and deeply chilling, The Man—like the protagonist’s self-portraits—contains more than first meets the eye. It’s the sort of novel I immediately want to talk about with others—the perfect book club read. I wish I could read it again for the first time!"

—Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines

"So eerie and sharp, so classic feeling yet contemporary. I think of Highsmith and Hitchcock when it comes to [Sims's] gift for suspense and dark Americana, but she also has a poet’s eye and ear for conjuring visceral dread, vulnerability and beauty in equal measure. A brilliant portrait of a deeply haunted, gifted woman--and a haunting shadow of a man. Maybe my favorite of [Sims's]." —Mona Awad, New York Times bestselling author of We Love You, Bunny

"With elegant and propulsive prose, The Man is a captivating page-turner that explores art, ambition, gender dynamics, and true fear. Creepy, disturbing, and dripping with dread, it was nearly impossible to put down."

—Robyn Harding, internationally bestselling author of Strangers in the Villa

"The Man is a chilling study of the ways in which a woman’s art, talent, and entire life get subsumed by the biggest malevolent force in her life—the men who want to shape her to their will. This book kept me awake at night, heart in throat, then stayed with me long afterward. I could not stop turning the pages. Laura Sims has done it again."

—Vanessa Chan, author of international bestseller, The Storm We Made

"Haunting, atmospheric, and relentlessly unnerving, The Man kept me up late reading—and had me looking over my shoulder on dark street corners. Beneath the muscular prose and quiet sense of dread is a thoughtful exploration of power imbalances, our relationship with art, and the roles we allow women to play."

—Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Never Here and The Last Ferry Out

"The Man is a gorgeous, haunting exploration of creativity, confinement, and desire. Sims captures the inner life of an artist with uncanny precision and lyricism. Every page shimmers with intelligence and quiet menace. I could not put it down."

—Danielle Trussoni, New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Puzzle Box

"I was gripped by this twisty, creepy tale of an amateur photographer with a blazing talent and a troubling past. Art and trauma, obsession and ambition all collide with terrifying consequences that will have you flipping to the last page."

—Susan Barker, author of Old Soul

"An absolute page-turner. I tore through this novel in two feverish sittings. Sims perfectly captures the feeling every woman knows too well: of looking over your shoulder, holding your house keys too tightly, and wondering what darkness might follow you home. Expertly paced, utterly gripping, and deeply layered, The Man is the kind of novel that stays with you long after you finish it. Sims’s signature style will have you dead-bolting your door and looking at the world a bit differently."

—Kirsten King, author of A Good Person

About the Author

Laura Sims’s previous novels How Can I Help You and Looker have been featured on Best Books lists in The New York Times Book Review, Vogue, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, Publishers Weekly, and more. An award-winning poet, Sims has published four poetry collections; her essays and poems have appeared in The New Republic, Boston Review, Lit Hub, and Electric Lit. She lives in New Jersey, where she works part-time as a children’s librarian. WEBSITE