Close Relationships with Strangers

by Krista Diamond

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler meets Ryan Gosling in Drive, Close Relationships with Strangers follows a Las Vegas wildlife photographer who moves to Los Angeles to become a paparazzo and in the process loses his relationships, his morals, and eventually his tether to reality.

Every paparazzo has their white whale, for Ben, that person is movie star Jack Whitlock.

Reviled by celebrities and the public, Ben is one of the last remaining paparazzi scouring the streets of Los Angeles. Amateurs with camera phones, social media, and a lack of bonafide stars have slowly killed a once essential role in the Hollywood apparatus. Jack Whitlock is one of the last remaining A-listers, and Ben has followed his career since the years he spent bussing tables at a diner in Las Vegas where his most popular movie once filmed a scene.

When Jack Whitlock is suddenly embroiled in a sex scandal, Ben begins his pursuit, eager for both a big paycheck and a chance to be close to the elusive star. Along the way, he is haunted by mistakes from his the photos he took of a pop star that have led to death threats, the ghost of his failed relationship with a burlesque dancer named Ellory, and his abandoned dream of being a wildlife photographer.

Searing and propulsive, Close Relationships with Strangers is a behind the lens tour-de-force through the streets of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and the desert in between, as readers follow Ben, unrelenting, obsessive, and wry, on a quest that will lead either to his redemption or demise.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication June 23, 2026

Reviews

[Meggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75⭐️ Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

Wow! If you’re a fan of Brat, Yellowface, or Big Swiss— this is a great read for you!
Close Relationships With Strangers is one man’s journey of replacing one obsession with another to the point of letting it become a manic episode. This is my favorite type of thriller where nothing specifically “happens,” just continuous stress and anxiety over the unlikable main character’s poor life choices. I feel like this will be a hit!

Close Relationships with Strangers comes out this June.

[Ilyssa Wesche · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this was four stars - maybe even five - right up until the end. I loved the slow descent into obsession, the endless justifications about why what he was doing was okay. Watching Ben's whole life fall apart because of his singular pursuit of Jack Whitlock was like watching a car crash in slow motion. And what he did to try to get what he wanted gave me that sick feeling when you know you're watching someone in a downward spiral. It just got better and better.

The dual timeline got confusing towards the middle but I learned to live with that. This was a compulsive story that I just could not stop reading. And I love an unreliable narrator.

HOWEVER the last page was just so anticlimactic and unresolved. I was left completely unsatisfied. Maybe that was the point but if so, I didn't get it. I don't need things completely spelled out for me but I needed more than this.

That said I would definitely read the author's next book because this was 99% amazing.

[shay allyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bless you, NetGalley, for coming through with this advanced copy. I’ve enjoyed the author’s short works and followed her on insta long enough to be very excited for this book. As someone with an appreciation for Vegas (where I read the book thanks to the holidays with the fam), fictional characters’ descents into madness, and juxtapositions (in this case wildlife and celebrities), I loved this book.

I also recommend it as an example of well done 1st person POV. 1st is not my favorite, and this book made me realize why — most 1st person narrators feel very disembodied, disassociated from the environment they’re describing. That is very much not the case here, and Ben’s POV is very lived in and engrossing.

Thanks again to NetGalley for the ARC and now I gotta add Close Relationships with Strangers to my preorder list. 🥹

[Patty Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a good portrayal of a person being so obsessed with a celebrity that it completely overtakes their life.

But what happens when your livelihood depends on finding that celebrity and taking the perfect shot? I loved this book! Diamond’s writing is so immersive that you feel like you are really looking at Ben’s life through a lens and you just want to know how it all ends.

Read this!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and author for providing a free copy of this book through NetGalley.

[Anna Dorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

nightcrawler (2014) meets in a lonely place (1947). bleak but chic !