What do you think?
Gaze
In the summer of 1998 everything changed. Trapped in my New York apartment during a historical heatwave I watched them all go about their lives, but little did I know that someone was watching me too.
Gaze is an erotic thriller based loosely off the Hitchcock film Rear Window.
📷 Sapphic Erotic Thriller
📷 Historic setting
📷 St4lk1ng
📷 V0yeur1sm
📷 'Watch me'
📷 D|_|b- C0n
📷 Novella (25k)
Gaze is an erotic thriller based loosely off the Hitchcock film Rear Window.
📷 Sapphic Erotic Thriller
📷 Historic setting
📷 St4lk1ng
📷 V0yeur1sm
📷 'Watch me'
📷 D|_|b- C0n
📷 Novella (25k)
136 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 1, 2026
About the author
R.A. Hunter
10 books43 followersRA Hunter writes unapologetically authentic sapphic love stories because the world deserves more messy characters, tender chaos, and queer identity. As an AuDHD writer shaped by early-00s alt pop culture and the gloriously unhinged pre-regulation internet, she brings a brain wired for intensity, curiosity, and delightful chaos to every story she creates.
When she’s not writing, she works in television—an industry that perfectly complements her love of storytelling, organized chaos, and deadlines that sprint instead of walk. At home, she’s happily outnumbered by her dogs, who insist on supervising every creative endeavor.
Her dedication to crafting emotionally resonant queer stories was recognized in 2025, when she won the Best Self-Published Novel award at the Indieverse Awards—an affirmation of the voice she once was not sure she could share.
When she’s not writing, she works in television—an industry that perfectly complements her love of storytelling, organized chaos, and deadlines that sprint instead of walk. At home, she’s happily outnumbered by her dogs, who insist on supervising every creative endeavor.
Her dedication to crafting emotionally resonant queer stories was recognized in 2025, when she won the Best Self-Published Novel award at the Indieverse Awards—an affirmation of the voice she once was not sure she could share.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
September 30, 2026
Th3_Thr!ll_0f_W4tching & B31NG_W4TCH3D
Solitude has a way of distorting your sense of time, space, and yourself, and Gaze takes that isolation somewhere deeply unsettling. Told entirely through Jen’s perspective, the story gives an intimate look at how prolonged confinement can warp perception and blur the line between curiosity and something much darker. It’s provocative, unflinching, and uncomfortable in all the right ways, creating an atmosphere where every glimpse feels more unsettling and the lines between curiosity, desire, and human nature begin to blur.
After an injury leaves field photographer Jen trapped recovering inside her apartment, people-watching becomes her way of passing the time. The stifling heat of the summer only adds to the sense of physical and mental suffocation, with that oppressive feeling practically melting off the page—I found myself sweating as well. What starts as a harmless distraction gradually crosses boundaries as her curiosity becomes all-consuming. Her apartment stops feeling like a cage and starts feeling like the perfect vantage point, especially as she realizes that the distance between observer and subject is slowly disappearing.
Jen gets her entertainment and pleasure from watching her neighbors (both emotionally and sexually), turning their windows into a stage where she can observe, speculate, and interfere from a safe distance. That distance shrinks when two new women move in and become her newest fixation, especially when she is caught watching and is encouraged to–participate. While Jen is becoming more comfortable crossing these boundaries, someone else has been crossing them with her. Her conversations with someone she only knows as “I_BiT3” in the chatroom become increasingly personal, with "Bite" showing an intimate knowledge of Jen’s life. Watching from a distance takes on an entirely different edge as Jen realizes Bite may be much closer than she thinks. The tension keeps tightening and the heat keeps rising as she gives in to a consuming desire to keep pushing deeper into something she knows she may not be able to control—and may not want to anymore.
It’s unsettling from beginning to end, peeling back the layers of isolation, obsession, temptation, and moral boundaries without offering an easy way out. It’s a complex psychological thriller packed into very little space, and instead of giving you a happy ending, it leaves you with something far more disturbing—the revelation that sometimes the most terrifying transformation is the one you willingly step into.
HUGE thank you to the author for the chance to read this ARC!
Favorite Quotes:
“I interfered. I have never done that before, it’s a rule. You document and watch but you never interfere. It’s not your place. It’s not my place… No. I was right. I feel triumph, vindication, adrenaline. I saved her.”
“I felt like a schoolgirl with a crush, desperate for their attention and willing to do anything to get it.”
“She was going to undo me. I didn’t know who she was, and at that moment I didn’t care. [I]n this moment she owns me, my body, my soul, my very essence is tied up in her.”
“There is something in her eyes, it’s not love, it’s barely lust - it’s a thinly veiled primal need.”
“I let go of the person I was, the person I have always been. Maybe I was never going to come out of this experience unchanged - but now I know that nothing about me will be the same.”
Solitude has a way of distorting your sense of time, space, and yourself, and Gaze takes that isolation somewhere deeply unsettling. Told entirely through Jen’s perspective, the story gives an intimate look at how prolonged confinement can warp perception and blur the line between curiosity and something much darker. It’s provocative, unflinching, and uncomfortable in all the right ways, creating an atmosphere where every glimpse feels more unsettling and the lines between curiosity, desire, and human nature begin to blur.
After an injury leaves field photographer Jen trapped recovering inside her apartment, people-watching becomes her way of passing the time. The stifling heat of the summer only adds to the sense of physical and mental suffocation, with that oppressive feeling practically melting off the page—I found myself sweating as well. What starts as a harmless distraction gradually crosses boundaries as her curiosity becomes all-consuming. Her apartment stops feeling like a cage and starts feeling like the perfect vantage point, especially as she realizes that the distance between observer and subject is slowly disappearing.
Jen gets her entertainment and pleasure from watching her neighbors (both emotionally and sexually), turning their windows into a stage where she can observe, speculate, and interfere from a safe distance. That distance shrinks when two new women move in and become her newest fixation, especially when she is caught watching and is encouraged to–participate. While Jen is becoming more comfortable crossing these boundaries, someone else has been crossing them with her. Her conversations with someone she only knows as “I_BiT3” in the chatroom become increasingly personal, with "Bite" showing an intimate knowledge of Jen’s life. Watching from a distance takes on an entirely different edge as Jen realizes Bite may be much closer than she thinks. The tension keeps tightening and the heat keeps rising as she gives in to a consuming desire to keep pushing deeper into something she knows she may not be able to control—and may not want to anymore.
It’s unsettling from beginning to end, peeling back the layers of isolation, obsession, temptation, and moral boundaries without offering an easy way out. It’s a complex psychological thriller packed into very little space, and instead of giving you a happy ending, it leaves you with something far more disturbing—the revelation that sometimes the most terrifying transformation is the one you willingly step into.
HUGE thank you to the author for the chance to read this ARC!
Favorite Quotes:
“I interfered. I have never done that before, it’s a rule. You document and watch but you never interfere. It’s not your place. It’s not my place… No. I was right. I feel triumph, vindication, adrenaline. I saved her.”
“I felt like a schoolgirl with a crush, desperate for their attention and willing to do anything to get it.”
“She was going to undo me. I didn’t know who she was, and at that moment I didn’t care. [I]n this moment she owns me, my body, my soul, my very essence is tied up in her.”
“There is something in her eyes, it’s not love, it’s barely lust - it’s a thinly veiled primal need.”
“I let go of the person I was, the person I have always been. Maybe I was never going to come out of this experience unchanged - but now I know that nothing about me will be the same.”
Review of advance copy received from Author
Personal advice: check the content warnings on this one, before you start. The author lays it all for you there, so you can know what to expect.
Plus, there is a playlist to go along with the book, made by the author, with the songs thought to be listened in order - if you are anything like me and like to check these things out, don't miss out on it, because not only it is a great selection but it also helps to set the mood!
Now, I must say that this was my first book by RA Hunter and I am very well impressed!
The story was told from a very interesting (but somewhat disturbing) perspective and the writing was light but very engaging, knowing exactly how to keep you hooked and looking for the next chapter.
In Gaze you will meet Jen, who has become trapped in her own apartment, following a work injury that does not allow her to leave the house for about 6 weeks.
In these sudden weeks of solitude, there is a growing feeling of imprisonment and boredom, that inevitably pushes her from a harmless window watching to keep distracted, to something else entirely... And it is that journey we witness, that shift where watching, and suddenly being watched, is a dark obsession... alienating everything and everyone else that does not fit this other dimension she discovers.
A reality only she understands and a dimension she looks for reasons to justify, until she fully surrenders to this version of herself she wasn't fully aware existed.
And that is the journey we get to watch as well, voyeurs of our own, that raw and unglamorous path of self discovery, of understanding the deeper reasons behind what was always there, just unexplored, until now.
It is an unsettling story, every step of the way, honestly... there's no happy endings, there's no warm and fuzzy - if that is what you're looking for, you will not find it here.
But you'll find something else entirely, something not so pretty, more raw and confrontational about the human nature... and it was just right what I was looking for at the moment!
Plus, there is a playlist to go along with the book, made by the author, with the songs thought to be listened in order - if you are anything like me and like to check these things out, don't miss out on it, because not only it is a great selection but it also helps to set the mood!
Now, I must say that this was my first book by RA Hunter and I am very well impressed!
The story was told from a very interesting (but somewhat disturbing) perspective and the writing was light but very engaging, knowing exactly how to keep you hooked and looking for the next chapter.
In Gaze you will meet Jen, who has become trapped in her own apartment, following a work injury that does not allow her to leave the house for about 6 weeks.
In these sudden weeks of solitude, there is a growing feeling of imprisonment and boredom, that inevitably pushes her from a harmless window watching to keep distracted, to something else entirely... And it is that journey we witness, that shift where watching, and suddenly being watched, is a dark obsession... alienating everything and everyone else that does not fit this other dimension she discovers.
A reality only she understands and a dimension she looks for reasons to justify, until she fully surrenders to this version of herself she wasn't fully aware existed.
And that is the journey we get to watch as well, voyeurs of our own, that raw and unglamorous path of self discovery, of understanding the deeper reasons behind what was always there, just unexplored, until now.
It is an unsettling story, every step of the way, honestly... there's no happy endings, there's no warm and fuzzy - if that is what you're looking for, you will not find it here.
But you'll find something else entirely, something not so pretty, more raw and confrontational about the human nature... and it was just right what I was looking for at the moment!
October 2, 2026
Being a fan of the movie Rear Window, which is the inspiration for this story, of course I was excited to read Gaze with its sapphic twist.
It definitely has all the elements of the movie but this is far more unhinged, in all the ways you’d expect from an RA Hunter story.
Lock your doors…or don’t 😉
4.5⭐️
Check trigger warnings before reading
It definitely has all the elements of the movie but this is far more unhinged, in all the ways you’d expect from an RA Hunter story.
Lock your doors…or don’t 😉
4.5⭐️
Check trigger warnings before reading
October 3, 2026
In the summer of 1998, I was 19. Yes, I know I'm dating myself. That was almost 30 years ago, but the details Hunter put into Gaze brought that time rushing back to me. Massive computers, dial up internet, chat rooms, web cams, digital cameras - all of these were cutting edge technology at the time. Just as Jen and her girlfriend watched ER on Thursdays, that was also a weekly ritual in my life. (If you don't know who Julianna Margulies is, do yourself a favor and look up a photo of her from that show!)
All of this is to explain why Gaze is more than just a novella that's set over a few weeks in the summer of 1998 in New York City. It is more than just a specific moment in time. It is a MOOD. The extreme heat wave combined with the complete isolation that Jen imposes on herself as she recovers from a broken leg gives Gaze a tangible feeling of oppressive solitude.
As a photojournalist, Jen had spent her career observing people from behind a lens – she kept herself apart, distant, observing and not participating in events unfolding around her. She was used to anonymity. I think that’s one of the reasons she became fascinated by the online chat rooms that she discovered while recuperating. She could still be anyone there, not necessarily herself.
But as the days pass, Jen becomes fixated on watching her neighbors and chatting to a mysterious stranger online. She hardly eats, she ignores her sweet, patient girlfriend, she obsesses over the people she's watching through the window. The few humans she interacts with in person question her sanity. So, do we trust Jen as a narrator? She seems to be sliding into madness, so are the events she's witnessing and experiencing actually real? Well, you'll have to read it for yourself to decide. And please read all the trigger warnings first because the watcher becomes the watched and the stalked and things get very dark and spicy!
All of this is to explain why Gaze is more than just a novella that's set over a few weeks in the summer of 1998 in New York City. It is more than just a specific moment in time. It is a MOOD. The extreme heat wave combined with the complete isolation that Jen imposes on herself as she recovers from a broken leg gives Gaze a tangible feeling of oppressive solitude.
As a photojournalist, Jen had spent her career observing people from behind a lens – she kept herself apart, distant, observing and not participating in events unfolding around her. She was used to anonymity. I think that’s one of the reasons she became fascinated by the online chat rooms that she discovered while recuperating. She could still be anyone there, not necessarily herself.
But as the days pass, Jen becomes fixated on watching her neighbors and chatting to a mysterious stranger online. She hardly eats, she ignores her sweet, patient girlfriend, she obsesses over the people she's watching through the window. The few humans she interacts with in person question her sanity. So, do we trust Jen as a narrator? She seems to be sliding into madness, so are the events she's witnessing and experiencing actually real? Well, you'll have to read it for yourself to decide. And please read all the trigger warnings first because the watcher becomes the watched and the stalked and things get very dark and spicy!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Having read a few of RA’s books I thought I knew what to expect from this book.
This was completely different.
While this was set in the 90s, the topic of isolation and its effects on mental health felt very relevant. Through technology; do we really know who we’re inviting into our lives, into our homes?
When we cut ourselves off from real human interactions; what impact does that have on us?
Jen’s spiralling decline kept me gripped; and the juxtaposition of that decline with the building erotic tension of what she sees out of her window; and who enters her home is… both uncomfortable and hot.
I won’t spoil the ending, but I can’t wait for more people to read it so I can debate the conclusion with them!
This was completely different.
While this was set in the 90s, the topic of isolation and its effects on mental health felt very relevant. Through technology; do we really know who we’re inviting into our lives, into our homes?
When we cut ourselves off from real human interactions; what impact does that have on us?
Jen’s spiralling decline kept me gripped; and the juxtaposition of that decline with the building erotic tension of what she sees out of her window; and who enters her home is… both uncomfortable and hot.
I won’t spoil the ending, but I can’t wait for more people to read it so I can debate the conclusion with them!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Gaze is super spicy and super intriguing. While I have never seen Rear View, I was able to enjoy every moment of MC Jen's descent into madness. As a lover of erotica and thrillers I was equal parts titillated and invested in the story, which is exactly where I want to be. Kinks such as Voyeurism and Exhibitionism and consensual Breaking/entering style play serve as a rare look into how sapphics can be kinky too. Make sure to read the content warnings and know that this is spicy!
October 1, 2026
I devoured this book in one sitting. Its a delicious mix of perversion and voyeurism wrapped up in a physiological bow.
I don't want to say any more incase it spoils the plot.
You need to run, not walk to read this.
I don't want to say any more incase it spoils the plot.
You need to run, not walk to read this.
October 1, 2026
Good things come in small packages, this book definitely delivers on that promise. Brilliant and claustrophobic read!
Review of advance copy received from Author
5 stars. As soon as I read the synopsis I KNEW this was going to be the book for me and I was so right. Thank you so much to the author for the ARC. I loved this and just how different and unique it was. It’s a dark erotic thriller with the vibes of the film Rear Window but set in the 90s.
Our main character, Jen, injures her leg and is stuck in her apartment during a heatwave, she looks out of her window. Like, a lot. To an unhealthy degree and she sees some things in the apartments across the way from her. Her friend, Steve, and her girlfriend, Lisa notice the change in her and try to get her help but she refuses. On top of all of that there’s a woman in a chatroom that she’s been talking to that sends her gifts and a woman in the apartment building across the way that she can’t stop watching. Things get really fucking intense and it was SO good. It’s not a romance but it’s extremely sexy and feels gritty and dirty and I loved it. I couldn’t put my kindle down until I finished, it kept me hooked. I can’t say too much because it’s a novella and the way that everything unfolded was so much fun. I already want to read it again and I would highly recommend it if you want something dark and sexy.
Spice: ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥/❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Content Warning:
*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Our main character, Jen, injures her leg and is stuck in her apartment during a heatwave, she looks out of her window. Like, a lot. To an unhealthy degree and she sees some things in the apartments across the way from her. Her friend, Steve, and her girlfriend, Lisa notice the change in her and try to get her help but she refuses. On top of all of that there’s a woman in a chatroom that she’s been talking to that sends her gifts and a woman in the apartment building across the way that she can’t stop watching. Things get really fucking intense and it was SO good. It’s not a romance but it’s extremely sexy and feels gritty and dirty and I loved it. I couldn’t put my kindle down until I finished, it kept me hooked. I can’t say too much because it’s a novella and the way that everything unfolded was so much fun. I already want to read it again and I would highly recommend it if you want something dark and sexy.
Spice: ❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥/❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥❤️🔥
Content Warning:
*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Very thankful to RA Hunter that the trigger warnings were at the start of this book, so I had the chance to ‘turn back’, or read knowing what was I was going to read.
Jen’s ever shrinking world is portrayed masterfully, and it is easy to see how she gets so lost in the world she only views through her window. The suicide is dealt with carefully, especially with the momentary thought from Jen that maybe she shouldn’t have interfered - a very tender handling of a difficult subject.
I wouldn’t normal read something I knew contained CNC but RA Hunter’s writing compelled me, and I was not disappointed; this for the same reason this book maybe be for everyone.
Thank you RA Hunter for the ARC, I thoroughly enjoyed. Incredible writing as always - I will happily read anything you write.
PS: sad lack of raccoons for a book titled Gaze, someone had to say it!
Jen’s ever shrinking world is portrayed masterfully, and it is easy to see how she gets so lost in the world she only views through her window. The suicide is dealt with carefully, especially with the momentary thought from Jen that maybe she shouldn’t have interfered - a very tender handling of a difficult subject.
I wouldn’t normal read something I knew contained CNC but RA Hunter’s writing compelled me, and I was not disappointed; this for the same reason this book maybe be for everyone.
Thank you RA Hunter for the ARC, I thoroughly enjoyed. Incredible writing as always - I will happily read anything you write.
PS: sad lack of raccoons for a book titled Gaze, someone had to say it!
Review of advance copy received from Author
I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this book as an ARC, it is fabulous. A sultry, claustrophobic descent into desire and the spiralling... madness? Lust? Excitement of our main character. As her isolation leads her into an encounter with a stranger that honestly is somehow both insanely exciting but also scary in a thoroughly intriguing manner. I felt suffocated by the heat, right there with Jen, something about the short chapters and tight writing draws you into the steaming New York summer. It's also a scintillating piece of erotic fiction, pay attention to the trigger warnings! 100% recommended!
Review of advance copy received from Author
Internet safety warning, but it kinda makes you want to share your address with that stranger you've been flirting with??
This was a wild ride. Jen is a messed up character in a messed up situation and there is NOT a happy ending, I guess. Or maybe there is, idk, but it sure ain't the traditional kind.
Jen learned something about herself here, and if I hadn't already known I was an absolutely depraved individual, this one may have awoken something in me. I'll settle for watching Jen have something awakened in her.
So... does the watcher enjoy being watched?
This was a wild ride. Jen is a messed up character in a messed up situation and there is NOT a happy ending, I guess. Or maybe there is, idk, but it sure ain't the traditional kind.
Jen learned something about herself here, and if I hadn't already known I was an absolutely depraved individual, this one may have awoken something in me. I'll settle for watching Jen have something awakened in her.
So... does the watcher enjoy being watched?
Review of advance copy received from Author
4.5/5 we needs rounds ups GR
This rocks--an absolute thrill-ride! Are there trigger warnings?-- yep. Did I read them?--nope. It would be personal injustice to spoil this fantabulous jaunt into losing inhibitions and voyeurism.
Just f*cking wow! RA Hunter never lets me down.
*remember to read the TWs if you need to. I like to live dangerously.
This rocks--an absolute thrill-ride! Are there trigger warnings?-- yep. Did I read them?--nope. It would be personal injustice to spoil this fantabulous jaunt into losing inhibitions and voyeurism.
Just f*cking wow! RA Hunter never lets me down.
*remember to read the TWs if you need to. I like to live dangerously.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Received an ARC copy of this and it did not disappoint.
Something so different from this author but so so good!
It was perfect blend of uncomfortable and enticing, as I’ve come to expect from Hunter the storytelling and spice were so well blended.
Something so different from this author but so so good!
It was perfect blend of uncomfortable and enticing, as I’ve come to expect from Hunter the storytelling and spice were so well blended.
Review of advance copy received from Author
Thoroughly enjoyed this novella read ! Truly greatful to of been picked for an ARC read from the author.
You can feel the heat on your skin alongside Jen and the obsession she goes through.
Oh and the erotica side of things ?🤤🌶️🔥
Highly recommend!!
You can feel the heat on your skin alongside Jen and the obsession she goes through.
Oh and the erotica side of things ?🤤🌶️🔥
Highly recommend!!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews