About Laurie Petrou

Laurie is an author and associate professor at the RTA School of Media at Ryerson University in Toronto. Her first book, a collection of short stories titled Between, was a Globe and Mail Best Book. She was the inaugural winner of the Half the World Global Literati Award in 2016 for her unpublished novel, Sister of Mine, which then went on to be published internationally and also become a Best Book of the Globe and Mail. Her third book, Love, Heather, is her YA debut, and has quickly become one of Amazon’s Editor Picks and Refinery29’s Top Books for the month it came out. She is a voracious reader, and lives with her family in Grimsby, Ontario.

Her latest novel, Stargazer, was published by Independent Publishers Group in Sept 2022.

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From the publisher:

It is the fall of 1995 at Rocky Barrens University, hidden amidst the pine trees and starry skies of Northern Ontario. Aurelle Taylor, daughter of a world-famous fashion designer becomes the closest friend of burgeoning painter Diana Martin; they have bonded over a mutual desire to escape their wealthy families and personal tragedies and begin new lives as students at RBU. They are closer than lovers, they are like one thing, intoxicated by their own bond, falling into the hedonistic seduction of the woods and the water at a university that is more summer camp than campus. Diana, who has lived her life under the shadow of her sadistic older brother, rockets to fame with a series of scandalous portraits of Aurelle, whose response is to tumble further into a drug-fueled escapism. Diana must choose whether to rescue her kindred spirit from destruction, or to abandon Aurelle for the fame she has forever thirsted after. The lines between love, envy and obsession blur in Laurie Petrou’s utterly enthralling, unceasingly tense second novel.

To learn more about Laurie’s other books, visit her website.

Praise

“Stargazer is a slow-burn literary thriller in the best possible way: Eerie, beautiful, and impossible to put down. I loved it.”

Robyn Harding, author of The Perfect Family


“Laurie Petrou’s Stargazer is a sinuous, captivating exploration of the mysterious depths of female friendship that had me hooked from its first pages. The vivid, finely wrought setting — a prestigious, remote college campus — was a delicious reminder of another favourite novel, Donna Tartt’s A Secret History. Petrou’s dreamlike, note-perfect prose simmers toward a shattering conclusion. This unforgettable novel from a truly talented novelist is perfect for fans of Celeste Ng.”

Marissa Stapley, author of The Last Resort and Lucky

“Obsession, loneliness, and insecurity are at the center of Laurie Petrou’s astonishing Stargazer. This exceptional novel, set in the 90s in the tony town of Muskoka, is about the bonds and breaks of female friendship. Petrou’s writing is so powerful that I could smell the pines and feel the snow on my skin. The story gradually unfurls, transfixing the reader on the characters’ heartbreaking journeys, and we become absorbed in their struggles and triumphs. It’s an outstanding book with some of the most beautiful lines I’ve ever read.”

Samantha M. Bailey, author of Woman on the Edge