Sike -- Fred Lunzer, Hardcover

A story of boy meets girl meets AI therapist, Sike explores our aching pursuit of love and self-control

Adrian earns his living writing lyrics for rappers he never meets, and finds success with a hit song about his own fruitless search for love. After his last relationship ends in a spiral of angst, Adrian decides it's time to try Sike: the new lauded and elite AI psychotherapy app that tracks your every move and emotion, and guides you toward mental contentment.

He soon falls for Maquie, a smart and pragmatic venture capitalist scouring London's tech scene for the next business boom. She can see no potential investments though, nothing sparkles. She wants to find a business as successful as Sike, and yet she is also one of the holdouts who refuse to use it.

Shifting between Adrian and Maquie's perspectives as it tracks the fraught first year of their relationship, Sike is a story of two people wrestling with connection, identity, anxiety, success, and the limits of our obsession with self-analysis and awareness.

For fans of Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun and the modern love stories of Sally Rooney, Fred Lunzer's debut novel brings us an incisive and intimate deep dive into the reach for clarity by a curious and ambitious, anxious and irresolute generation.

Author: Fred Lunzer
Publisher: Celadon Books
Published: 05/20/2025
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781250343123

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 12/01/2024 pg. 3

About the Author
Fred Lunzer is a writer coming out of the tech world, where he works in AI research and strategy. He has British and German citizenship, grew up in London and Tokyo, and speaks Japanese. He is the third of five children, and his family is made up of writers, musicians, jewelers and filmmakers. He lives in London. Sike is his debut novel.