Sliver

Sliver is Ira Levin's 1991 apartment-building thriller, adapted for film in 1993. When Kay Norris moves into an expensive Manhattan high-rise, the building's glamour comes with a private architecture she cannot see.

The novel is a brisk, nasty read about watching and being watched. Start here if the film's premise interests you and you want the source's sharper control of setting and information.

Kay Norris is the new tenant trying to make a fresh start in Manhattan.

Zeke Hawkins is the building owner whose attention is too close to be flattering.

The other tenants make the building feel both crowded and oddly isolated.

No. 1 - One-building pressure. Levin gets suspense from a place that should feel safe.

No. 2 - Direct film source. The 1993 film draws from the novel's apartment-and-surveillance premise.

No. 3 - Fast pacing. It works well for a weekend thriller.

Read it if you like closed-setting suspense, old New York thrillers, or adaptation-source reading. Skip it if you are avoiding stalking, voyeurism, sexual coercion, or violence against women.

• Read it for tension rather than realism about surveillance technology.
• Notice how the building controls what people can know.
• Expect a more restrained experience than a film marketed around its stars.

• Ira Levin - The Stepford Wives. For another Levin story about a threatening private system.
• Patricia Highsmith - Deep Water. For domestic menace with a screen afterlife.
• James M. Cain - Mildred Pierce. For a different New York-era pressure story.

1. Why does the apartment appeal to Kay?
2. What turns a luxury space into a trap?
3. How does surveillance change consent?
4. Which details date the book?
5. What would a contemporary adaptation need to change?