Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Lakewood

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

whatsamanthadoes's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Read for a book club.

Very interesting dystopian premise. Lena drops out of college to pay family debts by working for a government research program.

She has to sign an NDA and weird/brutally things are done to her and other participants. Or is it all just a dream?

Lena continued to endure these trials because of her devotion to her family. While I wish we would have got to know the characters a bit better, I really loved Lena, Charlie, and Deziree. I loved that Lena gave silly names for the people that worked at Lakewood. It caught me by surprise that the book change formats at times. There were parts in this book that had me ill (

teeth, mushrooms, apricots to name a few!

). There were parts about medical racism and preying on those in a financial crisis.

All of her dreams circled around the idea that she was having pieces of her taken or destroyed even when she would try to get them to see that she is a real person.

I wish there was a little more resolution in the ending, but

I'm interested to read Megan Giddings' future books.

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snazzy10101's review

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

4.0

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kylieqrada's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I’m probably too stupid for this book. I loved the commentary about the very real history of medical experimentation on Black people (especially women) in America, but the narrative style was over my head.

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calicodoll's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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beccalynnfrank's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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haileyhardcover's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I think if there was ever going to be a book that gives me nightmares, it’s Lakewood.

After losing her grandmother and struggling to care for her ailing mother and deal with mountains of debt, Lena accepts an offer to participate in a research study that seems too good to be true. It pays well, offers full coverage health insurance for her mother, and would set them up comfortably if she can just last a year. The studies claim to be changing the world, but the white scientists don’t seem to care much what happens to the Black test subjects along the way. Maybe not much has changed after all.

I thought I knew what I was getting myself into reading Lakewood, but it was so much more and so much worse (in a good way) than I was expecting. It is shocking, it is horrifying, and worst of all, it feels entirely plausible. My jaw dropped, my heart raced, my head spun. This may not be labeled as horror, but it absolutely is, and it’s horror done WELL. Lakewood is going to sit with me for a long, long time.

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mudlizard's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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balladofreadingqueer's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was an interesting book about a university-aged woman who drops out to join a mysterious medical experiment job to get money and health insurance to help her sick mother. All the subjects in the experiment are black and the observers are white. The book reminds me of the Tuskegee and other experiments.

It addresses themes of racism, family, poverty and friendship. It does not have a satisfying ending unfortunately, I wish that it had ended with a more clear description of what had happened.

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