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A review by lauriereadslohf
Lakewood by Megan Giddings
dark
informative
mysterious
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
4.0
Lakewood is a disturbing tale of classism, racism, and desperation and those who take advantage of others because they can and for their own gain. It’s horrifying on so many levels and definitely worth reading.
Lena is a young woman grieving the loss of her grandmother when the story opens. Her grandma took care of them all but especially Lena’s mother who suffers from a brain malady. Now Lena and her mother are left alone with their grief and the mounting bills in the aftermath. It soon becomes overwhelming and when Lena receives a strange letter from The Lakewood Project offering her a huge stipend, lodging, and full medical coverage for her family in exchange for research studies into her mind, memory, personality, and perception, she’s more than a little curious as well as a bit skeptical because if it sounds too good to be true, well, you know the rest.
It feels like a scam. The interview makes her uncomfortable but ultimately she agrees to basically become part of an experiment and from there the most terrible things happen, as they will, and that’s all I’ll say about that.
Much of this book reads a little like a fever dream as Lena and her fellow test subjects are exposed to tests and drugs and various appalling and chilling things. Despite this, I never felt too off-kilter. Lena is doing her best to keep it all together and the situation is depressingly oppressive and sad and 100% believable. My only complaint, and it is a bit of a big one, is that this book is a super slow burn (this isn’t the complaint) and the last few pages throw SO much backstory and reveals at the reader that it’s a little mind-numbing. I wasn’t quite ready to be hit with all of that in such a brutal manner! I wish more time had been given to some of those reveals and that a few more questions had been answered with some clarity and in all honestly I would’ve liked to see it all unpacked a bit more slowly.
There’s a lot to think about in this book and it’s not a light and easy read but I think it’s worth your time if you know what you’re getting into before you begin.
Lena is a young woman grieving the loss of her grandmother when the story opens. Her grandma took care of them all but especially Lena’s mother who suffers from a brain malady. Now Lena and her mother are left alone with their grief and the mounting bills in the aftermath. It soon becomes overwhelming and when Lena receives a strange letter from The Lakewood Project offering her a huge stipend, lodging, and full medical coverage for her family in exchange for research studies into her mind, memory, personality, and perception, she’s more than a little curious as well as a bit skeptical because if it sounds too good to be true, well, you know the rest.
It feels like a scam. The interview makes her uncomfortable but ultimately she agrees to basically become part of an experiment and from there the most terrible things happen, as they will, and that’s all I’ll say about that.
Much of this book reads a little like a fever dream as Lena and her fellow test subjects are exposed to tests and drugs and various appalling and chilling things. Despite this, I never felt too off-kilter. Lena is doing her best to keep it all together and the situation is depressingly oppressive and sad and 100% believable. My only complaint, and it is a bit of a big one, is that this book is a super slow burn (this isn’t the complaint) and the last few pages throw SO much backstory and reveals at the reader that it’s a little mind-numbing. I wasn’t quite ready to be hit with all of that in such a brutal manner! I wish more time had been given to some of those reveals and that a few more questions had been answered with some clarity and in all honestly I would’ve liked to see it all unpacked a bit more slowly.
There’s a lot to think about in this book and it’s not a light and easy read but I think it’s worth your time if you know what you’re getting into before you begin.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Medical trauma, and Racism
Minor: Grief