Reviews

Lakewood by Megan Giddings

jackthelad's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

kareenkt's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

kdahlo's review against another edition

4.0

Strange and cool. I saw this compared to Handmaids tale but it didn't remind me of that much. Maybe a better comparison would be something like Severance, where it's slightly hyper-real but still emotionally weighty and dealing with something deeper beneath the surface. To be honest I was a little skeptical part way through, because it felt like so much had been built up, I couldn't see a way to a satisfying ending. Ultimately I was surprised by how grounded and satisfying it turned out to be. This book would be appropriate for young adults 16+, although I haven't seen it designated YA.

kacybraying's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

graveyardpansy's review against another edition

4.0

really solid 4 stars, maybe more — once again, horror by women of colour is simply worlds above that by random white men (looking at u, King and Joe Hill.) the way horror like this, maybe comparable to When No One is Watching or anything by Carmen Maria Muchado, ties into real life and real corruption and fear is simply so wonderful and jarring. I’m surprised I haven’t seen more hype around this book, honestly. If you like horror that is a little too close to real life for comfort, human experimentation, derealization, and a touch of body horror as a treat, give this novel a shot!

dhall58's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

jennypgh's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

jbradley_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

whatsamanthadoes's review against another edition

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.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, Murder, Death, and Medical content

tatyanavogt's review

3.0

This was pretty good. I did fall asleep while listening to it (I was just really tired) and woke up thinking that it wasn't that good but I went back and re-listened to the part I slept through and ended up really liking it.

I will admit that I wasn't blown away by the book, I wasn't overly moved and I wasn't super impressed by it. But it was interesting and I did like it. No big twists or turns, but still a fun ride. I was going to give it a 4 because I did like it, but when I really think to it I dont think its remarkable in any way, so I decided to be true to my rating and give it a 3. With my rating a 3 is a good thing. I did enjoy it.

Spoiler thoughts:

Spoiler

That scene with the blue eyes and the girl telling her to take off the contacts really got to me. It felt like a comment on colorism and white washing. It was sad to hear how much more attention she got for having such a white feature like blue eyes and even more sad that she also got extreme hate for it from the women.

I will admit when she first went to lakewood and mentioned the name to her mother and her mother reacted funny I knew then that her mother had done it too years before. I also figured it might have something to do with her health, but I didn't think too much about it. So it was nice to get the confirmation at the end.

It was also really interesting to see how she was loosing herself and becoming unreliable. Forgetting things, and then second guessing stuff. I wonder if like that woman she also killed people based off of that memory of her being at the place with the white woman and having a gun in her purse along with a list of names but not remembering anything else.

I do feel like I missed some stuff by listening to the audiobook and I wish I could flip through a physical copy to see if I actually missed anything or if that was just how the book is because of the topic.

But yeah, it was pretty cool.