Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Lakewood

This has a great premise and explores really important themes - I particularly appreciated how honestly and frankly it gets to the root of poverty and the desperate situations and decisions it can lead people to - but sadly it didn't quite work for me overall. It's very trippy and dreamlike and disconcerting - which would have been fine had there been more to the ending, but, while there are a few well-done creepy bits throughout, in the end it all just falls a bit flat. I was left feeling pretty distant and a bit confused and I just unfortunately don't think this had the impact that it could have done with the same concept but better execution.

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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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