Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Lakewood

I picked this book up because I'd read and enjoyed The Women Could Fly last year, and was interested to see what else Giddings had written. It wasn't bad by any means, but I didn't enjoy it as much. I have a difficult time pinpointing what exactly my issue with it was. The characters were compelling, and I was invested in the setting, central problem, and mystery. I had no disagreement with the writing style or the pacing. It was just fine, and as much as I turn it over in my mind I can't articulate why it wasn't better.

This novel's strongest point were the characters, both Lena and her friends and family. I cared and worried about her, as I was watching her make mistakes that she knew were mistakes, yet felt desperate enough to pursue anyway. It was a disturbingly plausible situation, one that plays out — albeit with uncaring capitalism in place of conspiracy — all the time in this country. The experimental sections(for lack of a better term, if you know you know) were also very well-written, trippy and mind-bending but at the same time easily able to be followed. This story definitely put the psychological in the thriller, leaving you doubting every scene after a point.

If you're looking for an ending with answers, I'll be upfront with you: you're not gonna find any here. I personally thought it was a good ending, but it pretty much drops a bombshell on you and then leaves you hanging to form your own theory about what exactly happened. So, I recognize that's not everyone's cup of tea. After reflecting on it for a day or so, though, I found it to be appropriately horrific.

Spoiler

My interpretation was that the experiments would have continued, but for the fact that they got greedy and went too far. The water tasting bad? That was an experiment, but they made the mistake of testing not on their PoC test subjects but on the white residents of the town, which garnered the media attention that the previous protests against the experimental institute hadn't.

Content Warnings

ericaburns1's review

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Cool concept and themes. Unsatisfying ending with no real conclusion. No questions fully answered. I don’t necessarily want everything spelled out for me, but I wanted more to the end.

Content Warnings

zombiezami's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

3.5

Content Warnings

junotranscends's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.25

The writing is beautiful and visually striking. Megan has a way with painting unsettling imagery in your mind yet without pages of boring purple prose.

The plot is suitably creepy and unsettling and VERY reminiscent of Jordan Peele’s horror movies. I could envision this in my head as a film so clearly. I loved Lena as a main character and narrator—her strength, her unwavering love for her family, the relationship between herself, her grandmother and mother, it was so flawlessly woven into the story. The relationship between her and her best friend, Tanya, too.

My only complaint was Part 2. I did love the shift in writing format from 3rd person POV to letter writing only, but it did feel like everything moved and wrapped up so quickly compared to the rest of the book. It didn’t ruin the story, but that would be a critique if I had to pick one.

Overall, a fantastic read. Definitely want to check out more of Megan’s work!

Content Warnings

savvylit's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Lakewood is a terrifying novel. Giddings inserts readers directly into Lena's mind so that we know exactly as much as she does about her new employer. Which is very little. This allows Giddings to create a creeping sense of terror as more and more goes wrong during the Lakewood experiments. There were a few top-notch body horror moments in this novel that really scared the crap out of me.

The truly terrifying thing about this book, though, isn't the body horror or the corporate gaslighting. It's the fact that, though the contents of this book are fictional, they are based on a legacy of horrific white supremacist reality. Consistently throughout U.S. history, people of color have been unwittingly used as guinea pigs for medical experimentation. Giddings interprets historical precedent into a modern, entirely fathomable racist hellscape.

Content Warnings