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A review by ncrabb
Open Your Eyes by Paula Daly
4.0
Another year, another birthday for Leon Campbell. He, his wife, Jane, and their two kids are off to his mother's house for a birthday dinner he doesn't particularly want to attend. While the marriage is far from constantly unhappy, it had taken its share of bangings in recent days. Leon is a relatively successful mystery writer; Jane writes, but nothing of hers is worthy of publication. Still, she harbors the dream in spite of his strong encouragement to give up the writing process.
So they're in the car, an argument is beginning with an aging neighbor who doesn't care much for the family cat, and Jane leaves the car to go inside briefly. When she comes back, the argument is done, and Leon promptly backs the car over the neighbor's wall, damaging a garden. Why did he do that? A verbal argument is one thing; deliberately destroying property is something else again. But Leon didn't deliberately destroy anything. While Jane was in the house, Leon was attacked by someone who used a nail gun to fire nails into his brain. His kids watched the whole thing, but the oldest was traumatized so much he couldn't tell who had done it, and the youngest was too young to speak.
There are the nights and days in the hospital, and the endless interviews with law enforcement officials as they presume Jane is a suspect, since the nail gun has her prints on it. When Leon awakes, he believes himself married not to Jane, but to his first wife, Gina.
This is ultimately a story of a couple who must deal with traumatic brain injury with all of its stages and circumstances. It is a story of a family that takes one step forward and two back where Leon's recovery is concerned. But it is a great mystery that shows you the evolution of a wife and mom who is forced to open her eyes and dig for answers to questions she didn't know even needed asking.
Although I picked a CD Audio edition, this is an Audible book. Why Audible doesn't have its own edition in here, I can't explain. My point to this is that the Audible edition is excellently narrated. The narrator brilliantly handles all of Jane Campbell's emotions in a wonderfully professional memorable way.
So they're in the car, an argument is beginning with an aging neighbor who doesn't care much for the family cat, and Jane leaves the car to go inside briefly. When she comes back, the argument is done, and Leon promptly backs the car over the neighbor's wall, damaging a garden. Why did he do that? A verbal argument is one thing; deliberately destroying property is something else again. But Leon didn't deliberately destroy anything. While Jane was in the house, Leon was attacked by someone who used a nail gun to fire nails into his brain. His kids watched the whole thing, but the oldest was traumatized so much he couldn't tell who had done it, and the youngest was too young to speak.
There are the nights and days in the hospital, and the endless interviews with law enforcement officials as they presume Jane is a suspect, since the nail gun has her prints on it. When Leon awakes, he believes himself married not to Jane, but to his first wife, Gina.
This is ultimately a story of a couple who must deal with traumatic brain injury with all of its stages and circumstances. It is a story of a family that takes one step forward and two back where Leon's recovery is concerned. But it is a great mystery that shows you the evolution of a wife and mom who is forced to open her eyes and dig for answers to questions she didn't know even needed asking.
Although I picked a CD Audio edition, this is an Audible book. Why Audible doesn't have its own edition in here, I can't explain. My point to this is that the Audible edition is excellently narrated. The narrator brilliantly handles all of Jane Campbell's emotions in a wonderfully professional memorable way.