Megan Giddings

I don't read a ton of dystopia, and I have avoided the handmaid's tale, so I wasn't sure what to expect. This was a pretty scathing critique of society's biases - how free are we really? And how much are we willing to participate in oppressive systems to keep our own heads? I wish more time had been spent on the island, or exploring magic in general. I also think it's really dumb that they don't have a better test for finding if someone has magic still, seriously, are you lighter than a duck? I know it's demonstrating how idiotic it is to bothering testing/caring/destroying someone's autonomy, but come on, make the idiots a little interesting at least.… (mehr)

Rating this an enthusiastic MEH. Lakewood is the story of Lena, a young Black woman who takes a top secret job as a guinea pig for clinical trials in order to assure her mother's health and medical insurance. But what were these drugs meant to be used for? How dangerous were they? And how far was Lena willing to go?

The plot was interesting enough and it started off intriguingly, even if the prose was a bit listless. I forgave the clunky writing to begin with because I wanted to know more and I was hoping that Lena would blossom into a full fledged character. Sadly neither of those wishes were fulfilled.

Lena and her friends, coworkers, and family were not unlikeable but they were wholly unremarkable. I never felt invested in any of the characters for even a moment. What made this even more difficult was the complete and utter lack of inquisitiveness that they themselves had about the drugs and experiments that they were undergoing. The sheer volume of suspension of disbelief required for this story was almost too much for me to compute.

The story itself went on and on over the same sort of ground without ever shedding new light on the mystery. I felt cheated, to be honest. But none were given. It became repetitive and unfulfilling by halfway through and then stayed solidly there.

The ending was lackluster, to say the least. There was a "twist" which felt forced and after everything was revealed there were still no real answers for what the hell was going on throughout. The ending just sort of came all at once and then plopped down and it was over. Like a terrible one night stand.

More frustrating again is that there is a history of medical experimentation on Black people in the United States. I expected this to be explored but it never really went there. It flirted with it, danced around it, but ultimately left it as a badly missed opportunity.

I feel like I'm ragging heavily on this book and I guess I am. I was rating it a generous three stars when I started writing this review but now I'm at two. It just wasn't very good but I read it quickly if that helps. {{shrug}}… (mehr)