This book was horrific, but it also felt empty and soulless. Lena barely had any emotions and she lacked agency. Maybe that was the point? I don't think it's a bad book, just not for me. The writing gradually becomes a stream of consciousness fever dream and I just don't enjoy that type of prose. ( )

I really wanted to love it for many reasons, but did not. Just a "meh" to me. So much potential, a great idea for a story, just unfulfilled. ( )

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}} ( )

I think of it now as proof people are realizing governments can be absolutely worthless. The only dependable way to survive today is to put your faith in the power of other people wanting to give you money. Online fundraising. Corporations that still pretend to care what consumers think. They want to be able to say, See, look how benevolent we are, think about this instead of how we're polluting the ocean and not paying our workers enough.

Lakewood really defies a description; I'm as unsure how to label the novel as I am unsure how I feel about it. It's horror as much as sci-fi. Partially epistolary, a smattering of family secrets. A melding of racist history and racist present. As much medical thriller as speculative fiction. Ultimately I'm not sure whether I truly enjoyed it but I know it was compelling, pulling me along on the ride, and really, isn't that what we really want from a story?

Lakewood follows Lena Johnson, a young Black university student on the cusp of adulthood pushed headlong into the worst of being an adult. In her desperation to cover the medical debts of her late grandmother's cancer and her mother's mysterious chronic illness, Lena receives a letter promising lots of money for an extended research study. Shit gets weird pretty quick after that, devolving into letters from Lena to her best friend.

I found Lena to be a solid protagonist. She's smart, compassionate, an art history nerd, average in a lot of her desires and aspirations - to be happy, and healthy, and secure. It's not necessary for me to find every protagonist entirely likable or relatable, but it was easy to connect to Lena, to root for her. The further into the research trial into supposed 'memory improvement' the prose starts match Lena's mindset, dreamy, confusing, switching in and out of thoughts and scenes with no warning. The effect is discombobulating, confusing, I went back and read lines or paragraphs again, wondering at meanings, feeling like I was with Lena on the journey. I like when a story can make me work for it, make me want to work for it.

There are a lot of layers in Lakewood and this may well be a novel that delivers more upon re-reads. ( )

2.5 Stars

CW: Yucky bloody medical experiments, racism, hints at sexually motivated attack, unwell parent, grandmother dies of cancer.

I really wanted this to be a deeper exploration of medical experiments conducted on people from lower socio-economic groups, and also on POC. It danced around the edges but never really went far enough to have the shock factor that I had been expecting. The writing is pretty good and there were some super creepy moments dotted in there but mostly it was dull. Just okay for me.
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