“You give yourself to make your country a better place. You give yourself to keep us safe.”
After her grandmother passes, Lena searches for financial comfort since her mother is medically unwell. She receives a letter offering more than enough to provide the comfort she needs if she moves to Lakewood and submits herself to the Lakewood Project. Accepting, Lena finds herself as part of a human experiment group.
“Why do you think they’re doing these experiments? What do you think they’re trying to learn?”
I enjoyed this debut young adult novel. It was a quick and easy read with a dark atmosphere. Lena’s race and socioeconomic status were rightfully featured as doormat for the government’s testing purposes. I kept wondering what was going to happen to Lena and the others that were part of the experiment group. There are a lot of unanswered questions for the greater half of the novel that build the readers suspense.
But at times it felt repetitive, and I just wanted the story to get on with it and progress. For example, the experiment group would do something they were told and the observers would watch what happened; this seemed to cycle around regularly for several chapters. The ending felt rushed for me. I didn’t feel complete closure for the full character of Lena. It skipped over a lot of the emotional and intellectual depth that was disclosed at the beginning.
Various though-provoking topics and questions surfaced throughout the story as a result of Lena’s background. What boundaries do humans have, and how do we set those boundaries? What are we willing to do to ensure the survival of our family and health insurance for ourselves and/or our loved ones? How do we justify the monetary value placed on someone else’s life?
Lakewood is Megan Giddings debut novel. Visit her website.
Read Boston Globe’s book review for Lakewood.
Read LA Times book review for Lakewood.
Follow Megan Giddings on Twitter.
Learn more about government experimentation by reading about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Operation Sea-Spray, Project Artichoke, or the San Quentin prison experiments.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy. Opinions are my own.