Lacy Eye by Jessica Treadway
Three years have past and the man convicted of beating Hanna’s
husband to death and beating her so badly she has been disfigured is up for a
retrial. Hanna has no memory of the
beatings and in order to make sure Rud is kept behind bars for the rest of his
life she will need to remember so she can testify. Her daughter, Dawn, was Rud’s girlfriend at
the time of the crime. While Hanna is convinced Dawn had nothing to do with it
popular opinion, and that of the prosecutor’s, has always been that Dawn was
involved.
After receiving the news of the retrial and learning that her
mother is trying to get her memory back Dawn returns home to help her mommy
out. (She always refers to her as mommy
even though she is in her twenties.) Hanna
is happy to have Dawn back, but uneasy as well.
Dawn always had a way of seeing things the way she wanted to, like
mishearing the doctor tell her she has a lazy eye and calling it the much more
attractive and mysterious “lacy eye.” Is
Dawn as innocent as she claims? Will
Dawn help or hinder Hanna’s memory coming back?
If anyone ever wants a suggestion for a creepy audiobook this one
is right up there (Mind of Winter by Kasischke and Bird Box by Josh Malerman being
especially creepy as well). I don’t
think I would have enjoyed it (or been nearly as disturbed) if I read this
book. It’s so much more on audio. The way the reader makes Dawn’s dizziness/craftiness/cluelessness
come alive through her voice is so wonderfully unnerving you just want to
scream at the main character to run, but it’s her daughter so she doesn’t have
the ability to distance herself from the situation. Dawn is her child, her favorite child; she
knows she is safe with Dawn. It’s just
us listeners that are freaking out over and over wondering if we should trust
her judgment or not.
