Book Review | Lakewood by Megan Giddings

After Lena’s grandmother dies, she realises that her mother’s illness is worsening. She also learns the full extent of the family debt. Lena drops out of college to take a research study job in the remote town of Lakewood. The job offers medical insurance for her and her mother, high pay and a place to live. All Lena has to do is participate in a program she must keep secret from everyone. But as the program goes on, Lena has to decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice for the sake of her loved ones.

Everything that had happened during the day had placed a kind of spell on Lena because she had thought so much, talked so much about her body, it no longer felt like hers.

Lakewood is described as “if Jordan Peele writes about Henrietta Lacks” which is pretty spot-on. Henrietta Lacks was a Black woman whose cancer cells were harvested without her consent in 1951 and then reproduced for scientific research. Her immortalized cell line, HeLa, is still used today. Her family never received any compensation until 2023. This is just one of many cases in history where Black and Brown people were exploited for research. Lakewood draws from this dark past to show the horrors of medical experimentation masked as something positive.

While in the book Lena knows she’s undergoing a research study, she has no idea what awaits her. She is given pills and shots that transform her body, make her hallucinate, and stoke her paranoia. It’s horrific to read because she thought she had some semblance of control, but she’s wrong. The book reminds me of the TV show Severance, where people split their work-self and their home-self, with terrible results. Like in the show, Lena became acquainted with her co-workers, bonding over their situation. The mundane office setting makes it even more unnerving when something goes wrong. The writing is like a fever dream, where Lena’s disorientation is reflected with each passing scene.

I liked the portrayal of Lena’s family and friends. Her memories of her grandmother and her constant care for her mother’s struggles are touching. Her friends keep her grounded, even as she feels their distance growing due to her secrets. But the ending is a bit rushed and I would’ve loved to get more information about the project. It’s clear there is a bigger stake at play, but the book chooses to narrow the focus to Lena’s point of view.

Disturbing, surreal yet surprisingly hopeful, Lakewood leaves me thinking about the people we sacrifice in the name of progress and the hidden horrors that come with every decision.

About the author: Megan Giddings

Photo by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia