A young woman with a rare neurological condition is convinced her neighbor is going to be murdered.
Armando Lucas Correa's new novel The Silence in Her Eyes is a noir-esque story with an interesting premise. The main character Leah suffers from akinetopsia, which prevents her from seeing movement. Leah is not blind, per say, but she can only see the world around her if it stands completely still. As it is, Leah's senses of hearing and smell are heightened, enabling her to experience the world in a way quite unlike the rest of us.
When Leah has a new neighbor, Alice, move into the apartment next to hers, she begins to suspect that Alice is in trouble due to the arguments she hears happening next door in the middle of the night. Leah suspects it is Alice's estranged husband causing trouble, and begins to associate the bergamot smell she picks up on in the middle of the night to him. After Leah befriends Alice in attempt to provide her some support and comfort, she notices that the bergamot scent seems to follow her everywhere. Is it possible that Leah is the one who is really in danger?
The Silence in Her Eyes is one of those slow-burning suspense novels where nothing too out of the ordinary seems to be happening ... until it is. This novel starts off strongly, introducing readers to Leah's decidedly unique world and building tension through the effects of Leah's heightened senses. However, the novel starts to lose steam toward the middle, slowing down and meandering without really going anywhere. The point of the story gets muddled and loses itself to superfluous detail and choppy, disjointed writing. However, The Silence in Her Eyes ends strongly, pulling out twists that I did not see coming. It is truly the incredulous end of the book that saved it for me, bumping this up to a 4 star read.
- Brooke, Public Relations Librarian