Title: Close Your Eyes
Author: Amanda Eyre Ward
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: July 26, 2011
Hardcover: 272 pages
ISBN: 978-0345494481
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
In Close Your Eyes, the author of the bestselling How to Be Lost spins another mesmerizing tale of buried family secrets.
For most of her life, Lauren Mahdian has been certain of two things: that her mother is dead, and that her father is a murderer.
Before the horrific tragedy, Lauren led a sheltered life in a wealthy corner of America, in a town outside Manhattan on the banks of Long Island Sound, a haven of luxurious homes, manicured lawns, and seemingly perfect families. Here Lauren and her older brother, Alex, thought they were safe.
But one morning, six-year-old Lauren and eight-year-old Alex awoke after a night spent in their tree house to discover their mother’s body and their beloved father arrested for the murder.
Years later, Lauren is surrounded by uncertainty. Her one constant is Alex, always her protector, still trying to understand the unraveling of his idyllic childhood. But Lauren feels even more alone when Alex reveals that he’s been in contact over the years with their imprisoned father—and that he believes he and his sister have yet to learn the full story of their mother’s death.
Then Alex disappears.
As Lauren is forced to peek under the floorboards of her carefully constructed memories, she comes to question the version of her history that she has clung to so fiercely. Lauren’s search for the truth about what happened on that fateful night so many years ago is a riveting tale that will keep readers feverishly turning pages.
My Review:
Close Your Eyes by Amanda Eyre Ward is an intense story of tragedy, clouded conviction, and the sense of loneliness it left for Lauren Mahdian whose father was convicted of murdering her mother when Lauren and her brother, Alex, were respectively six and eight years old. Now in her twenties, Lauren begins to uncover secrets pertaining to her mother’s murder, gripping readers’ attention as the plot unfolds. Ward develops each of her characters carefully and deliberately throughout the novel, providing readers with a sense of knowing, and appreciating the complexities of Lauren, her brother and their relationship. Masterfully crafted prose brings the story to life, a story about guilt, love, trust and redemption as played out in Lauren’s quest for truth in her mother’s death. Memorable for its emotion and beautiful prose, Close Your Eyes is a fictional drama that I strongly recommend and can imagine a lively discussion group conversation on this emotionally compelling tale.
For more information about Amanda Eyre Ward or her books please visit her website AmandaWard.com
For more reviews of the book, please follow the TLC Book Tour.
I received an arc of Close Your Eyes by Amanda Eyre Ward from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.
What a nightmare of a story. This sounds like a real page turner.
Kathy it definitely was a page-turner.
I see that I am going to have to read it. I am thinking one of the kids did it. Don’t tell me!! ;o)
I would never give out spoilers.
Let me know what you think of the book.
Glad you enjoyed this one! Thanks for being a part of the tour.
The pleasure was all mine.