The Blinds
Book Review - The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh
I chose The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh as my August Book of the Month selection based on the unique premise, this is the synopsis from the publisher:
Reading The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh at Dollop Coffee in Chicago, IL
“Imagine a place populated by criminals—people plucked from their lives, with their memories altered, who’ve been granted new identities and a second chance. Welcome to The Blinds, a dusty town in rural Texas populated by misfits who don’t know if they’ve perpetrated a crime or just witnessed one. What’s clear to them is that if they leave, they will end up dead.
For eight years, Sheriff Calvin Cooper has kept an uneasy peace—but after a suicide and a murder in quick succession, the town’s residents revolt. Cooper has his own secrets to protect, so when his new deputy starts digging, he needs to keep one step ahead of her—and the mysterious outsiders who threaten to tear the whole place down. The more he learns, the more the hard truth is revealed: The Blinds is no sleepy hideaway. It’s simmering with violence and deception, aching heartbreak and dark betrayals.”
Reading The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh at Dollop Coffee in Chicago, IL
Doesn't that sound riveting? I thought the idea was creative and I had hoped it would be reminiscent of Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson (click here for my review of this book) - but for me, The Blinds fell flat. It seemed more like an opportunity for Adam Sternbergh to write elaborate and creative criminal backgrounds for a lot of different characters, but they seemed like caricatures of those criminals....exaggerated versions that weren't believable and certainly not relatable. Some characters were given redeeming qualities, but just barely. Others were pure evil, machines for killing.
Reading The Blinds by Adam Sternbergh at Dollop Coffee in Chicago, IL
The book takes place over the course of a week. Perhaps if we were given more background for how the characters lived together in The Blinds before the suicide and the murder, when there was relative peace in the town, so we could have some context. Perhaps then we would have more empathy for the characters and the story would be more than just a cluster of criminals killing one another. Ugh, it had so much potential so I was bummed it didn't live up to what I had hoped it would be.
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