Cindy (leavemetomybooks)'s Reviews > Those Empty Eyes

Loved the synopsis and think this could have been fantastic, but the story lost momentum with all of the side plots and repetition. It all ties together (in an off the rails bananas fashion) in the end, but it took way too long to get there - I felt like I was reading a 500 page book, not 300 pages.

I’d try another book by this author since he seems really popular, but this one really didn’t work for me.

* thanks to Kensington Books for the NetGalley review copy. Those Empty Eyes publishes March 28.

The more I thought about this book, the crankier I got, so (( SCROLL WAY DOWN FOR SOME CRABBY COMMENTS WITH SPOILERS ))
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(( SPOILERS COMING ))

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(( LAST CHANCE. SPOILERS ARE COMING. ))

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(( SPOILERS))

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Maybe I’ll fully write this out eventually, but for now here are some disorganized, grammatically suspect crabby ramblings based on some highlights/notes I made while reading. I skipped chapters 43-68 because I was losing my mind and jumped to the (crazy) ending, which I won’t write about here because thinking about it is giving me a headache.

Tell. Tell. Tell some more. Insert clunky dialogue. Repeat.

I don’t think “Empty Eyes” is a nickname that would stick. It’s awkward to say. How about Shark Eyes? Dead Eyes? Crazy Eyes? Laser Eyes? I don’t know.

Adult Alex sounds like the Party City discount rack version of someone cosplaying Lisbeth Salander.

Ch. 9 - “Although her parents were business owners, theirs was a two-man tax and accounting firm...”

> If this is a money laundering or mob hit story I am going to be pissed. (Spoiler: I AM PISSED)

Ch. 11 - “The language barrier had made it difficult to convince the bartender to fill her glass with only ice and tonic water, without adding gin or vodka.”

> The language barrier IN SWITZERLAND (?) lol

Big Issue 1: Alex’s appearance and disappearance

(Chapter 42)
“That Alex’s right arm was covered with ink, the remnants of another tattoo crept up her neck and peeked from under her collar, and a nose ring pierced her left nostril was likely enough to get her thrown off campus. It was at least enough for Ashley Holms to give her a second glance. The spiked blond hair and today’s shade of lipstick—bright magenta—likely added to the girl’s confusion as to why this foreign creature was knocking on her door.”

I cannot. Giving a character some dumb tattoos and piercings doesn’t substitute for giving them a personality. Though, in addition to shocking the proper college girls who were evidently never allowed to leave the cult compound/watch tv/exist in the world, a tattoo and some lipstick will also make a person invisible to the media, internet sleuths, and every human ever, except (eventually) one local reporter because:

“Throughout the trial, no one in the media had uncovered that Alex was staying with the lawyer who represented her. And this many years later, none had sniffed out that she was working for that same man who had saved her life.”

Everyone is stupid! Got it.

Medium Issue 2: The Juvie Pals

(Ch. 21) “Since the police and the press had incinerated her old life—and every friendship from high school—her only friends today came from the seventy-one days she’d spent in juvenile detention. It was a kinship made up of a group of unlikely allies forced to fight for each other inside Alleghany once the lights went out and the true delinquents roamed the floors. Those relationships had lasted and included a short list of people who were more than willing to take odd jobs from Alex when she needed something shady.”

And none of those “juvie pals” sold her out to Dateline or whatever for some fast cash? Haaahahahaahaha ok.

Big Issue Three: Sounds like someone spent a semester abroad and can’t stop talking about how much better everything is in BarTHelona.

“After more than a year in Cambridge, Alex had become proficient at breaking through dialects and accents to understand the English underneath. But she had learned during this trip across Europe that the English dialects varied, not just from country to country, but throughout different regions of each country. Here in Switzerland, English-speaking Swiss carried heavy tones of either French or German. Drew Estes’s accent was thick German with British undertones, which took Alex a moment to decipher.”

This entirely unnecessary bit of nonsense was the written version of those endless, excruciatingly pointless freshman dorm room conversations about saying pop vs. soda.
(Thanks to @GirlinthePinkSkiMask for pointing out this gem)

Medium Issue Four: Computer stuff

(Chapter 21) “Her first bit of luck was that Mr. Zell had not password protected his computer.”

In what universe would a dude who is under investigation for shady money business AND keeps a boatload of child sex abuse material on his computer NOT password-protect the shit out of his laptop?

Big Issue Five: The male gaze is the most important thing/I have maybe never met a human woman

“She was happy to see a woman behind the counter. She suddenly and inexplicably worried less about her disheveled appearance—wild hair, smeared makeup, and no shoes—than if a man had greeted her.”

I don’t think inexplicably is the word to use here, my dude. She was just sexually assaulted BY A MAN. Perhaps being uncomfortable sharing this information with another man would be, I don’t know… explicable (?) but she’s INEXPLICABLY supposed to be worrying about what she looks like in the event she meets a man, lest he judge her disheveled appearance and deem her unfuckable (?) aaaaaaagh



I get that a lot of people really dug this book, and good for them - I LOVED the premise of it - I really wish there had been some vicious editing to sort some of this shit out and make it as good as it could have been.