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The Blinds
A blistering thriller from the Edgar-nominated author of Shovel Ready—a speculative modern Western with elements of Cormac McCarthy, Jim Thompson, and the Coen brothers that is wickedly funny, razor-sharp, and totally engrossing
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.
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.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2017
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September 3, 2018
NOW AVAILABLE!!!
Will I remember what I did?
You won’t.
But will I know that I’ve forgotten it?
You will.
So I’ll know I did something bad, but I won’t know what it was.
You’ll know you made the decision to come to this place.
“this place” is the town of caesura, known colloquially by its residents as "the blinds;" a gated community for memory-wiped criminals, a prison where you’re free to leave, but to which you can never return, fully aware that what waits for you on the other side of the gates most likely wants to kill you.
i’ve read sternbergh’s Shovel Ready, but still - foolishly -haven’t gotten around to reading the sequel - Near Enemy, but this book here is an altogether different creature. Shovel Ready is great - it’s a noir/sci-fi mashup with a really staccato pacing and it’s a helluva ride, but this one shows he's got some serious writer-range. it’s a much more densely-plotted piece of psychological crime fiction, with deeper characterizations and a strikingly original premise that starts out strong and only gets stronger as it goes on.
it revolves around an alternative form of witness protection; a system in place for eight years at the start of the novel, in which criminals and witnesses to crimes have chosen to have their memories selectively erased, and are relocated to a town in the middle of nowhere, texas, where, after providing the authorities with the information needed to put some very bad people away, these very bad people themselves are given new names and allowed to live out their days blissfully unaware of their own dark pasts, cut off from internet, phones, all contact with the outside world, and given a second chance to make a life for themselves among others all living under a policy of “don’t ask, don’t know, can’t tell,” not even knowing if they were the victim or the perpetrator of a terrible crime.
what could possibly go wrong?
the book covers a monday-friday timeframe, and oh, what a difference a week makes. it opens with the shock of a gunshot, but then recedes into a sort of dramatic anthropology, slowly acclimating the reader to the town’s history, its rules and inhabitants and its day-to-day routines, but as threats surface and secrets are revealed and the very foundation of the experiment is threatened, things start getting mighty intense, and once it hits that sweet spot of rapid-fire reveals and escalating violence, it just careens you through the story relentlessly and it is so, so electric.
this is a very high four star - i love it like crazy and i have minor complaints only, which i’m a dick for even mentioning, considering how much fun i had reading this book, but i know that years from now, someone will post a comment on this review and it will help my self-memory-wiping brain remember more details if i write the whole spectrum of reactions. there’s a little dip in momentum, in what was presumably a calculated decision, but it bugged me as a reader, even though i appreciate the irony of its being itself a caesura: the unruh backstory, while interesting and necessary, was a little draggy, and was dropped right into the middle of a rising action-cliffhanger i was desperate to see resolved, and i was all tensely coiled through this backstory i would have been interested in, but ended up reading pretty distractedly, wanting to get back to the situation unfolding in the “now.”
and there are a couple of things i didn’t buy, most notably
but that's all just quibble. this book is a wonderfully weird ride, and that action - phoar. cinematic and glorious. i could do with a sequel to this, and i promise i will read the sequel to that other one. deal?
come to my blog!
Will I remember what I did?
You won’t.
But will I know that I’ve forgotten it?
You will.
So I’ll know I did something bad, but I won’t know what it was.
You’ll know you made the decision to come to this place.
“this place” is the town of caesura, known colloquially by its residents as "the blinds;" a gated community for memory-wiped criminals, a prison where you’re free to leave, but to which you can never return, fully aware that what waits for you on the other side of the gates most likely wants to kill you.
i’ve read sternbergh’s Shovel Ready, but still - foolishly -haven’t gotten around to reading the sequel - Near Enemy, but this book here is an altogether different creature. Shovel Ready is great - it’s a noir/sci-fi mashup with a really staccato pacing and it’s a helluva ride, but this one shows he's got some serious writer-range. it’s a much more densely-plotted piece of psychological crime fiction, with deeper characterizations and a strikingly original premise that starts out strong and only gets stronger as it goes on.
it revolves around an alternative form of witness protection; a system in place for eight years at the start of the novel, in which criminals and witnesses to crimes have chosen to have their memories selectively erased, and are relocated to a town in the middle of nowhere, texas, where, after providing the authorities with the information needed to put some very bad people away, these very bad people themselves are given new names and allowed to live out their days blissfully unaware of their own dark pasts, cut off from internet, phones, all contact with the outside world, and given a second chance to make a life for themselves among others all living under a policy of “don’t ask, don’t know, can’t tell,” not even knowing if they were the victim or the perpetrator of a terrible crime.
what could possibly go wrong?
the book covers a monday-friday timeframe, and oh, what a difference a week makes. it opens with the shock of a gunshot, but then recedes into a sort of dramatic anthropology, slowly acclimating the reader to the town’s history, its rules and inhabitants and its day-to-day routines, but as threats surface and secrets are revealed and the very foundation of the experiment is threatened, things start getting mighty intense, and once it hits that sweet spot of rapid-fire reveals and escalating violence, it just careens you through the story relentlessly and it is so, so electric.
this is a very high four star - i love it like crazy and i have minor complaints only, which i’m a dick for even mentioning, considering how much fun i had reading this book, but i know that years from now, someone will post a comment on this review and it will help my self-memory-wiping brain remember more details if i write the whole spectrum of reactions. there’s a little dip in momentum, in what was presumably a calculated decision, but it bugged me as a reader, even though i appreciate the irony of its being itself a caesura: the unruh backstory, while interesting and necessary, was a little draggy, and was dropped right into the middle of a rising action-cliffhanger i was desperate to see resolved, and i was all tensely coiled through this backstory i would have been interested in, but ended up reading pretty distractedly, wanting to get back to the situation unfolding in the “now.”
and there are a couple of things i didn’t buy, most notably
but that's all just quibble. this book is a wonderfully weird ride, and that action - phoar. cinematic and glorious. i could do with a sequel to this, and i promise i will read the sequel to that other one. deal?
come to my blog!
January 2, 2020
The sky is just starting to consider darkness as Cooper steers his pickup home. He can see the bright dusk on the distant horizon, negotiating the handover from the day..... This is one benefit to the Blinds, Cooper's learned - it offers you a cleansing kind of loneliness. It's the blessing of exile and it's something he never expected. Life out here on the great flat plains with barely a human whisper to be heard from the outside world. Just you, and the sky in all directions, .... The highway lines zip by hypnotically as he drives. The tires of his truck serenade the road. No street lamps, no houses, no nothing. Just road.
Out of the box story. Great beginning of the year read. A touch of Cormac McCarthy (reminds me of No country for old men), this is a grim book of a surrealistic situation, a town in the middle of nowhere and the burning heat in Texas. A town called 'The Blinds', full of heavy criminals only, whose memories have been wiped and who live quiet lives... seemingly. An experiment... Sheriff Cooper has kept an 'uneasy peace' in town for eight years. And... something doesn't seem right. An intriguing read, unusual situation, gritty, grim, weird, could very well become a very good movie. And hopefully to be continued, there's still more story left here I think. I like this author. Great story.
Yes, great read. close to 4.5. Recommended!
Here's to the person you might have been, and to the person you have become. May they never meet in a dark alley.
Out of the box story. Great beginning of the year read. A touch of Cormac McCarthy (reminds me of No country for old men), this is a grim book of a surrealistic situation, a town in the middle of nowhere and the burning heat in Texas. A town called 'The Blinds', full of heavy criminals only, whose memories have been wiped and who live quiet lives... seemingly. An experiment... Sheriff Cooper has kept an 'uneasy peace' in town for eight years. And... something doesn't seem right. An intriguing read, unusual situation, gritty, grim, weird, could very well become a very good movie. And hopefully to be continued, there's still more story left here I think. I like this author. Great story.
Yes, great read. close to 4.5. Recommended!
Here's to the person you might have been, and to the person you have become. May they never meet in a dark alley.
September 10, 2017
Cooper is the Sheriff, one of the original eight who came to the town of Caesura, a town hidden away in the Texas panhandle. Many have come after him, men and women who were chosen to go to this town, their past lives erased, new identities given. They do not remember what they have done,who they were, but many of them have done horrible things in the outside world. Now, after many years, some are being murdered, and the outside world will intrude, violating their sanctuary.
Take a little bit of All Is Not Forgotten, add a helping of City of the Lost, throw in many original and suspenseful elements, mix well, and the finished product is this enthralling novel. Except for being set in Texas, the theme of revenge, and the day of reckoning at the end, I did not consider this a regular Western. Nor do I really see the comparisons to the authors in the blurb.
Found this well written, surprises around every corner. Many, many secrets are exposed before books end, but thoroughly enjoyed getting there. Gritty and rather dark, the things some of these people had done before getting to this town, were horrendous, the worst of the worst. Which begs the question, if you don't remember what you did, and are now a completely different person, isolated in a town bereft of normal people, can you now be held accountable? Do you deserve a second chance? Interesting themes are explored, but it is also action packed, fast moving. The main characters are a wonderful mix of all sorts, different pasts, different motivations. Part of the draw of this one is trying to figure out where it was going to go next, I very seldom figured it out.
ARC from Edelweiss and Ecco.
Take a little bit of All Is Not Forgotten, add a helping of City of the Lost, throw in many original and suspenseful elements, mix well, and the finished product is this enthralling novel. Except for being set in Texas, the theme of revenge, and the day of reckoning at the end, I did not consider this a regular Western. Nor do I really see the comparisons to the authors in the blurb.
Found this well written, surprises around every corner. Many, many secrets are exposed before books end, but thoroughly enjoyed getting there. Gritty and rather dark, the things some of these people had done before getting to this town, were horrendous, the worst of the worst. Which begs the question, if you don't remember what you did, and are now a completely different person, isolated in a town bereft of normal people, can you now be held accountable? Do you deserve a second chance? Interesting themes are explored, but it is also action packed, fast moving. The main characters are a wonderful mix of all sorts, different pasts, different motivations. Part of the draw of this one is trying to figure out where it was going to go next, I very seldom figured it out.
ARC from Edelweiss and Ecco.
March 22, 2018
Caesura, Texas, is a sleepy town where no one remembers their past, witnesses and criminals living out a unique form of witness protection. When Sheriff Calvin Cooper suddenly has a murder to deal with, he has his work cut out for him. Who could the killer be if he's the only one that's supposed to have a gun and half the town could be murderers?
Quite a few people on my friends list enjoyed the hell out of this one. Since I'm a cheap ass, I saved up Amazon rewards points and bought it that way. And those people who enjoyed it were right.
The Blinds reminded me of Pines more than anything else, although, like Pines, I had to think it had some of The Prisoner in its lineage.
The Blinds is the nickname for the town and the files containing the true identities of the people dwelling there. Fueled and funded by a mysterious project, people coming to The Blinds have parts of their memories blanked and everyone goes about their lives without telephone or internet, blissfully unaware of whether their next door neighbor is a killer or a snitch. Things go well for about eight years, until the killing starts...
Hard-boiled with a slight sf edge would be the best way to describe it. Other than memories being tampered with, it's a straight up crime book. Calvin Cooper pieces things together as best he can, trying to hold the town together despite a murderer in their midst, town between being a lazy loser and actually wanting to do the right thing.
The Blinds was a gripping read, with twist after twist. I read the first two hundred pages in a long sitting. The rest of the book was read in agonizing lunch hour snippets. Things quickly get out of hand once the killing starts and I wasn't sure the town would be there at the end.
The core concept is an intriguing one, a town where anyone can get a fresh start and be part of a community. The book also raises some questions about identity. Ultimately, your past will more often than not catch up with you and bite you on the taint.
I really don't have any complaints with The Blinds. At times, I felt like it was written with my tastes in mind. Four out of five stars.
Quite a few people on my friends list enjoyed the hell out of this one. Since I'm a cheap ass, I saved up Amazon rewards points and bought it that way. And those people who enjoyed it were right.
The Blinds reminded me of Pines more than anything else, although, like Pines, I had to think it had some of The Prisoner in its lineage.
The Blinds is the nickname for the town and the files containing the true identities of the people dwelling there. Fueled and funded by a mysterious project, people coming to The Blinds have parts of their memories blanked and everyone goes about their lives without telephone or internet, blissfully unaware of whether their next door neighbor is a killer or a snitch. Things go well for about eight years, until the killing starts...
Hard-boiled with a slight sf edge would be the best way to describe it. Other than memories being tampered with, it's a straight up crime book. Calvin Cooper pieces things together as best he can, trying to hold the town together despite a murderer in their midst, town between being a lazy loser and actually wanting to do the right thing.
The Blinds was a gripping read, with twist after twist. I read the first two hundred pages in a long sitting. The rest of the book was read in agonizing lunch hour snippets. Things quickly get out of hand once the killing starts and I wasn't sure the town would be there at the end.
The core concept is an intriguing one, a town where anyone can get a fresh start and be part of a community. The book also raises some questions about identity. Ultimately, your past will more often than not catch up with you and bite you on the taint.
I really don't have any complaints with The Blinds. At times, I felt like it was written with my tastes in mind. Four out of five stars.
June 25, 2019
4.5 STARS
Here it is folks, IMO the most under-hyped BOTM choice to date! I LOVED THIS. It was unique, engaging, and featured a multi-faceted mystery that gripped my attention from beginning to end. Full review to come.
Here it is folks, IMO the most under-hyped BOTM choice to date! I LOVED THIS. It was unique, engaging, and featured a multi-faceted mystery that gripped my attention from beginning to end. Full review to come.
April 16, 2018
I finished this very well written and addictive book two days ago and I’m still not sure what to say about it. This cross-genre contemporary literature Western mystery thriller was pretty compelling with its extremely unique plot and well drawn characters...not to mention the moral dilemmas, ethics issues, and plot twists.
If you’re looking for something different, you can’t go wrong with this. Several times along the way I paused and marveled at the spectacular story unspooling in these pages: How did the author ever come up with this?! 4.5 stars
If you’re looking for something different, you can’t go wrong with this. Several times along the way I paused and marveled at the spectacular story unspooling in these pages: How did the author ever come up with this?! 4.5 stars
November 6, 2017
Somewhere out in the vastness of west Texas is an entire town with amnesia.
Officially it’s called Caesura, but the locals refer to it as The Blinds. The residents are either criminals or witnesses in hiding because all have undergone a process which removed their personal memories, and none remember which they are. The entire town is kept secure and hidden from the world while most inhabitants go about their business quietly wondering what might have put them in a position to completely surrender their identities, and whether they were guilty of horrible crimes or an innocent who got caught up in something. However, two violent deaths shatter the quiet routine and set the entire town on edge. While Sheriff Calvin Cooper is technically a guard and not a resident, he’s got his own secrets even as he investigates and tries to keep everyone calm.
Author Megan Abbott brought this one to my attention by praising it on what the kids these days call social media, and when Mighty Megan talks, I listen. That policy paid off nicely with this one.
Aside from a humdinger of a set-up the writing is a cut above what you’d normally get in a crime/sci-fi thriller. There’s a lot top notch characterization, and the imagery of this small town out in the middle of the barren Texas landscape gives the whole thing an excellent tone of isolation. The plot has plenty of solid twists and turns, and the ultimate revelations are satisfying. However, what the novel really excels at is how it weaves together all these characters with pasts hidden even from themselves.
It combines the elements of a great page-turner with some deeper thoughts on identity and memory with a unique setting. Overall, it’s one of the better books I’ve read this year.
Officially it’s called Caesura, but the locals refer to it as The Blinds. The residents are either criminals or witnesses in hiding because all have undergone a process which removed their personal memories, and none remember which they are. The entire town is kept secure and hidden from the world while most inhabitants go about their business quietly wondering what might have put them in a position to completely surrender their identities, and whether they were guilty of horrible crimes or an innocent who got caught up in something. However, two violent deaths shatter the quiet routine and set the entire town on edge. While Sheriff Calvin Cooper is technically a guard and not a resident, he’s got his own secrets even as he investigates and tries to keep everyone calm.
Author Megan Abbott brought this one to my attention by praising it on what the kids these days call social media, and when Mighty Megan talks, I listen. That policy paid off nicely with this one.
Aside from a humdinger of a set-up the writing is a cut above what you’d normally get in a crime/sci-fi thriller. There’s a lot top notch characterization, and the imagery of this small town out in the middle of the barren Texas landscape gives the whole thing an excellent tone of isolation. The plot has plenty of solid twists and turns, and the ultimate revelations are satisfying. However, what the novel really excels at is how it weaves together all these characters with pasts hidden even from themselves.
It combines the elements of a great page-turner with some deeper thoughts on identity and memory with a unique setting. Overall, it’s one of the better books I’ve read this year.
did-not-finish
October 27, 2020DNF @ 83%: I made it so far through this, but I was SO uninterested that I can't even bring myself to finish the last little bit. This isn't a bad book necessarily, but it just so isn't my type of story. Off the TBR and onto the next one!
TW: suicide, fatphobia, racism, abortion, animal abuse, arson, pedophilia
TW: suicide, fatphobia, racism, abortion, animal abuse, arson, pedophilia
October 18, 2017
My curiosity was piqued in the first chapter. The more I read, the more interested I got. It finally reached a point where I kept thinking “This is really good” followed immediately by “Please don’t let this go south.” This is one of those rare books that makes me describe what’s going on to my husband. I can’t keep it all inside; I just have to share.
The premise is original, so I don’t want to give away too much information. A small village in a remote area of Texas is fenced in, has cabins laid out symmetrically, and is inhabited by about 48 people. During orientation, the rules of this village are explained, and residents choose new names. I found this so intriguing! I sometimes wonder how authors select names for their characters, and this book has a unique way of doing that! The results were amusing.
The story is based on a bit of science fiction, or maybe it’s possible now? I just accepted that it could happen. There are some moral and ethical questions, but the book isn’t about answering them. That’s up to the reader if they are so inclined. I enjoyed learning who these people were and what secrets were being kept and why. Some of these people were despicable. Was everything revealed? I think not; I think there’s more that can be learned. And I’d like to know what happens in the future for these people. I’m really hoping for a second book about The Blinds.
The premise is original, so I don’t want to give away too much information. A small village in a remote area of Texas is fenced in, has cabins laid out symmetrically, and is inhabited by about 48 people. During orientation, the rules of this village are explained, and residents choose new names. I found this so intriguing! I sometimes wonder how authors select names for their characters, and this book has a unique way of doing that! The results were amusing.
The story is based on a bit of science fiction, or maybe it’s possible now? I just accepted that it could happen. There are some moral and ethical questions, but the book isn’t about answering them. That’s up to the reader if they are so inclined. I enjoyed learning who these people were and what secrets were being kept and why. Some of these people were despicable. Was everything revealed? I think not; I think there’s more that can be learned. And I’d like to know what happens in the future for these people. I’m really hoping for a second book about The Blinds.
November 13, 2017
Find all of my reviews at: http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
Welcome to Caesura, rhymes with tempura . . . .
Okay, not really. In reality, you can leave anytime you want. There are only three rules that have to be followed . . . .
“No visitors. No contact. No return.”
In other words, if you choose to leave? Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. You see Caesura isn’t your average town. Known as “The Blinds” by all who reside there, Caesura is a place for second chances. A new and improved Witness Protection Program, if you will, where the residents have had their most recent memories erased in order to obtain a fresh start in a town where not only does no one know their neighbor’s real name, but also don’t know whether they are part of the program because of something they did or something they told. Really, though????
At least that’s the consensus. I mean how else could they all live peacefully? A tiger can’t simply change its stripes, right? That line of thinking was working out great – until someone committed suicide by bullet-to-the-head in a town with only one gun and another person was murdered. Now the residents are about to find out . . . .
“You might not remember the world, but the world remembers you.”
I can’t even specify what’s making me hold back on offering up that final Star, but I am going to withhold it. Still, Sternbergh is a dude with plenty of creative juices flowing and he really knocked this one out of the park.
Welcome to Caesura, rhymes with tempura . . . .
Okay, not really. In reality, you can leave anytime you want. There are only three rules that have to be followed . . . .
“No visitors. No contact. No return.”
In other words, if you choose to leave? Don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. You see Caesura isn’t your average town. Known as “The Blinds” by all who reside there, Caesura is a place for second chances. A new and improved Witness Protection Program, if you will, where the residents have had their most recent memories erased in order to obtain a fresh start in a town where not only does no one know their neighbor’s real name, but also don’t know whether they are part of the program because of something they did or something they told. Really, though????
At least that’s the consensus. I mean how else could they all live peacefully? A tiger can’t simply change its stripes, right? That line of thinking was working out great – until someone committed suicide by bullet-to-the-head in a town with only one gun and another person was murdered. Now the residents are about to find out . . . .
“You might not remember the world, but the world remembers you.”
I can’t even specify what’s making me hold back on offering up that final Star, but I am going to withhold it. Still, Sternbergh is a dude with plenty of creative juices flowing and he really knocked this one out of the park.
May 23, 2022
I enjoyed the two cyberpunk thrillers in the author's Spademan series and would be happy to read more of those. However it's nice to see that he is not a one-note author and has written a different kind of thriller this time. This one is fast paced with a lot of action at the end.
The Blinds is a town in a virtually unpopulated Texas County. It was established 8 years ago as an experimental witness protection program where criminals, victims or witnesses who are in danger because of their cooperation with prosecutors are sent to hide. Their memories have been partially erased and no one in the town knows anyone's true identity. Even the police and others hired to work in the town were given new names. The inhabitants are not prisoners and are free to leave at any time, but if they leave they can never return to the town and while they are there they cannot have any contact with anyone outside the town. There are fewer than 50 residents of the town and virtually no violence, until one man shoots himself and a few months later another man is murdered. These deaths attract the attention of the institute that runs The Blinds, as well as that of a new police deputy. Given the complicated pasts of the residents, there is no absence of people who might want them dead, but the plot progresses in surprising ways.
I like this author's writing style, whatever his genre, he tells an original story in a unique setting.
The Blinds is a town in a virtually unpopulated Texas County. It was established 8 years ago as an experimental witness protection program where criminals, victims or witnesses who are in danger because of their cooperation with prosecutors are sent to hide. Their memories have been partially erased and no one in the town knows anyone's true identity. Even the police and others hired to work in the town were given new names. The inhabitants are not prisoners and are free to leave at any time, but if they leave they can never return to the town and while they are there they cannot have any contact with anyone outside the town. There are fewer than 50 residents of the town and virtually no violence, until one man shoots himself and a few months later another man is murdered. These deaths attract the attention of the institute that runs The Blinds, as well as that of a new police deputy. Given the complicated pasts of the residents, there is no absence of people who might want them dead, but the plot progresses in surprising ways.
I like this author's writing style, whatever his genre, he tells an original story in a unique setting.
December 31, 2017
"The best way to keep a secret is to keep it from yourself."
The premise of the book is so promising: a town where everyone there is either a criminal or a witness to a big crime that has had their memories taken from them so they can start over with a clean slate. They are protected in this town from anyone who would want to get revenge on them, and they are protected from guilt or terrible memories that would haunt them. I was all in over this idea. It seemed fun.
And, much like this woman, I got ducking hosed.
The problem with this book is that there are no likable characters. They are all horrible, and yet boring. See, I could enjoy the writing of a great bad guy or anti-hero that does terrible things if they are funny or OTT, but these people were as bland as an unsalted Saltine cracker.
The cat's right. We should all have this power.
Plus, there are actually too many "twists" or reveals. Eventually, it gets tiresome and loses its impact. It's like the boy who cried wolf or magician's trying to wow each other with their tricks.
We all tire of Becky's shit eventually. Get over yourself, Becky!
By the end of the book, with more big revelations, I didn't even bat an eyelash or think "hmm". I barely gave a shit. You know how to make a great twist or impact moment? By having one big one at the end, not one every other page. The best example I can think of at this moment is that one in the last Mercy Thompson book (Hey, read my review, here). Now, that is how you do it! I actually went back and reread most of the book because of that twist at the end. Awesome!
This book - not so awesome. Not so awesome at all.
Okay, maybe it sucked less than this, but still - not fun.
The premise of the book is so promising: a town where everyone there is either a criminal or a witness to a big crime that has had their memories taken from them so they can start over with a clean slate. They are protected in this town from anyone who would want to get revenge on them, and they are protected from guilt or terrible memories that would haunt them. I was all in over this idea. It seemed fun.
And, much like this woman, I got ducking hosed.
The problem with this book is that there are no likable characters. They are all horrible, and yet boring. See, I could enjoy the writing of a great bad guy or anti-hero that does terrible things if they are funny or OTT, but these people were as bland as an unsalted Saltine cracker.
The cat's right. We should all have this power.
Plus, there are actually too many "twists" or reveals. Eventually, it gets tiresome and loses its impact. It's like the boy who cried wolf or magician's trying to wow each other with their tricks.
We all tire of Becky's shit eventually. Get over yourself, Becky!
By the end of the book, with more big revelations, I didn't even bat an eyelash or think "hmm". I barely gave a shit. You know how to make a great twist or impact moment? By having one big one at the end, not one every other page. The best example I can think of at this moment is that one in the last Mercy Thompson book (Hey, read my review, here). Now, that is how you do it! I actually went back and reread most of the book because of that twist at the end. Awesome!
This book - not so awesome. Not so awesome at all.
Okay, maybe it sucked less than this, but still - not fun.
September 18, 2017
"He sat her down at the folding table in the intake trailer and explained to her the rules of her new home. No visitors. No contact. No return. Then he taught her how to properly pronounce the town's official name–Caesura, rhymes with tempura, he said–before telling her not to worry too much about it since everyone just calls it the Blinds."
What a fun, thrilling read this was! I made good on my promise not to read any reviews about it because I wanted to be thoroughly surprised, and boy was I! It's safe to say that this is a speculative Western, complete with a showdown. Had I known that beforehand, I would have been less inclined to read it, because let's face it...I'm not really into Westerns...although I adore all the ones that have been forced on me. The classics. So if you're considering writing this book off, even marginally after that statement: wait! Give Caesura and its ragtag group of townsfolk a chance.
It's a remote (somewhere's about in West Texas), little town with a population of forty people. It's got a church, library, gym, commissary, post office, and even a local bar.
"This is one benefit to the Blinds, Cooper's learned–it offers you a cleansing kind of loneliness. It's the blessing of exile and it's something he never expected. Life out here on the great flat plains with barely a human whisper to be heard from the outside world. Just you, and the sky in all directions, and the barest scrap of land to hold it all up, keep you from tumbling into the emptiness of space."
Everyone seems to get along with everyone else, except that something sinister is amiss just below the surface. I can't tell you how good it was! Whatever other genre bending books Sternbergh has in store for the future, sign me up! Even if it's (dare I hope?) a sequel!
What a fun, thrilling read this was! I made good on my promise not to read any reviews about it because I wanted to be thoroughly surprised, and boy was I! It's safe to say that this is a speculative Western, complete with a showdown. Had I known that beforehand, I would have been less inclined to read it, because let's face it...I'm not really into Westerns...although I adore all the ones that have been forced on me. The classics. So if you're considering writing this book off, even marginally after that statement: wait! Give Caesura and its ragtag group of townsfolk a chance.
It's a remote (somewhere's about in West Texas), little town with a population of forty people. It's got a church, library, gym, commissary, post office, and even a local bar.
"This is one benefit to the Blinds, Cooper's learned–it offers you a cleansing kind of loneliness. It's the blessing of exile and it's something he never expected. Life out here on the great flat plains with barely a human whisper to be heard from the outside world. Just you, and the sky in all directions, and the barest scrap of land to hold it all up, keep you from tumbling into the emptiness of space."
Everyone seems to get along with everyone else, except that something sinister is amiss just below the surface. I can't tell you how good it was! Whatever other genre bending books Sternbergh has in store for the future, sign me up! Even if it's (dare I hope?) a sequel!
September 11, 2017
It's all a mystery. There's a well known saying, and one that's apt for this book because not only does it have actual criminal mysteries within it, each character within it is also a mystery, even to him or herself. That's because this book takes place in Caesura--rhymes with tempura--Texas. It's a town with a population of 38, but it's also an experimental alternative to prison, a place where criminals and witnesses who have flipped on them are sent for a fresh start, so fresh they've had their memories wiped clean of who they used to be so they can become someone else and live productive lives.
Can you imagine not remembering who you really are or what you did to land yourself in Caesura, and just as important, who your neighbors really are to have them living there alongside you? But just how much of what everyone was or did is connected to memories of their former selves? Might they not still have the same criminal instincts left intact, even when erasing memories of their crimes? And what's worse, what if one of your neighbors in that experimental town murdered your entire family in their previous life while working for the mob, and you, the lone survivor, testified against him, but you can't remember any of it, and you are now good friends with that person? Sounds a bit far fetched and maybe even a bit cliched, but intriguing and frightening, too, doesn't it? What? Are you annoyed I gave away spoilers? Don't be, because that storyline never happened, nor any other storyline with any intrigue or irony.
The premise I mentioned about the town and its inhabitants having their memories wiped clean was true to this book, but none of the questions I posed were in it. The author chose not to examine morality, or the power of memory in determining people's actions, or to discuss the limits of rehabilitation in prisons or the purpose of punishment or deterrence inherent in them, causing a search for alternatives. Instead, he took his story in a whole different direction than I'd hoped for, one that severely disappointed me. What started as an interesting concept ended up as a story lacking imagination or any kind of depth or character development. And to make matters worse, the author relied on gratuitous violence when all else failed to make sense out of the increasingly convoluted and intersecting storylines, ones entrenched with deep plot holes and inconsistencies. It makes me wish I could have had my memory wiped clean of having ever read it, but I'll settle for remembering it enough to warn others about it. Maybe you'll like this book more than I did, and I'll be glad if you do, as may others have liked it quite a bit, but beware.
Can you imagine not remembering who you really are or what you did to land yourself in Caesura, and just as important, who your neighbors really are to have them living there alongside you? But just how much of what everyone was or did is connected to memories of their former selves? Might they not still have the same criminal instincts left intact, even when erasing memories of their crimes? And what's worse, what if one of your neighbors in that experimental town murdered your entire family in their previous life while working for the mob, and you, the lone survivor, testified against him, but you can't remember any of it, and you are now good friends with that person? Sounds a bit far fetched and maybe even a bit cliched, but intriguing and frightening, too, doesn't it? What? Are you annoyed I gave away spoilers? Don't be, because that storyline never happened, nor any other storyline with any intrigue or irony.
The premise I mentioned about the town and its inhabitants having their memories wiped clean was true to this book, but none of the questions I posed were in it. The author chose not to examine morality, or the power of memory in determining people's actions, or to discuss the limits of rehabilitation in prisons or the purpose of punishment or deterrence inherent in them, causing a search for alternatives. Instead, he took his story in a whole different direction than I'd hoped for, one that severely disappointed me. What started as an interesting concept ended up as a story lacking imagination or any kind of depth or character development. And to make matters worse, the author relied on gratuitous violence when all else failed to make sense out of the increasingly convoluted and intersecting storylines, ones entrenched with deep plot holes and inconsistencies. It makes me wish I could have had my memory wiped clean of having ever read it, but I'll settle for remembering it enough to warn others about it. Maybe you'll like this book more than I did, and I'll be glad if you do, as may others have liked it quite a bit, but beware.
July 10, 2018
Check this out.
Situated in the desolate West Texas desert, The Blinds is a futuristic witness protection community. None of the fifty or so residents can remember why they willingly volunteered to spend the rest of their life in this stark facility. All memories relevant to crimes they either committed and / or witnessed have been scientifically wiped from their brains. For some, this means they can’t recall days or months leading up to their new name and new life. Others are missing decades. Mercifully, no one knows if they were guilty or an innocent in their former life. The Blinds is not so much a place to start over as it is a place to end in relative peace, free from retribution and haunting memories.
Okay, who can resist a brilliant, ethically loaded premise like that? Plus I was born and raised in West Texas. That unforgiving landscape is part of my soul. I won’t pretend it’s a “nice” place to live, but I will tell you I’ve seen sunsets beautiful enough they belong on a different planet. In fact, that whole giant stretch of lonely land feels set apart - as a kind of hell for most and as an oil rich heaven for a few lucky entrepreneurs.
Stylistically, the author could have gone any number of directions - sci-fi, horror, fancy pants literature - and the result could have been impressive either way. He chose to go pure cinema. This is action / adventure / western. It’s meant for the small screen, all of it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a television series of this little gem, and I would tune in for every episode.
Addictively entertaining.
Situated in the desolate West Texas desert, The Blinds is a futuristic witness protection community. None of the fifty or so residents can remember why they willingly volunteered to spend the rest of their life in this stark facility. All memories relevant to crimes they either committed and / or witnessed have been scientifically wiped from their brains. For some, this means they can’t recall days or months leading up to their new name and new life. Others are missing decades. Mercifully, no one knows if they were guilty or an innocent in their former life. The Blinds is not so much a place to start over as it is a place to end in relative peace, free from retribution and haunting memories.
Okay, who can resist a brilliant, ethically loaded premise like that? Plus I was born and raised in West Texas. That unforgiving landscape is part of my soul. I won’t pretend it’s a “nice” place to live, but I will tell you I’ve seen sunsets beautiful enough they belong on a different planet. In fact, that whole giant stretch of lonely land feels set apart - as a kind of hell for most and as an oil rich heaven for a few lucky entrepreneurs.
Stylistically, the author could have gone any number of directions - sci-fi, horror, fancy pants literature - and the result could have been impressive either way. He chose to go pure cinema. This is action / adventure / western. It’s meant for the small screen, all of it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a television series of this little gem, and I would tune in for every episode.
Addictively entertaining.
April 22, 2018
5 Stars. Definitely one of my favorite reads this year.
Read
June 23, 2023My introduction to the fiction of Adam Sternbergh is The Blinds. Published in 2017, I was hoping for a slice of crime fiction that was exciting and fresh. The setup intrigued me. Forty-eight men and women whose memories have been wiped clean as part of a deal with prosecutors have been placed in a private settlement in West Texas, officially named Caesura but known by its residents as the Blinds. In spite of its potential for a gothic or closed-room thriller, this is a tough action thriller I did not cotton to but can’t penalize the author for.
There were things that I thought were clever:
-- Each resident of the Blinds has to choose a new name and are given a list with the first names of movie stars and last names of vice-presidents. This results in characters with names like Frances Adams, Dick Dietrich or Bette Burr.
-- To give everyone a fresh start, no one remembers who they were. Witness relocation is for hardened criminals and law abiding citizens alike, so everyone can cling to the possibility they were a good person before they came to the Blinds, and that their neighbor wasn't a mass murderer.
-- With tattoos and skill sets as clues, as well as access to the news, residents can try to piece together who they might have been in their past lives, but no one's been able to conclude anything.
-- There is a rogue's gallery of characters. One character was an assassin known as "Costco" who collected debts by killing a distant relative of the debtor and slowly wiping out everyone the subject knew until he paid.
The Blinds isn't a static and dull story because all the characters have had their memories erased. I felt The Blinds was static and dull because all the characters have had their memories erased and aren't doing anything about it. No one wants to discover their former identity. No one wants to escape. No one is trying to survive against someone trying to kill them. They haven't built a community, haven't created a world around them. There's a murder, and our sheriff Cal Cooper investigates, but otherwise, nobody in the Blinds seems to be doing anything.
If there's one thing I find to be a drag on a novel it's characters who aren't doing much of anything but sitting around and thinking.
Instead of showing the reader something compelling, the story tries to tell its way forward. It jumps from character to character as those characters think about who they are, think what they remember, and think about what's going on. It's all very internal. Ultimately, personnel files fall into the hands of another character and we're told more information about certain residents of the Blinds. We're told that "Errol Colfax" was actually the sadistic killer Kostya "Costco" Slivko and while his exploits are very cleverly related, this is all backstory in search of a story.
The TV series Severance on Apple deals with similar subject matter and produced wonderful results, following a group of office drones at the mysterious Lumon Industries who've volunteered for a program that severs all memory of who they are outside of work each day they come in. It's marvelously weird and builds intrigue in a way that I hoped this novel could. I would read the author's previous Edgar-nominated novels, but this one was a lot more cut-and-dry than I expected.
Here's a dissenting, five-star review from a hugely popular reviewer on Goodreads!
Liz Barnsley's Reviews > The Blinds
There were things that I thought were clever:
-- Each resident of the Blinds has to choose a new name and are given a list with the first names of movie stars and last names of vice-presidents. This results in characters with names like Frances Adams, Dick Dietrich or Bette Burr.
-- To give everyone a fresh start, no one remembers who they were. Witness relocation is for hardened criminals and law abiding citizens alike, so everyone can cling to the possibility they were a good person before they came to the Blinds, and that their neighbor wasn't a mass murderer.
-- With tattoos and skill sets as clues, as well as access to the news, residents can try to piece together who they might have been in their past lives, but no one's been able to conclude anything.
-- There is a rogue's gallery of characters. One character was an assassin known as "Costco" who collected debts by killing a distant relative of the debtor and slowly wiping out everyone the subject knew until he paid.
The Blinds isn't a static and dull story because all the characters have had their memories erased. I felt The Blinds was static and dull because all the characters have had their memories erased and aren't doing anything about it. No one wants to discover their former identity. No one wants to escape. No one is trying to survive against someone trying to kill them. They haven't built a community, haven't created a world around them. There's a murder, and our sheriff Cal Cooper investigates, but otherwise, nobody in the Blinds seems to be doing anything.
If there's one thing I find to be a drag on a novel it's characters who aren't doing much of anything but sitting around and thinking.
Instead of showing the reader something compelling, the story tries to tell its way forward. It jumps from character to character as those characters think about who they are, think what they remember, and think about what's going on. It's all very internal. Ultimately, personnel files fall into the hands of another character and we're told more information about certain residents of the Blinds. We're told that "Errol Colfax" was actually the sadistic killer Kostya "Costco" Slivko and while his exploits are very cleverly related, this is all backstory in search of a story.
The TV series Severance on Apple deals with similar subject matter and produced wonderful results, following a group of office drones at the mysterious Lumon Industries who've volunteered for a program that severs all memory of who they are outside of work each day they come in. It's marvelously weird and builds intrigue in a way that I hoped this novel could. I would read the author's previous Edgar-nominated novels, but this one was a lot more cut-and-dry than I expected.
Here's a dissenting, five-star review from a hugely popular reviewer on Goodreads!
Liz Barnsley's Reviews > The Blinds
June 2, 2017
So I finished this in 2 days... you may not think that's impressive but I also worked 2 doubles both of those days.. In other words I could not put this down. It wasn't a perfect novel but it was damn good... I can't wait to read more of his stuff.
April 12, 2018
The Blinds has a flat-out great premise. A new medical procedure has been invented that can wipe away targeted memories. It was originally intended for trauma victims, but now its most famous use is the little town of Caesura, a.k.a. The Blinds. It's a place full of people with holes in their minds. They don't know if they've witnessed crimes or committed them. They don't know what's on their consciences. If there are huge swathes of their lives that they can't remember, is that because their memories were altered before the process was refined or because that's how much of their life was poison? It's a jumpy, burned-out place full of unease and boredom.
You have a list of celebrities and a list of vice presidents. First name from one list, last name from the other. Don't try to communicate with the outside world--there's no internet anyway. You can leave whenever you like, but once you do, there's no coming back. Don't ask about other people's pasts. Appreciate the opportunity you've been given.
Like any human system, The Blinds is full of things that don't quite work the way they're supposed to. Free-floating memories, mysterious tattoos. A pregnancy during intake that becomes an eight year-old boy, the only sure innocent, living in this nowhere town. Dogs that mate with coyotes and produce "coydogs" that yip and howl all day long. A suicide. A murder.
Sheriff Calvin Cooper is ostensibly in charge of all this, but he's a little preoccupied. He's in love with Fran Adams, the only woman in town with a child, and fixated on the idea that she might be a witness rather than a criminal. He desperately wants to get her and her son out of town, since The Blinds is nowhere for a child to grow up. He's willing to do just about anything to make that happen. Take some desperation, some erased memories, and some outsiders pulling strings, and you have a building conflagration that could burn the whole experiment down before the week is out.
The Blinds is well-paced and exciting, and while Sternbergh's writing is deliberately a little colorless--to go along with the town's repressed/depressed nature--the large cast is well-delineated and interesting. There's a lot of juggling involved in managing a bunch of people with different motivations all running into each other, and Sternbergh does all that very well. I'm dropping it down to three stars rather than four mostly because I ultimately thought that the conspiracy aspects became a little too tangled.
But if The Blinds is a little too ambitious, I like that it is ambitious. Sternbergh aims for the fences here in tackling something that could easily turn into the Great Twenty-First Century Crime Novel, full of consideration of guilt and innocence, technology, politics, community, and moral muddle. I'm still very interested in whatever he's going to do next.
You have a list of celebrities and a list of vice presidents. First name from one list, last name from the other. Don't try to communicate with the outside world--there's no internet anyway. You can leave whenever you like, but once you do, there's no coming back. Don't ask about other people's pasts. Appreciate the opportunity you've been given.
Like any human system, The Blinds is full of things that don't quite work the way they're supposed to. Free-floating memories, mysterious tattoos. A pregnancy during intake that becomes an eight year-old boy, the only sure innocent, living in this nowhere town. Dogs that mate with coyotes and produce "coydogs" that yip and howl all day long. A suicide. A murder.
Sheriff Calvin Cooper is ostensibly in charge of all this, but he's a little preoccupied. He's in love with Fran Adams, the only woman in town with a child, and fixated on the idea that she might be a witness rather than a criminal. He desperately wants to get her and her son out of town, since The Blinds is nowhere for a child to grow up. He's willing to do just about anything to make that happen. Take some desperation, some erased memories, and some outsiders pulling strings, and you have a building conflagration that could burn the whole experiment down before the week is out.
The Blinds is well-paced and exciting, and while Sternbergh's writing is deliberately a little colorless--to go along with the town's repressed/depressed nature--the large cast is well-delineated and interesting. There's a lot of juggling involved in managing a bunch of people with different motivations all running into each other, and Sternbergh does all that very well. I'm dropping it down to three stars rather than four mostly because I ultimately thought that the conspiracy aspects became a little too tangled.
But if The Blinds is a little too ambitious, I like that it is ambitious. Sternbergh aims for the fences here in tackling something that could easily turn into the Great Twenty-First Century Crime Novel, full of consideration of guilt and innocence, technology, politics, community, and moral muddle. I'm still very interested in whatever he's going to do next.
Read
February 14, 2018Eh. I have three broad thoughts about this book: 1) I'm not at all the target audience; 2) I had fun with it anyway; 3) Wowza, this needed more scrupulous editing.
Thought #1:
This is a Western/dystopian thriller with elements of sci-fi set in a Texas desert town called the Blinds (population 48). All the residents are criminals who've had sections of their memories erased by a private agency, and now live peacefully with no knowledge of their past identities or transgressions. It's an intensely cinematic read, clearly taking more inspiration from movies than from books. All this sounds like Not My Thing, but I was kindly offered a copy from Faber & Faber and decided to give it a whirl.
Thought #2:
The Blinds was a nice reminder that I don't read out of my comfort zone enough. I was actually super into the Western elements especially, and it was refreshing to add something so plot-based to my reading diet (which includes way too many "let me reflect on the history of my difficult marriage for 50 pages, thus killing all momentum" books at the moment). There are also a lot of interesting questions in here about the relationship between memory and identity, with the novel ultimately veering more on the "nurture" side of the debate.
Thought #3:
Okay, I know this isn't literary fiction, and the sentences aren't meant to be individual works of art. But Sternbergh can really write - at his best he delivers evocative, snappy prose. And he can produce a decent metaphor. Which makes it even more aggravating to be forced to wade through metaphors like these:
"[She] drops the cigarette to the dirt and grinds it out with a little halfhearted twist, like a weary dancer at the end of a marathon, just trying to stay upright and keep dancing." (What? Do you mean weary runner? Or ballet instead of marathon? Why are you even using metaphorical language to describe someone putting out a cigarette? Can't you just end the sentence after "twist"? WHY HAVE YOU MADE ME THINK SO MUCH ABOUT THIS THROWAWAY SENTENCE.)
"He keeps swiping at his tablet with a long white finger, like a tree branch scratching at a window." (Again, he's just swiping at a tablet - no metaphor necessary. IT ADDS NOTHING. NO ATMOSPHERE, NO FLAVOR, NO DEPTH, NOTHING.)
We also get the goldfish treatment a TON. One of the characters has numbers tattooed on her wrist, and every time she looks down at the tattoo or thinks about it, we get the numbers repeated in the text. This same character finds an important line in a book, and this line is reprinted (in italics, to remind you how important it is!) again and again. As if you couldn't be trusted to absorb it the first time, even though it was the focal point of the scene.
Then near the end, there's a dramatic section involving a lot of townspeople watching several officers have a loud conversation, and we are reminded time and time again that these officers are playing things up for the crowd. We get repeated comparisons to circuses and juries. We get words like "performatively" and "ceremonially" and are told about a dozen times that the officers are speaking loudly for the crowd's benefit. There are sentences like this: "He shakes his head dramatically, as though in mock wonder at the scale of the crime." (Cause what this scene was begging for was a little more redundancy.) It all amounts to a staggering lack of trust in the reader's mental faculties - "If we don't keep reminding you of these characters' agendas, how will you ever get it? You might have to actually infer something!" It got to the point where a character was whacked in the head with a hammer and I thought, buddy, I know how you feel.
Then there's the fact that whenever we're on the precipice of an especially harrowing moment, the narrative cuts away for 3-5 pages to give us the backstory of a side character who's about to become important. Now, this is a little tough, because it's not good to have acres of exposition at the beginning, either. But these cutaways deflated the book's tension, and didn't even serve their main purpose (to make you care a little about these characters before they got their moment in the sun) - who gets emotionally invested in a random character from reading 3 tedious pages of backstory right before that character kills someone/dies? What I'm saying is, Sternbergh can write, but he needed someone to curb his more overwrought tendencies.
Still, if the plot sounds intriguing to you, and you're not looking for a literary gem, I say go for it. It's a fun, easy read. End of rant.
Thought #1:
This is a Western/dystopian thriller with elements of sci-fi set in a Texas desert town called the Blinds (population 48). All the residents are criminals who've had sections of their memories erased by a private agency, and now live peacefully with no knowledge of their past identities or transgressions. It's an intensely cinematic read, clearly taking more inspiration from movies than from books. All this sounds like Not My Thing, but I was kindly offered a copy from Faber & Faber and decided to give it a whirl.
Thought #2:
The Blinds was a nice reminder that I don't read out of my comfort zone enough. I was actually super into the Western elements especially, and it was refreshing to add something so plot-based to my reading diet (which includes way too many "let me reflect on the history of my difficult marriage for 50 pages, thus killing all momentum" books at the moment). There are also a lot of interesting questions in here about the relationship between memory and identity, with the novel ultimately veering more on the "nurture" side of the debate.
Thought #3:
Okay, I know this isn't literary fiction, and the sentences aren't meant to be individual works of art. But Sternbergh can really write - at his best he delivers evocative, snappy prose. And he can produce a decent metaphor. Which makes it even more aggravating to be forced to wade through metaphors like these:
"[She] drops the cigarette to the dirt and grinds it out with a little halfhearted twist, like a weary dancer at the end of a marathon, just trying to stay upright and keep dancing." (What? Do you mean weary runner? Or ballet instead of marathon? Why are you even using metaphorical language to describe someone putting out a cigarette? Can't you just end the sentence after "twist"? WHY HAVE YOU MADE ME THINK SO MUCH ABOUT THIS THROWAWAY SENTENCE.)
"He keeps swiping at his tablet with a long white finger, like a tree branch scratching at a window." (Again, he's just swiping at a tablet - no metaphor necessary. IT ADDS NOTHING. NO ATMOSPHERE, NO FLAVOR, NO DEPTH, NOTHING.)
We also get the goldfish treatment a TON. One of the characters has numbers tattooed on her wrist, and every time she looks down at the tattoo or thinks about it, we get the numbers repeated in the text. This same character finds an important line in a book, and this line is reprinted (in italics, to remind you how important it is!) again and again. As if you couldn't be trusted to absorb it the first time, even though it was the focal point of the scene.
Then near the end, there's a dramatic section involving a lot of townspeople watching several officers have a loud conversation, and we are reminded time and time again that these officers are playing things up for the crowd. We get repeated comparisons to circuses and juries. We get words like "performatively" and "ceremonially" and are told about a dozen times that the officers are speaking loudly for the crowd's benefit. There are sentences like this: "He shakes his head dramatically, as though in mock wonder at the scale of the crime." (Cause what this scene was begging for was a little more redundancy.) It all amounts to a staggering lack of trust in the reader's mental faculties - "If we don't keep reminding you of these characters' agendas, how will you ever get it? You might have to actually infer something!" It got to the point where a character was whacked in the head with a hammer and I thought, buddy, I know how you feel.
Then there's the fact that whenever we're on the precipice of an especially harrowing moment, the narrative cuts away for 3-5 pages to give us the backstory of a side character who's about to become important. Now, this is a little tough, because it's not good to have acres of exposition at the beginning, either. But these cutaways deflated the book's tension, and didn't even serve their main purpose (to make you care a little about these characters before they got their moment in the sun) - who gets emotionally invested in a random character from reading 3 tedious pages of backstory right before that character kills someone/dies? What I'm saying is, Sternbergh can write, but he needed someone to curb his more overwrought tendencies.
Still, if the plot sounds intriguing to you, and you're not looking for a literary gem, I say go for it. It's a fun, easy read. End of rant.
April 25, 2019
What if you could truly give yourself a blank slate, after painting yourself into the kind of corner that comes with a life sentence? What if you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and bold enough to speak up about what you saw? Caesura, Texas, has been set up to offer just the sort of opportunity you might need. It's a simple process - just let them unburden you of that inconvenient memory, and then follow three simple rules:
1. NO VISITORS
2. NO CONTACT
3. NO RETURN
This is the first I've read from Adam Sternbergh, and it certainly won't be the last (this clearout of my to-read list just keeps growing the damn thing). His is the kind of writing that starts by hinting at things, letting you draw your own conclusions, and then turning them upside down on you - before revealing that maybe you weren't all that wrong in the first place. It's an understated style, not flowery lines that paint watercolours as you read, but blunt, broad strokes, that nevertheless hold an almost poetic quality. And while certain details require some stretch in the imagination, this novel remains mostly grounded and realistic.
The idea behind the town struck me as similar to City of the Lost, but in practice these are two wildly different stories. It's not just the setting, which differs from Alaska as much as a polar opposite can, being dry, dusty, and hot, but the feeling that these are people who can really cope with whatever life throws at them. I'm very glad I finally got around to this one.
1. NO VISITORS
2. NO CONTACT
3. NO RETURN
This is the first I've read from Adam Sternbergh, and it certainly won't be the last (this clearout of my to-read list just keeps growing the damn thing). His is the kind of writing that starts by hinting at things, letting you draw your own conclusions, and then turning them upside down on you - before revealing that maybe you weren't all that wrong in the first place. It's an understated style, not flowery lines that paint watercolours as you read, but blunt, broad strokes, that nevertheless hold an almost poetic quality. And while certain details require some stretch in the imagination, this novel remains mostly grounded and realistic.
The idea behind the town struck me as similar to City of the Lost, but in practice these are two wildly different stories. It's not just the setting, which differs from Alaska as much as a polar opposite can, being dry, dusty, and hot, but the feeling that these are people who can really cope with whatever life throws at them. I'm very glad I finally got around to this one.
dnf
September 28, 2017DNFing this because I'm just not into it.
August 9, 2017
As soon as I read a description of the. plot I felt that this was the type of book I would enjoy. I downloaded the e-book immediately. My experience was different than the majority of readers. The premise was original and I believe it could make a good movie. The people living in this tiny, dusty Texas town are isolated from the world. They may have committed some terrible criminal acts and had their identity and memory wiped out rather than being sentenced to prison or execution. A few believe that they are there as a new form of witness protection but they can't remember what horrors they witnessed and to which they testified. All entered voluntarily and are free to leave at any time, but are afraid that they may be killed in revenge once outside. No one knows whether they are there in witness protection or possibly may have been a deranged serial killer or mobster. Their true names were wiped from memory, so the first task on arrival is to choose a new name.
In spite of things going rapidly awry in this formerly peaceful town with a lot of mayhem ensuing, and an intriguing mystery I just couldn't get into the story. I found the characters 2 dimensional and failed to empathize with any. I became bored.and just wanted it to end. A problem was it took more concentration than I cared to invest in matching the characters' new names with their former names and identities.This had to be foremost in mind in understanding the tangled plot. This just wasn't my type of book,and my low rating is due to my difficulty feeling any emotional involvement in the story. I think others might enjoy, and don't want to influence anyone by my low rating.
In spite of things going rapidly awry in this formerly peaceful town with a lot of mayhem ensuing, and an intriguing mystery I just couldn't get into the story. I found the characters 2 dimensional and failed to empathize with any. I became bored.and just wanted it to end. A problem was it took more concentration than I cared to invest in matching the characters' new names with their former names and identities.This had to be foremost in mind in understanding the tangled plot. This just wasn't my type of book,and my low rating is due to my difficulty feeling any emotional involvement in the story. I think others might enjoy, and don't want to influence anyone by my low rating.
November 10, 2017
The Blinds is binge-able. It has the same addictive quality that the best TV shows have these days, along with a big cast of characters and a killer premise. I listened to the audio version, but if I’d gone with print I would have snarfed it in a few hours. Love books that don’t feel like a retread of old ground? Well, I can guarantee you you haven’t already read a book like this.
Well, in some ways maybe you have. The Blinds is instantly recognizable as a Western. There’s a jaded lawman, some lowlifes and criminals, a fight to protect territory from outsiders, and several noble sacrifices for the greater good. There are even old-fashioned shootouts. But that’s where the similarities end. The Blinds is an isolated town in Texas where nobody knows their own past. All the residents have had a medical procedure to selectively erase their memories, either because they committed violent crimes or witnessed one. When they arrive in their new home, they each choose a new name from lists of movie stars and vice presidents. Then they settle into life with the other townspeople, never knowing what terrible acts lay behind them and never leaving the Blinds again. The sheriff, Calvin Cooper, likes to say that the gate only opens one way. Once you leave, you’re out for good, and the residents know nothing good is waiting for them out in the real world. The Blinds is safe, a refuge—until people start turning up dead, the first in an apparent suicide and the second in what is obviously not. It’s odd that two people have been shot in quick succession when no one is supposed to have access to a gun.
I love reading about people with secrets in their past, and The Blinds delivers a town full of them. I’d probably recommend the print version over the audio, not just because you’ll be able to get to all the answers faster, but because the male narrator used an affected, breathy voice for the female police officer, and not only was it annoying as hell, it didn’t fit her character at all. He also had an odd habit of shouting all the dialogue—literally raising his voice as if trying to speak to the farthest corner of a crowded room anytime a character was speaking. Despite those irritations, I was absolutely enthralled by The Blinds. I will be surprised if it doesn’t end up on my short list of favorites for the year.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
Well, in some ways maybe you have. The Blinds is instantly recognizable as a Western. There’s a jaded lawman, some lowlifes and criminals, a fight to protect territory from outsiders, and several noble sacrifices for the greater good. There are even old-fashioned shootouts. But that’s where the similarities end. The Blinds is an isolated town in Texas where nobody knows their own past. All the residents have had a medical procedure to selectively erase their memories, either because they committed violent crimes or witnessed one. When they arrive in their new home, they each choose a new name from lists of movie stars and vice presidents. Then they settle into life with the other townspeople, never knowing what terrible acts lay behind them and never leaving the Blinds again. The sheriff, Calvin Cooper, likes to say that the gate only opens one way. Once you leave, you’re out for good, and the residents know nothing good is waiting for them out in the real world. The Blinds is safe, a refuge—until people start turning up dead, the first in an apparent suicide and the second in what is obviously not. It’s odd that two people have been shot in quick succession when no one is supposed to have access to a gun.
I love reading about people with secrets in their past, and The Blinds delivers a town full of them. I’d probably recommend the print version over the audio, not just because you’ll be able to get to all the answers faster, but because the male narrator used an affected, breathy voice for the female police officer, and not only was it annoying as hell, it didn’t fit her character at all. He also had an odd habit of shouting all the dialogue—literally raising his voice as if trying to speak to the farthest corner of a crowded room anytime a character was speaking. Despite those irritations, I was absolutely enthralled by The Blinds. I will be surprised if it doesn’t end up on my short list of favorites for the year.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
April 23, 2019
There is a lot that I wanted to like about this book. It's a wonderfully clever idea for a story. It’s very creative in many areas, great concept, poor execution. I cannot in good faith recommend this book. (Yikes, I don’t say that too often). I made it to page 250 and got bogged down (yet again) in the “telling,” of the backstory. I think that’s the main issue for me, the forward motion of the story was too often stopped dead to give backstory. Which might have been okay had the backstory been in scene instead of a background download. If the backstory can be excised and the forward motion story still stand on it’s own then there is a problem.
There are also too many points of view and no hero to cheer for. Who are we supposed to like? Who are we supposed to take this journey with and watch evolve through the emotions of the story. He isn’t there.
The concept of having a compound of Witsec is an amazing idea all on its own with wonderful opportunities to display character. Having the memories wiped was a step too far. It made the story a mashup of crime novel mixed with near future fantasy.
The characters are all great and creative in substance but the voices are all the same. There are far too many points of view, which means we are not in any character long enough to be endeared to them, to be anchored in the story. The reader floats untethered above the story and is never fully engaged.
Packaging. (I admit this is a pet peeve of mine). The book is misrepresented as a longer novel. The only reason to do this is to get more money for the book. There are 382 pages making it an average size for a thriller. If you add up the half and full pages there are 78 blank pages. That's a lot of dead trees to try and fool the consumer.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series
There are also too many points of view and no hero to cheer for. Who are we supposed to like? Who are we supposed to take this journey with and watch evolve through the emotions of the story. He isn’t there.
The concept of having a compound of Witsec is an amazing idea all on its own with wonderful opportunities to display character. Having the memories wiped was a step too far. It made the story a mashup of crime novel mixed with near future fantasy.
The characters are all great and creative in substance but the voices are all the same. There are far too many points of view, which means we are not in any character long enough to be endeared to them, to be anchored in the story. The reader floats untethered above the story and is never fully engaged.
Packaging. (I admit this is a pet peeve of mine). The book is misrepresented as a longer novel. The only reason to do this is to get more money for the book. There are 382 pages making it an average size for a thriller. If you add up the half and full pages there are 78 blank pages. That's a lot of dead trees to try and fool the consumer.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series
April 8, 2018
5.0 STARS
OUTSTANDING!
Memories are not unlike wisps of fog, tendrils twisting, turning, and morphing in an early morning breeze, dancing across a placid mountain lake or tranquil deep woods meadow; sometimes light and airy, recalling vague but intensely pleasurable moments from the past, other times thick and heavy with intense fear, debilitating remorse, suffering and mysteriously powerful anxiety.
Not unlike dreams, memories can be fuzzy around the edges, frustratingly distant but persistently present. Other times they can be a hand grenade stealthy lobbed out of nowhere into your consciousness, exploding with vivid horror and lucid images.
My memory of a story on NPR surfaced as I learned about the residents of Caesura.
October 13, 2017 NPR > TED Radio Hour … “Neuroscientist Steve Ramirez, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Boston University, used lasers to enter the brains of mice and edit their memories. He imagines a future where this technology might be possible in humans as well. His work focuses on finding where single memories are located throughout the brain, genetically tricking the brain cells that house these memories to respond to brief pulses of light, and then using these same flickers of light to reactivate, erase, and implant memories.”
Caesura, TX aka The Blinds. NO VISITORS. NO CONTACT. NO RETURN. Population 48, located in Kettle County in the third least populated county in the USA; a voluntary program, not a prison, you can leave anytime, created by the Fell Institute. Not entirely true.
Dr. Johann Fell founded the institute and pioneered treatments to deal with traumatic memories by using MRI imaging to isolate specific memories in the patient’s brain and then eliminate those specific debilitating memories. After Fell’s tragic and seemingly random car accident, his protégé and research partner Dr. Judy Holliday took the technique in an entirely different direction and application, proposing the idea of memory erasure to the Justice Department as an alternative to traditional witness protection program. If a notorious criminal can be convinced to testify against the syndicate he works for or exposes a corrupt politician or governmental organization, offer him erasure of his crimes and a new life in Caesura … a lifetime of fear of retribution in prison or, a new life, new name, new home and new neighbors, new memories, all hidden away in this obscure little town. The residents of Caesura are people the justice system had no use for once they served their purpose. Caesura, a lab of sorts created and perpetuated by Doc Holliday, was the perfect place for them.
A simple fax machine is all the tethers Caesura to the outside world, a machine that has recently come alive with mug shots, blind files and significant offers that only Cooper’s eyes have seen.
Sheriff Calvin Cooper has been overseeing Caesura since its inception eight years ago. Eight years without trouble, until now. Suddenly three murders have occurred and agents from Justice have arrived to solve the crimes. It all comes apart in five days.
Folks were eager to forget. Some are now anxious to remember. Some never forgot. Some are not who they present themselves to be. As the investigation continues and The Blinds are revealed, Calvin Cooper is forced to make some very serious and important decisions to protect Fran and her son Isaac and defend what is left of his life and those remaining at Caesura.
When are memories so intensely significant that despite medical intervention to erase them, the cells and chemistry of the brain reconstruct that wisp of recollection? At what point does pure evil become good when one is faced with an even greater evil? Does a sordid past (murder, child abduction and rape, torture, child pornography) justify the murder of the perpetrator?
The Blinds is intensely addictive, written in a style and pace that relentlessly draws the reader deeper and deeper into the story and the lives of residents of Caesura. The weave is tight; the dots infinitesimally connect. So many moral and ethical dilemmas are thrust upon the reader that at some points I found myself sympathizing with some of the most evil men in the story. And underneath it all are the ulterior motives that drive the behaviors of the investigators. Scariest part … it all feels so plausible!
Caesura: any break, pause, or interruption.
Damnatio memoriae: condemnation of memory, meaning that a person must not be remembered.
12500241214911: As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals & Notebooks
I HIGHLY recommend this book!
OUTSTANDING!
Memories are not unlike wisps of fog, tendrils twisting, turning, and morphing in an early morning breeze, dancing across a placid mountain lake or tranquil deep woods meadow; sometimes light and airy, recalling vague but intensely pleasurable moments from the past, other times thick and heavy with intense fear, debilitating remorse, suffering and mysteriously powerful anxiety.
Not unlike dreams, memories can be fuzzy around the edges, frustratingly distant but persistently present. Other times they can be a hand grenade stealthy lobbed out of nowhere into your consciousness, exploding with vivid horror and lucid images.
My memory of a story on NPR surfaced as I learned about the residents of Caesura.
October 13, 2017 NPR > TED Radio Hour … “Neuroscientist Steve Ramirez, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Boston University, used lasers to enter the brains of mice and edit their memories. He imagines a future where this technology might be possible in humans as well. His work focuses on finding where single memories are located throughout the brain, genetically tricking the brain cells that house these memories to respond to brief pulses of light, and then using these same flickers of light to reactivate, erase, and implant memories.”
Caesura, TX aka The Blinds. NO VISITORS. NO CONTACT. NO RETURN. Population 48, located in Kettle County in the third least populated county in the USA; a voluntary program, not a prison, you can leave anytime, created by the Fell Institute. Not entirely true.
Dr. Johann Fell founded the institute and pioneered treatments to deal with traumatic memories by using MRI imaging to isolate specific memories in the patient’s brain and then eliminate those specific debilitating memories. After Fell’s tragic and seemingly random car accident, his protégé and research partner Dr. Judy Holliday took the technique in an entirely different direction and application, proposing the idea of memory erasure to the Justice Department as an alternative to traditional witness protection program. If a notorious criminal can be convinced to testify against the syndicate he works for or exposes a corrupt politician or governmental organization, offer him erasure of his crimes and a new life in Caesura … a lifetime of fear of retribution in prison or, a new life, new name, new home and new neighbors, new memories, all hidden away in this obscure little town. The residents of Caesura are people the justice system had no use for once they served their purpose. Caesura, a lab of sorts created and perpetuated by Doc Holliday, was the perfect place for them.
A simple fax machine is all the tethers Caesura to the outside world, a machine that has recently come alive with mug shots, blind files and significant offers that only Cooper’s eyes have seen.
Sheriff Calvin Cooper has been overseeing Caesura since its inception eight years ago. Eight years without trouble, until now. Suddenly three murders have occurred and agents from Justice have arrived to solve the crimes. It all comes apart in five days.
Folks were eager to forget. Some are now anxious to remember. Some never forgot. Some are not who they present themselves to be. As the investigation continues and The Blinds are revealed, Calvin Cooper is forced to make some very serious and important decisions to protect Fran and her son Isaac and defend what is left of his life and those remaining at Caesura.
When are memories so intensely significant that despite medical intervention to erase them, the cells and chemistry of the brain reconstruct that wisp of recollection? At what point does pure evil become good when one is faced with an even greater evil? Does a sordid past (murder, child abduction and rape, torture, child pornography) justify the murder of the perpetrator?
The Blinds is intensely addictive, written in a style and pace that relentlessly draws the reader deeper and deeper into the story and the lives of residents of Caesura. The weave is tight; the dots infinitesimally connect. So many moral and ethical dilemmas are thrust upon the reader that at some points I found myself sympathizing with some of the most evil men in the story. And underneath it all are the ulterior motives that drive the behaviors of the investigators. Scariest part … it all feels so plausible!
Caesura: any break, pause, or interruption.
Damnatio memoriae: condemnation of memory, meaning that a person must not be remembered.
12500241214911: As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals & Notebooks
I HIGHLY recommend this book!
October 25, 2017
Have you witnessed a violent crime? Committed a horrific murder? Witness protection not your thing? Worried that jail will be boring? Come on down to Caesura (..it rhymes with Tempura)! In exchange for some light brain surgery, you’ll wake up with a new identity* and no memory of your ghastly past!** You’ll be given your own beautiful detached home complete with neighbors who will offer a helping hand as you adjust to your new surroundings.*** Worried about law and order? Need not worry as Sheriff Calvin Cooper is sworn to serve and protect**** Call us today and feel the freedom of isolation!
* Chose a first and last name from a list of vice presidents and movie stars.
** Permanent memory loss not guaranteed.
*** Neighbors may display homicidal tendencies.
**** The actions of the sheriff may not be within job description.
Adam Sternbergh’s The Blinds takes place in a remote Texas county miles from civilization in any direction. The community, made up of a mixture of innocent witnesses and reformed criminals, is part of an experiment to perfect targeted mind erasure. While they’ve lived in relative peace for eight years, townsfolk start dropping like flies. Can Calvin Cooper solve the mystery or will the death rate continue to climb?
I picked up The Blinds after briefly meeting the author at a Harper-Collins signing event as a part of Bouchercon 2017. I had read a few reviews on Goodreads but it had mostly flown under my radar until a recommendation from Chris Holm on Twitter catapulted this one to the top of my to-read pile. Social networking can be a wonderful thing, no?
For the first one hundred pages or so, Sternbergh does such an excellent job with his world-building that I was gushing to anyone who would listen about how much I enjoyed the premise. So while it would have been easy for Sternbergh to rest on the story’s originality like many plot-driven novels, he uses it to build into a tightly-crafted thriller where misdirection is used to great effect. I never quite knew who to believe or where I was headed as the pages turned, which is always something I appreciate when it comes to my crime books.
This is a solid story about trying (and failing) to outrun your past. We are, all of us, the sum of our experiences and no amount of mind manipulation can keep our true selves hidden forever. Sternbergh explores what it means to define our present by our past, no matter how horrific our actions may have been. In the end, we’re left with a novel that weaves fact and fiction together forming a patchwork of moral ambiguity.
The door is left open for a sequel and although I would have been happy with a standalone, I’d welcome another visit from these characters further down the road.
* Chose a first and last name from a list of vice presidents and movie stars.
** Permanent memory loss not guaranteed.
*** Neighbors may display homicidal tendencies.
**** The actions of the sheriff may not be within job description.
Adam Sternbergh’s The Blinds takes place in a remote Texas county miles from civilization in any direction. The community, made up of a mixture of innocent witnesses and reformed criminals, is part of an experiment to perfect targeted mind erasure. While they’ve lived in relative peace for eight years, townsfolk start dropping like flies. Can Calvin Cooper solve the mystery or will the death rate continue to climb?
I picked up The Blinds after briefly meeting the author at a Harper-Collins signing event as a part of Bouchercon 2017. I had read a few reviews on Goodreads but it had mostly flown under my radar until a recommendation from Chris Holm on Twitter catapulted this one to the top of my to-read pile. Social networking can be a wonderful thing, no?
For the first one hundred pages or so, Sternbergh does such an excellent job with his world-building that I was gushing to anyone who would listen about how much I enjoyed the premise. So while it would have been easy for Sternbergh to rest on the story’s originality like many plot-driven novels, he uses it to build into a tightly-crafted thriller where misdirection is used to great effect. I never quite knew who to believe or where I was headed as the pages turned, which is always something I appreciate when it comes to my crime books.
This is a solid story about trying (and failing) to outrun your past. We are, all of us, the sum of our experiences and no amount of mind manipulation can keep our true selves hidden forever. Sternbergh explores what it means to define our present by our past, no matter how horrific our actions may have been. In the end, we’re left with a novel that weaves fact and fiction together forming a patchwork of moral ambiguity.
The door is left open for a sequel and although I would have been happy with a standalone, I’d welcome another visit from these characters further down the road.
November 19, 2017
Having been a HUGE fan of both Shovel Ready and Near Enemy from this author to say I was very happy to see “The Blinds” land on the doormat would be putting it mildly. Turns out, although this is very different, I loved it just as much, cleverly imaginative with some top notch divisive characters and a real western vibe about it that I adored.
The Blinds is a town like no other. Part prison, although you can leave if you wish and part social experiment, it houses ex criminals (or possibly witnesses) who have no idea what crime they may have committed. Having had a partial or full memory wipe prior to arriving they all live in sort of a little social bubble, a community both divided and united, cut off completely from the outside world. Into this we come, just after a suicide and a murder – destroying the uneasy peace and creating all kinds of questions for Sheriff Calvin Cooper..
This is a rocking good read, providing both mystery and a hugely thought provoking central theme. Nobody in this story is exactly who they appear to be, nothing is exactly as it looks and as each new day unfolds new events and new revelations abound. It is an addictive and intelligently woven tale which is also utterly gripping. I was riveted by the idea’s entertained here, got emotionally involved with all the characters and was actually bereft when I finished it and had to leave them all.
The characters pop, the setting is claustrophobic yet wide reaching and the writing is, as before with Adam Sternbergh, unique in style and strong in substance – beautifully immersing the reader into the moment. I loved it. I’m a fan. I also couldn’t help but think what a binge worthy Netflix show this would make. If only wishing made it so…
Highly Recommended.
The Blinds is a town like no other. Part prison, although you can leave if you wish and part social experiment, it houses ex criminals (or possibly witnesses) who have no idea what crime they may have committed. Having had a partial or full memory wipe prior to arriving they all live in sort of a little social bubble, a community both divided and united, cut off completely from the outside world. Into this we come, just after a suicide and a murder – destroying the uneasy peace and creating all kinds of questions for Sheriff Calvin Cooper..
This is a rocking good read, providing both mystery and a hugely thought provoking central theme. Nobody in this story is exactly who they appear to be, nothing is exactly as it looks and as each new day unfolds new events and new revelations abound. It is an addictive and intelligently woven tale which is also utterly gripping. I was riveted by the idea’s entertained here, got emotionally involved with all the characters and was actually bereft when I finished it and had to leave them all.
The characters pop, the setting is claustrophobic yet wide reaching and the writing is, as before with Adam Sternbergh, unique in style and strong in substance – beautifully immersing the reader into the moment. I loved it. I’m a fan. I also couldn’t help but think what a binge worthy Netflix show this would make. If only wishing made it so…
Highly Recommended.
July 11, 2019
This is definitely one of the most unputdownable books of the year for me! With the unique plot and interesting cast of characters it is binge-worthy and would make a great show (hint hint Netflix!).
"God may forgive, but He rarely exonerates."
Welcome to The Blinds, an isolated Texas community within the third smallest town in the country. The folks populating The Blinds have all had portions of their memories erased--- a requirement to move in. They know that they've either committed or witnessed a major crime but become blissfully unaware of which. They enter the gates with a clean slate and a new name, creating a brand new identity. They're free to leave at any time but with the understanding that if they do, they can't come back.
Sheriff Calvin Cooper has kept The Blinds running smoothly for eight years, up until a recent suicide and now a shocking murder. Cooper has his own secrets to protect when a liaison from the Institute funding the town stops in with a team to investigate the sudden disturbances.
In a town where everyone has a past, memories will be triggered and violence will boil over when people learn the truth about themselves that was better left forgotten.
The Blinds is a modern Western with a highly original plot and a gritty/ intense cast of characters. I loved the pace of this story; each page answered a question or offered a back story that culminated to an intense conclusion. This will easily be a top book of the year for me!
I recommend The Blinds to readers who enjoy modern Westerns and gritty mysteries.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
"God may forgive, but He rarely exonerates."
Welcome to The Blinds, an isolated Texas community within the third smallest town in the country. The folks populating The Blinds have all had portions of their memories erased--- a requirement to move in. They know that they've either committed or witnessed a major crime but become blissfully unaware of which. They enter the gates with a clean slate and a new name, creating a brand new identity. They're free to leave at any time but with the understanding that if they do, they can't come back.
Sheriff Calvin Cooper has kept The Blinds running smoothly for eight years, up until a recent suicide and now a shocking murder. Cooper has his own secrets to protect when a liaison from the Institute funding the town stops in with a team to investigate the sudden disturbances.
In a town where everyone has a past, memories will be triggered and violence will boil over when people learn the truth about themselves that was better left forgotten.
The Blinds is a modern Western with a highly original plot and a gritty/ intense cast of characters. I loved the pace of this story; each page answered a question or offered a back story that culminated to an intense conclusion. This will easily be a top book of the year for me!
I recommend The Blinds to readers who enjoy modern Westerns and gritty mysteries.
For more reviews, visit www.rootsandreads.wordpress.com
July 5, 2019
I had this book for ages before reading it. The title didn't grab me, neither did the cover. How dumb can you be??
So I finally read it and loved it, it was great. Different. And different is the holy grail at the moment. I thought the book was a great illustration of how people can behave unexpectedly under extreme circumstances. Sometimes they bring out the best in people and sometimes the worst. There was a sense of rising dread throughout as things slowly went awry in their 'happy' little enclave, There was also a sense (to me) of 'the machine' working in the background. The machine being a conspiracy theorists wet dream. 'Important people' playing with the lives of the disenfranchised for fun and profit. I don't subscribe but sometimes I wonder.
Anyway it was a great read, there was plenty going on and I had no idea where it all going, apart from downhill. The characters were a very interesting and diverse bunch. I may have to check out more of Sternberg's work.
So I finally read it and loved it, it was great. Different. And different is the holy grail at the moment. I thought the book was a great illustration of how people can behave unexpectedly under extreme circumstances. Sometimes they bring out the best in people and sometimes the worst. There was a sense of rising dread throughout as things slowly went awry in their 'happy' little enclave, There was also a sense (to me) of 'the machine' working in the background. The machine being a conspiracy theorists wet dream. 'Important people' playing with the lives of the disenfranchised for fun and profit. I don't subscribe but sometimes I wonder.
Anyway it was a great read, there was plenty going on and I had no idea where it all going, apart from downhill. The characters were a very interesting and diverse bunch. I may have to check out more of Sternberg's work.
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