Book Review: Look With Your Eyes

Reviewed by Maxwell Gillmer

A suspenseful, witty thriller steeped in naturalism, humor, and an aching suspicion of an otherworldly savagery

Open your eyes. Danger has been lurking in your backyard. The monster? Sciurus carolinensis: the Eastern gray squirrel. Dr. Norma Sweeny, professor of folklore at the fictional Umatilla University, has devoted her life to spreading the violent truth about squirrels. Alongside her thirty-odd fellow “Foragers,” as they call themselves, who connect through a close-knit Facebook group, named “Rupert’s a Fraud,” Norma’s research lays the groundwork to uncover something more sinister about these animals that run rampant in our neighborhoods. 

Inspired by a post in the group “Rupert’s a Fraud,” Norma embarks on a journey into the forests of Northern Florida to the town of Oak Slough with her failing student in search of a small community of people who allegedly worship squirrels as “emissaries of Satan.” 

There, she finds herself in the throes of a squirrel-themed festival replete with BBQ, guns, and people dressed head to toe in squirrel costumes. Equipped with research, Snickers bars, and a frat-star jock to act as her emissary, the anti-social, anti-Sciurus Norma sets off in search of the missing link that would confirm her suspicions about the bloodthirsty nature of squirrels in this Hitchcock-esque thriller.  

Right off the bat, Lucas’s descriptive prose pulls the reader into the haunting world of merciless Rodentia. Describing the squirrel’s “doe-like gaze, the soft tawny fur, the diminutive stature and physical weakness, the furtiveness, the squirrel’s subterfuge,” the reader begins to see squirrels as something more complex than the backyard rodent that, at first glance, does little more harm than stealing bird seeds or disturbing a garden, and more into the more cunning and calculated beast the “Foragers” of “Rupert’s a Fraud” would have you believe.

Lucas carries this strength of descriptive setting throughout, placing the reader in the heat of Florida’s expanse. The prose practically sings the hum of insects and dampens the skin with sticky sweat. Lucas’s remarkable skill of tracing the setting of Northern Florida with such an intensity further serves to captivate the reader’s attention as he pulls us along in the suspense of Norma’s discovery, paralleling it almost. As the setting closes inward, the lighting grows darker, and so does the chilling sensation that intensifies with every turn of the page.

However, what makes Look With Your Eyes stand out is its control of humor. The witty turns and comical situations allow for breaks in the suspense of the narrative, ensuring the tautness of the plot never slackens as a fault of a protracted crescendo — a trap into which this thriller does not fall. Rather, the silly harkening to candy commercials to a downright hilarious moment of men gun-in-hand and pants-around-ankles all lighten the narrative with an intentional meter that offers reprieves from the suspense, allowing it to reset and hold the reader’s attention throughout the book. 

While Look With Your Eyes succeeds in its driving plot and captivating descriptions, the story’s grip weakens in its dialogue. Though diverse in their voices, the characters tend to speak in repetitive affects. The characters are not flat—they shift at deliberate turning points, while jerky in their construction. This stratified evolution of dialogue does serve to reflect character development—much needed to keep the reader attached as the plot continues to move—but it does so in a tiered fashion, which at times comes across as bumpy.

Stirring and disquieted, Look With Your Eyes is a compelling and quick read with an imaginative premise. Lucas’s apt employment of wit makes this rollercoaster of a thriller like a story you’ve never read before.  

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