Reviews for Eye Contact

The average rating for Eye Contact based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-04-15 00:00:00 Michael Crabtree Eye Contact wants to be two books. The better book follows the path of acceptance and eventual, albeit limited, understanding between Adam, a nine-year-old autistic boy, and his mother Cara. The novel starts strongly with these two, especially in illuminating Adam's thought processes, and in describing the mother's difficult work of encouraging Adam to develop both within and beyond her expectations. But the half of Eye Contact that wants to be an engaging thriller is the half whose genes dominate the rest of story, creating a confusing, unfocused, quasi-mystery full of too many false leads, too many late revelations, and too many last minute characters to sustain interest and believability. The book's turn from focusing on a youth group for developmentally challenged children to constructing a larger world in which so many characters are physically and mentally damaged is unnecessary, exaggerated, and potentially offensive. The point of Adam's particular way of thinking is lost in a crowd of less interesting secondaries whose flaws seem manufactured and insincerely characterized. With so much of autism a mystery, and with an author whose own family experiences feed the very best and truest passages of this book, McGovern could have written a simple story of family to great benefit. In playing for a wider audience, the author's readers suffer, her plot is lost, and the topic in which McGovern so eagerly wishes us to engage is all but forgotten for a passing thrill.

Review # 2 was written on 2008-03-09 00:00:00 Barbara Liebl It was all right, but kind of frustrating. I had pretty significant issues with the plot. Her knowledge of autism and ability to incorporate that into fiction is excellent, and her writing for Adam is the highlight of the book by far. The book is interesting and emotional and creepy at times. I also appreciate the "strain of being a caregiver" theme that is present throughout the book through Cara, Suzette, Teddy, Kevin's mom, Morgan's mom, Olivia, Chris's mom, Harrison's mom, even Cara's parents to an extent. However: the plot. The author tries to make it suspenseful by introducing one suspect after another, only to discount them and move onto someone else. It was Morgan! No, it was Chris! It was Bob Busker, Kevin, Kevin's mom. And then it turns out to be... some random bully? Who didn't even know Amelia? And who ends up confessing because he's sick of his mom defending him? What? And how many different people were in the freaking woods during the 45 minutes that Adam and Amelia were missing? And there were all these dramatic references to Cara's past, and some terrible thing that happened between her and Suzette and Kevin that left them all isolated and messed up. Except in the end, not that much actually happened. And Kevin's wacky mom not only falsely confesses to the murder because she thinks that Kevin is guilty, but also suggests that he's responsible for the car accident that killed Cara's parents. Only he isn't, he was just driving behind them? What the hell?