Review: HER EYES UNDER WATER by Romona Simon

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Set in the vast and pristine wilderness of 1970s Montana, this true-crime inspired novel is a unique mix of slow-burning dark romance, suspense, and a little bit of horror.
During a chance encounter at a café, restless and unfocused university student Julia Strauss meets a captivating man. She is instantly attracted to the handsome stranger and pursues him obsessively. Meanwhile, the mysterious object of her affection has a secret agenda of his own. Can Julia see beyond the haze of her infatuation before it's too late?

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Excerpt:

He grabbed her face again and continued. She grasped at his dress skirt and tasted his tongue. He pulled back once more, but kept his hands on her. His eyes were still closed. His jaw was tense and his breath was rapid. He opened his eyes and then one of his hands lowered part way, to the neckline of her dress. He pulled his own scarf off her chest and hooked his fingers right at her neckline to pull her to him one final time. His eyes smoldered in a way she had never seen before on anyone. They turned their electric blue fire on her before someone’s yelling finally broke through.  

“People in the back! This is a store! If you’re not going to buy anything, get out!” The cashier was ranting at them.

They forced themselves apart and slumped against the refrigerator. He kept the inferno of his eyes on her and panted. She could hardly look over at him. The lust in those eyes was like the sweltering burn when skin touched an element accidently. It seemed to cripple him and he staggered a bit. 

“You couldn’t have done that in the road?” She said to break the intensity. It helped somewhat, but their heads still drifted back together and they spoke in low whispers, like school children with a chaperone.

“My feet were cold,” he breathed. Their foreheads were fused and they shared hushed laughs as the cashier started threatening to have them removed.

Alex finally stood straight up, breathlessly walked to the counter and said, “Two packs of Marlboros, please.” He pointed at the ones he wanted. The cashier flipped them on the counter and Alex flipped him a bill larger than what was needed.

“Keep the change.” The scowling vanished.

He walked back to her with his shoulders shaking in merriment and straightened his shirt collar.

She wanted this forever. She had been trying to hold back those thoughts, albeit unsuccessfully, during most of their interactions, but she refused to do it now. She had never been so sure and so vulnerable. Her heart was flopping around unchecked and unattended, abandoned outside of her body and lying on the un-scrubbed gas station floor. If he didn’t pick it up and put it in his pocket, no one would ever possess it again and it would shrivel and die or be kicked around between the shelves eternally.

 

My review: Julia met the handsome stranger at a local café. “Female eyes followed him like hungry dogs.”

It was kind of slow at the beginning as she was mostly entranced by him as she takes a ride upon first meeting. Then his eyes turn cold and dark, and she becomes frightened thinking she’s going to die. Then…he becomes normal again. Whoa, that’s a little creepy.

Afterwards, Julia becomes too obsessed with Alex. Why doesn’t he talk to her? How can he not like her the way she likes him? Over the course, Julia becomes an unbalanced character—brimming with over-confidence yet self-deprecating when it comes to Alex. And it goes on and on like this for most of the book.

The literary narrative, poetic in itself, does well concentrating on the tension and drama within the collegiate spectrum; however, it lacked endurance as far as suspense was concerned.

As Alex and Julia’s puzzling interlude leads to a complex romance, a wide forage of jealousy, doubt, and confusion spill into the mix. Meanwhile, something sinister is furrowing in the depths of this middling plot. Most of the time, things are normal; other times, they’re not. The reader is constantly being turned around in this spinning “Jekyll and Hyde” coin, deepening curiosity and prolonging doubt. There was even a lingering question whether this Alex was a man or some other “being” the way Julia talks about him. One thing was for sure: Alex was not normal.

The concept was certainly enticing, but the whole thing was watered down in mild and tepid tones, which distorted into complexity and darkness. In fact, it’s the story’s alluring dark side that beckon audiences to read on. It’s a decent read that can border on literary horror.

My rating: 3 stars