Interesting psychological suspense.

Leah has an unusual neurological condition known as akinetopsia. She is unable to see movement. She, on her own now that her mother has died, lives in Manhattan in a lovely pre-war apartment with only her elderly companion, Antonia, and some equally old neighbors as friends. Then Alice moves into the apartment next door. Since Leah's other senses are heightened, she can smell and hear the fear that Alice is experiencing and finds that Alice trying to escape and divorce an abusive husband. Leah feels and intuits things that others can't. She knows that Alice needs her help.

This was quite the novel and with Leah, an increasingly unreliable narrator, almost certainly delusional, the reader knows this is not going to end well. The twists to the climax came at a rapid pace and I could not put it down so read it all in a single sitting. I listened to the audiobook while following along in the ARC e-book provided by the publisher. The narrator did an excellent job voicing the characters and projecting just the right amount of drama into the story. Definitely a genre bender with an unusual premise that many will find very compelling. ( )

Wow, this was a unique and explosive psychological thriller.
Leah has akinetopsia (motion blindness). She lives in NYC, and travels around the city. People don't realize that she can see, but not movement. Leah's other senses are heightened, esp. hearing and smell.
Alice moves next door, and Leah's life changes. She can hear Alice's conversations, and Alice's disagreements with her husband. Leah and Alice become friends, and Alice convinces Leah that the husband is abusive. One night, Leah wakes to smell bergamot, and is sure she is danger, and is wary of those with that smell. Leah likes Mark from the bookstore, and hopes for a relationship.
I didn't see the twists but did have questions early on - so the twists made sense. Well done - I will look for more from this author! ( )

The Silence in Her Eyes is the latest book from Armando Lucas Correa.
Leah is our lead character. As a young child she was diagnosed as having akinetopsia, also known as motion blindness. Having not heard of this condition, I took a detour to the web. It is indeed a 'real' thing. Correa's depictions of what it would be like to live with static images and how those images are discarded when she blinks, were well done. As well, Leah's olfactory sense is extremely heightened. Correa has come up with a new twist on the unreliable narrator.

Leah lives a small life with her housekeeper in an apartment building. When a new tenant moves in next door, Leah can smell the anxiety of what's going on next door - and hear the ensuing fight between the occupants. Worried, Leah inserts herself into Alice's life. But is Alice telling the truth? Leah has no way of truly knowing.

Listed as a suspense novel, I think I expected a faster paced tale. I did enjoy imagining what it would be like for Leah. I also enjoyed her relationships with her housekeeper and the older residents of the apartments. Her inner dialogue and dreams completes the building of Leah as a lead protagonist. However, I do feel like there is a lot of repetition in her experiences, thoughts as well as what is a dream and wasn't. I will say that the twist in the ending good, but did find it a bit contrived.

I chose to listen to The Silence in Her Eyes. The narrator was Suehyla El-Attar Young, a new to me reader. I quite liked her voice - she speaks clearly, at a good pace, enunciates well and is easy on the ears. Her narration has movement. The voice used for Leah fitted my mental image. Young interprets Correa's book well, using different speeds and tones of her reading to accentuate the fear, confusion, danger etc. of Correa's plot. A very well done presentation. ( )

A suspenseful story written by an author of historical fiction books.

Since childhood, Leah suffered from a rare neurological disease called akinetopsia. People thought she was blind, but she saw more than they thought. When her new neighbor moved next door, Leah's life changed significantly. She heard her neighbor crying and arguing on the phone. Alice was going through a difficult divorce from her abusive husband, and Leah was worried about her new friend. When an intruder entered Leah's room one night while she was sleeping, she became concerned that she, too, was in danger. The intruder smelled of bergamot, the same scent she smelled in her neighbor's apartment a few days later.

When I read the summary of this book, I was immediately intrigued by the topic of rare neurological disease. At the same time, I was skeptical about reading a suspenseful thriller written by an author of historical novels.

Saying that, I liked this story. Leah was a young woman who lived alone in an apartment. She couldn't see movements, but her hearing and sense of smell were very acute. She was always on guard, always suspicious and afraid. I was amazed by her independence, but I was still concerned about her well-being.

Correa presented an interesting and suspenseful story of a woman suffering from motion blindness. There is no room for imaginary conclusions here. The author used a perfect plot twist to end the story. ( )

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC of this book.

The premise of this book immediately drew me in. For one, I am a huge sucker for 1. a good mystery and 2. a book with a main character who has a disability. I am a moderate-severe special education teacher and I am always going to grab anything to help me understand my students more, or understand a less mentioned type of disability.

Akinetopsia or motion blindness, was not a disability which I had previously heard about, so I immediately wanted to learn more. In this type of blindness, the brain struggles to compute motion, and instead gives a person freeze frame images of motion- almost like a slow gif where placement of objects or people change when the individual blinks. From what I was able to understand from a little extra research, it looks like an individual can be born with it or develop it from brain trauma, like our main character Leah. I found it fascinating that Leah can actually see very well in fact, but only stationary images.

Leah was quite a fascinating character, and I kind of wanted to be her friend. She is somewhat reclusive, but also really wants to have positive relationships and good friends. When her new neighbor Alice moved in, the readers get to know some of Leah's real strengths. She not only has excellent hearing, but also has an innate ability to sense other's feelings and emotions (almost aura like). Alice, her new friend, is in trouble, but how? and why?

Not only is Leah worried about her friend, and what trouble she is in, but Leah also has a stalker who leaves behind the peculiar scent of bergamot. Leah knows this person has been into her apartment, as his scent lingers where he's been. But why has he come into her apartment, and why can she smell this scent in Alice's apartment too? Is the person behind smell of earl gray tea to blame for Alice's bruises and anxiousness?

The twists that this book takes are insane. As soon as I though I had figured out what was going on, I obviously had not. I did not put the full picture together until the last page, and wow.

This book was a quick read, as I wanted to figure out what the heck was going on and who this dangerous scented man was. Not only that, but I was worried for both Leah and Alice throughout the book.

If you want a book that will keep you guessing until the end- pick this one up. You won't regret it. ( )