I’d like to say that the title, Close Your Eyes and Count to 10, and the cover of Lisa Unger‘s latest novel wasn’t the main reason for me to read it, but that would simply be untrue.
Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be.
Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.
Lisa Unger has a celebrated career in writing psychological thrillers that can chill us to the bone. Her latest release, Close Your Eyes and Count to 10, took me on a suspenseful journey filled set in an unsettling atmosphere. Despite my admiration for Unger’s storytelling, this particular novel left me with mixed feelings.
The premise itself behind Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 is captivating—a charismatic daredevil named Maverick Dillan orchestrates a seemingly thrilling game of hide-and-seek on a remote island. However, the big distraction for me was the multitude of perspectives presented throughout the novel. While stories with multiple viewpoints can enrich an overall narrative by offering diverse insights into unfolding events, here it felt overwhelming. Characters seemed to blend together in my head as I was unable to really give each person their own voice. This distracted me from the overall story at hand.
The slow burn pacing also posed a small challenge for me during segments. There were moments where tension should have escalated instead stretched thin due largely due varied tempo shifts between chapters. This is not something that completely turned me off from the book, but made it more difficult to fall in love with the novel.
Overall, Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 by Lisa Unger is a good book with an excellent premise. The drawbacks of multitude of perspectives and pacing didn’t take away completely from enjoying the book. Unger continues to craft tales with an unsettling atmosphere, unique plot line and thrilling twists, this one just didn’t hit as hard as others in the past—The New Couple in 5B was one of my favorites of 2024. A big bonus for this book was the cover, damn that thing is beautiful.
Close Your Eyes and Count to 10 hits bookstores everywhere on February 25, 2025 from Park Row Books. The audiobook is available at Libro.fm!
