So I decided to go ahead and try the bit of sample the author is offering. I was, in fact, taking a break from another tedious novel that I felt lacked some bit of style to keep me interested. I had made it to the author's web page and looked at the covers, which were intriguing. I honestly didn't know what to expect from this novel. I felt the author had changed her mind several times in relation to what DIAMOND EYES was about. For me it was a very long read and not one that I particularly enjoyed. In addition, many of the characters, even those in authority in the mental institution Mira is in, are 'damaged goods' and some are just plain corrupt.I think this is a book you will either relish or dislike. Sometimes what she sees are memories, while other visions are conjured up by her imagination.She becomes part of an experiment to enable a comparison of delusions with reality and one of the assessors sees her as a 'goldmine' whose case will attract funding to their project by drawing media attention to the medical misdiagnosis she has been subjected to over the last 10 years. The colours of her glasses determines what she sees. Mira's affliction, Fragile X syndrome, allows/forces her to see events from the past that have taken place in the rooms and settings she is in.

There is evil, crime, and even murder, but for me the threads strayed more into science fiction.There are just too many layers in this story for me. Although I did come to appreciate why it has been nominated for a Ned Kelly, but I am not convinced it should be there. I chose to read DIAMOND EYES because it is on the Best First Fiction Nominations list for the Ned Kelly Awards for 2011.Despite the product description there is little that marks the early stages of the novel as crime fiction and I found it hard to place the novel. On retrospect it seems she could not have matured as fast as she did in one week but the story is so well crafted that when in it, there is not doubt.Ī winner of the 2010 Norma K Hemming Award. Sometimes she was childlike and raging, other times she was sophisticated and poised. Without the building relationship between the main characters, the theoretical line of the story would not be as easily absorbed, and without the theory, the story also would lose legs so the blend is very much necessary and well executed.Īt times it was hard to keep up with Mira's position on her emotional scale. This is a SF novel with a strong element of romance, not a combination I've read a lot of. Really drawn in.įinished! Bell handled some very interesting concepts of perception, vision, time and space. It's feeling more SF/horror than fantasy, not my usual read by loving the style and her voice. I see already why AA Bell won the Norma K.

Diamond Eyes by A.A. Bell