Ratings14
Average rating3.6
"As a sixteen-year-old, Tessa Cartwright was found in a Texas field, barely alive amid a scattering of bones, with only fragments of memory as to how she got there. Ever since, the press has pursued her as the lone surviving "Black-Eyed Susan," the nickname given to the murder victims because of the yellow carpet of wildflowers that flourished above their shared grave. Tessa's testimony about those tragic hours put a man on death row. Now, almost two decades later, Tessa is an artist and single mother. In the desolate cold of February, she is shocked to discover a freshly planted patch of black-eyed susans--a summertime bloom--just outside her bedroom window. Terrified at the implications--that she sent the wrong man to prison and the real killer remains at large--Tessa turns to the lawyers working to exonerate the man awaiting execution." --
Reviews with the most likes.
I'm not very sure about this book. I didn't like it, but I don't dislike it either. The narrative was very slow and I couldn't sympathize with the protagonist. It's not what I expected, but the reading kept me entertained somehow.
book 2/30 Black Eyed Susans by Julia Heaberlin 3.5/5
I read one of Heaberlin's other novels We Are All the Same in the Dark last year and absolutely LOVED it! Black Eyed Susans was good, but I didn't love any of the characters like I loved the protagonist in the former.
Black Eyed Susans is a thriller following Tessa, who was kidnapped and found buried alive with bones and body of other girls who were killed in rural texas as a teenager. The story flashes between present-day Tessa who is trying to get the man convicted off death row and 15/16 year old Tessie who is recounting her harrowing experience to her therapist before the trial. It's slower to start, but about 65% of the way through it really picks up speed to a crashing finale.