Eyes Everywhere
By Matthew Warner

Review By Andrew Walsh

“Eyes Everywhere” is the story of Charlie Fields, a young, married, father of two, who discovers that he is at the center of a huge government conspiracy. He is forced to question not only himself, but his co-workers, neighbors, wife, and even his own children. Set in a post 9/11 world, Matthew Warner uses the climate of our times as a backdrop for his hero’s journey into the realm of shady organizations and undercover government plans.
The novel wastes no time jumping in to Charlie’s paranoia, constantly forcing the reader to question whether he himself believes Charlie’s story. There are just enough clues to lead you to one conclusion, only to be followed by another set of circumstances that lead you to a different one. In “Eyes Everywhere,” Warner very effectively uses the technique of the unreliable narrator. This is when an author uses a third person narrator whose perspective is not omniscient, but rather follows the tale and insights of only the main character. It reminded me of Henry James’ short story “The Turn of the Screw” in that way. You want to believe in the main character, but there are reasons to doubt that you are getting all the facts. Actually, “The Others,” starring Nicole Kidman, was a film loosely based on that short, and is a good example of a tale in which one is led to question the validity of the protagonist.
This is a hard review to write in the sense that there are many suprises to be found in this novel and I don’t want to spoil any of them. I finished the bulk of it in one sitting, not because I had to in order to write the review, but because the story snowballed so quickly, taking me along with Charlie and his descent into the larger conspiracy surrounding him.
By the time you finish “Eyes Everywhere,” you can truly admire the work that went into this book. The details are all there. I found myself flipping back to certain scenes just to double check the clues and see if they added up, and they did.
It is a novel about paranoia that keeps you guessing. I was never one-hundred percent sure what was going to happen, and that is a rare feat these days. I particularly like the ending because it doesn’t punk out. The further you get, the more inevitable the conclusion seems, and Warner goes right for it, keeping you guessing until the end.
I’ll admit at first I was afraid I would dislike the book and feel forced to give it a positive review, but this really wasn’t the case (and by the way, I wouldn’t have done that anyway, that’s not the way we do things at Horror Yearbook).
Matthew Warner is a talented writer with a real knack for pacing and drawing the reader into the mind of his hero. I would recommend this book. It is a fun, quick read, that is well written and well thought out.

Read our interview with Matthew Warner Here

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Picture of Andrew Walsh , not Matthew Warner.