Review: With Eyes Closed by Thijs G Jantas

     

Print Length: 223 pages

Publisher: Thijs Books  (April 25, 2026)

From Goodreads.com:  Every love story hides a crime.

With Eyes Closed follows Michael, a man haunted by guilt and emotional detachment after a tragic loss. When Michael becomes entangled with Jill, a mysterious woman whose affection for him hides a darker plan, he chooses to ignore his intuition.

As their connection deepens, love, obsession, and deception begin to blur, forcing them both to confront a single haunting question:

Can love exist without destruction, or is destruction its purest form?

                                                         *******************

My Rating: 1 star out of 5

Right off the bat, the formatting alone was enough to pull me out of the story almost immediately. It jumped between first and third person multiple times with no clear purpose, and on top of that, POV shifts and scene changes happened without any warning whatsoever. No line breaks, no markers, just suddenly being inside someone else’s head or in a completely different place. It made the reading experience feel unnecessarily confusing and, at times, downright frustrating.

There were also smaller inconsistencies that didn’t help matters. For example, when Michael meets Jill and Ivy for dinner and then just lets them walk off together, even though they’re all heading back to the same place? It felt odd and out of place, especially when something as simple as walking them there could have added a bit more depth to the interactions. Although, if I’m being honest, I’m not convinced it would have made much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

Because that’s really the core issue here: this book seemed like it was trying to say something meaningful, but it never actually went anywhere. There was a heavy emphasis on silence; shared silences, meaningful silences, silences that supposedly spoke louder than words, but instead of adding depth, it just made everything feel hollow. I kept waiting for a moment where I’d finally feel connected to the characters or invested in the story, but it never came. Even the “mystery” surrounding the girls was so abstract and underdeveloped, that it failed to hold any real intrigue.

Which is a shame, because there were moments that stood out. One in particular, when Michael returns to his childhood home and reflects on how “he didn’t feel sadness; he felt something sweeter: that faint weight nostalgia leaves when it doesn’t hurt so much anymore." That was a genuinely beautiful line. It showed that the author can write something impactful, I just wish we had seen more of that style of writing. 

And then there’s the hairpin. I’m sorry, but a hairpin fatally piercing someone’s chest? That completely took me out of the story. If they had been small, dagger-like objects with the same design, it would have worked, but a hairpin? 

What really sealed it for me though, was that ending. After pushing through all of this.... silence..... the book just… stops. A vague sort of cliffhanger; no real answers, no resolution of any kind. Absolutely nothing to make the journey feel worthwhile. And because of that, I have absolutely no interest in continuing with the series. 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.