On his first day at a new school, blind sixteen-year-old Will Porter accidentally groped a girl on the stairs, sat on another student in the cafeteria, and somehow drove a classmate to tears. High school can only go up from here, right?
As Will starts to find his footing, he develops a crush on a charming, quiet girl named Cecily. Then an unprecedented opportunity arises: an experimental surgery that could give Will eyesight for the first time in his life. But learning to see is more difficult than Will ever imagined, and he soon discovers that the sighted world has been keeping secrets. It turns out Cecily doesn't meet traditional definitions of beauty--in fact, everything he'd heard about her appearance was a lie engineered by their so-called friends to get the two of them together. Does it matter what Cecily looks like? No, not really. But then why does Will feel so betrayed?
Told with humor and breathtaking poignancy, Love and First Sight is a story about how we related to each other and the world around us.
This book was an uplifting read that tackled important questions in a reasonable manner.
Will is a lovely character--I enjoy how he manages to maintain an identity outside of being blind. I would have liked to see him have more of his own interests and passions, but despite him fitting into a character trait mould he was a lot of fun to read about. He maintained his independence and stuck up for himself and others.
I gained so much appreciation for the way I see from reading this book. Sundquist does an exemplary job of describing what it must be like to see for the first time. From the process of recognising colours to understanding the concept of objects being 3D, I definitely thought about my sight in different ways. Even terms like "perspective" are much more complex to describe than I previously would have thought.
I bought the fact that Will is eligible for a surgery that means he might regain eyesight for the sake of the book; however, I thought there was one other decision on a family member's behalf that was irrational. But this is YA, and though I rolled my eyes through the last part of the book, it came with the type of ending that one looks for.
Visually impaired people are definitely an underrepresented group in books, and though I was excited by the premise, I was simultaneously worried that this wouldn't be done carefully. However, I feel it was clear that the author carefully looked at many cases of blindness and formed an experience that was legitimate and gave me a new perspective.
This books gets extra points for bringing forward such a unique experience, but ultimately was a tale of acceptance and romance.
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
6
