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librarianryan 's review for:
Love and First Sight
by Josh Sundquist
3.5 *
Thank you to AudiobookSYNC for a chance to listen to this book. I will be honest, I would never have read this book. I’m not a fan of YA contemporary. Especially contemporary where the teens have problems that have to be overcome. Cecily has a batgirl esk facial birthmark, and our main character Will was born blind. But even though most of the story was completely expected, I enjoyed the trip.
Will has begged his parents to go to a normal school, instead of the school for the blind he has attended all his life. While trying to avoid right out telling everyone he is blind, he accidently upsets Cecily who doesn’t know that he wasn’t intentionally staring at her. It’s this incident that brings the two together, with another bunch of rag tag nerds who love to play settlers and lead the schools quiz team.
As I said, the story is exactly what you would expect it to be. Miss understanding between the two main characters, a miracle cure, and then learning to live with that miracle cure and the consequences that come with it.
As a fully able bodied person I appreciated details like how the brain “sees” and what things might be odd or confusing if you had never seen before. Things like relearning shapes, and how much perspective plays into what we see. How much we as sighted individuals take for granted. It has also helped me think about how I describe things to a blind, or visually impaired person.
But at the same time as I realize how bad I probably am at describing things to my blind patrons, I also realize that some may see this title as ableist. Will doesn’t mind his blind life, it’s all he has ever known. His mother however, just want’s a sighted or “normal” son and pushes him towards experimental surgery. The book does not glorify his experience of relearning things he already knows, but does glorify seeing new things, and glimpsing things he may never see again.
Overall, I enjoyed the listen, but stand by what I said earlier about reading this as a book. I would have DNF the book once it slowed down or got mushy.
Thank you to AudiobookSYNC for a chance to listen to this book. I will be honest, I would never have read this book. I’m not a fan of YA contemporary. Especially contemporary where the teens have problems that have to be overcome. Cecily has a batgirl esk facial birthmark, and our main character Will was born blind. But even though most of the story was completely expected, I enjoyed the trip.
Will has begged his parents to go to a normal school, instead of the school for the blind he has attended all his life. While trying to avoid right out telling everyone he is blind, he accidently upsets Cecily who doesn’t know that he wasn’t intentionally staring at her. It’s this incident that brings the two together, with another bunch of rag tag nerds who love to play settlers and lead the schools quiz team.
As I said, the story is exactly what you would expect it to be. Miss understanding between the two main characters, a miracle cure, and then learning to live with that miracle cure and the consequences that come with it.
As a fully able bodied person I appreciated details like how the brain “sees” and what things might be odd or confusing if you had never seen before. Things like relearning shapes, and how much perspective plays into what we see. How much we as sighted individuals take for granted. It has also helped me think about how I describe things to a blind, or visually impaired person.
But at the same time as I realize how bad I probably am at describing things to my blind patrons, I also realize that some may see this title as ableist. Will doesn’t mind his blind life, it’s all he has ever known. His mother however, just want’s a sighted or “normal” son and pushes him towards experimental surgery. The book does not glorify his experience of relearning things he already knows, but does glorify seeing new things, and glimpsing things he may never see again.
Overall, I enjoyed the listen, but stand by what I said earlier about reading this as a book. I would have DNF the book once it slowed down or got mushy.