BOOK REVIEW: LOVE AND FIRST SIGHT BY JOSH SUNDQUIST

Love and First Sight

by Josh Sundquist

Published: January 3rd 2017

Paperback, 288 pages

MY GOODREADS RATING 4/5 STARS

(Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Netgalley, I received an advanced copy of this book to review)

GOODREADS SYNOPSIS

Love is more than meets the eye.
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 sweet but shy girl named Cecily. And despite his fear that having a girlfriend will make him inherently dependent on someone sighted, the two of them grow closer and closer. 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?

MY THOUGHTS:

    What first stood out to me while reading this book, is that Josh did a ton of research regarding the topic of blindness. There were sections where a lot of medical jargon was thrown around, but as a reader I could understand what was being said. This was only because it was explained so well.
     Will was an amazing character. He was extremely witty, and had an amazing take on things. He also had such a great sense of humor it was hard not to laugh along with the things he said. I thought the side characters were solid. I loved that Will's parents were really involved in his life and in the story in general. I could feel his mom's hope and other emotions through Josh's writing, and I just loved that. Cecily was a great side character, she was extremely insecure about her looks, but Will couldn't tell by talking to her, which was a plus. 
    Overall I loved Josh's writing style and how easily the story flowed. I loved the whole premise of the book mainly because it was a topic I knew little to nothing about. Josh made you feel his characters emotions through his writing and it was simply beautiful. I would highly recommend this book it you are looking for a different kind of contemporary read.