Laura Ellen

I finished Blind Spot in a few days. I was completely enthralled in the story. It’s an attention grabbing “who done it.”

Roz is a character that I related to, and wanted to shake some sense into at the same time. She’s legally blind and wants to be normal. Being placed in a new class for kids with impairments of some sort completely rocks her world. She’s being forced to get help she doesn’t want after an incident with a student the year prior. I think the fact that she has handled her disability all of these years has been amazing. She doesn’t realize that people just want the best for her. I couldn’t stand Roz’s mom. She has no idea what’s going on in her daughter’s life, and she doesn’t really care as long as it doesn’t interfere with hers. The side characters were intriguing, especially Tricia. Tricia definitely has issues, and will manipulate anyone she has to in order to get what she wants.

I liked the mystery of trying to find out what happened to Tricia. I kept trying to figure out who had a hand in her disappearance, and for the life of me I couldn’t guess who. I was even blabbering to my husband about it. He said I was way to invested in the characters, but that’s how I know when I really get into a storyline. There are so many things that happened the night Tricia disappeared, and events that led up to that night. I did feel like Roz made the wrong decisions in how she handled everything. She’s still a teen though, and she was scared. She doesn’t know what exactly happened that night. She’s just trying to piece things together from what everyone is telling her.

I suggest this for those that want a great mystery with unique characters.… (mais)

and it comes out just in time for my birthday (or for me to review if I get it early ;-) )
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review:


Blind Spot was so, so different from what I was expecting based on the synopsis - and the cover, too, actually. We find out int he beginning that the body of Tricia Farni has been found, after her long disappearance, but then the story goes back in time to introduce the characters. We meet Roz who's just starting her sophomore year, her first year without her best friend after their friendship recently fell apart.

Roz also hates any time her macular degeneration, and eyesight problem that's led to her being declared legally blind, makes her stand out - and she's about to find that she'll be less able to blend in this year thanks to one person.

Readers also meet Tricia, a troubled girl in one of Roz's classes and other possible friends for Roz - as well as possible suspects in what the first part of the book is counting down to: Tricia's death.

The characters - and their circumstances and situations - in Blind Spot were both unique and a great way to move the story forward. I appreciated that Roz's 'disability' wasn't the only out of the norm thing a character was dealing with in this story. Some of the characters' personalities, on the other hand, seemed to rub me the wrong way. While Roz had a lot of book smarts, she had very little, let's say, walking around sense. There were so many times that I just wanted her to exhibit some common sense.

We did see that she was given several major stressors - both before the story began and especially during it - didn't have a decent parental figure, but a bit more introspection or logical actions would have made her a better character for me. Perhaps it was that the story was first person that created some of my difficulties here, but she aggravated me sometimes. (Sony!)

The adult figure creating a lot of conflict in the story also brought up a lot of questions. The actions did move the story along, create emotional turmoil for Roz and trouble between different characters, but at times I had trouble finding it all entirely plausible. If everything was happening as Roz told it, it seemed unlikely that no one else would take issue and/or believe her reporting of things.

The first part of the novel did read a like a great contemporary. There was a nice mix of characters, including characters with attributes that you don't normally see in most YA (or adult, for that matter) fiction. I don't see this quite as the 'mystery' the synopsis seemed to promise and do think the other aspects of the story were stronger. Though there were parts of (or character in) the book that I did not like, there were aspects that I did and I'm curious to see what Ms Ellen follows this with.


(thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my e-galley)
… (mais)

When sixteen-year-old Roz was diagnosed with Macular Degeneration, she felt like everything in her life was turned upside down. She was kicked off the softball team, lost her best friend and couldn’t even read the numbers on her locker without using a magnifying glass. Getting around school and finding people in crowds was difficult.

Read the rest of my review at: http://shouldireaditornot.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/blind-spot-laura-ellen/ and don't forget to subscribe to my blog so you can get the full reviews in your inbox.… (mais)