Love and First Sight

by Josh Sundquist Narrated by Pat Young

Overview

In his debut novel, YouTube personality and author of We Should Hang Out Sometime Josh Sundquist explores the nature of love, trust, and romantic attraction.

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 relate to each other and the world around us.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Sensitively explores disability and its influence on identity...The juxtaposition of blindness with (not) judging by appearances is common, but the author gives depth to the trope by highlighting the betrayal Will feels at the exploitation of his blindness. Thought-provoking and insightful."—Kirkus Reviews

"Unique...Readers will enjoy the humor and romance of the story while gaining a better understanding of life with a visual disability...A highly recommended and engaging story for most YA collections."—SLJ

"Sundquist writes eloquently about what it might be like for someone who was born blind to be given sight...thoughtful and evocative...providing readers with a fresh perspective on how humans interact with each other and the world around them."—Publishers Weekly

"Rich in sensory detail, this novel pulls readers into Will's world. Sundquist deftly shows the difference between the act of seeing and truly seeing. This fresh and funny coming-of-age story presents an opportunity for readers who take certain abilities for granted to take stock of challenges facing peers."—Booklist

"Sundquist does a nice job of getting inside the head of a person who has absolutely no visual frames of reference...without it feeling intrusive or overly clinical. For budding scientists and future doctors, these details offer new thoughts as well as context for understanding the real stories of people gaining eyesight after blindness and then wishing they hadn't; even readers who just came for the romance will find themselves understanding the "tyranny of the visual" in new ways."—BCCB

"In his debut novel, memoirist Josh Sundquist proves he's as adept at making up new stories as he is at recounting his old ones as he explores overcoming adversity, seeing the world through fresh eyes (literally), and keeping a sense of humor in the midst of life's tribulations. An exciting new voice in the world of YA fiction."—Tommy Wallach, New York Times bestselling author of We All Looked Up

"Is love blind? Should it be? With an intricate, intimate fiction debut, Josh Sundquist aims to find out."—Barry Lyga, New York Times bestselling author

Praise for We Should Hang Out Sometime:
An Amazon.ca Best Books of December 2014 for Children and Teens Selection
A YALSA 2015 Teens Top Ten Nominee
2015 Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee"You should read this book sometime. I loved it so much!"—Justine Ezarik, New York Times bestselling author of I, Justine: An Analog Memoir

"[A] laugh-out-loud memoir..."—SLJ

Kirkus Reviews

2016-09-19
Sundquist (We Should Hang Out Sometime, 2014) explores blindness and sight in his first novel. Aspiring to be "the Stevie Wonder of journalism," white, congenitally blind Will Porter is confident that mainstreaming into high school at 16 will be a snap. But things get awkward when he falls for Cecily, an artistic, evasive white girl with a knack for explaining visual concepts. Soon, Will learns that he has the opportunity to gain eyesight via experimental retinal stem-cell implants. His difficult decision sensitively explores disability and its influence on identity. The author's research shows; there are frequent explanations of eyesight and its relationship to the brain. That information is critical for understanding the disorientation and frustration that Will experiences upon gaining eyesight. Sight requires him to learn colors, shapes, and perspective as if he's just been born—which, in a sense, he has. Such surprises as racial differences (when he sees African-American pal Whitford for the first time he thinks, “What’s the fuss about?”), paintings, and a "counterintuitive" snowstorm prompt interesting reflections, and his new perspective is tested when he realizes that Cecily's appearance significantly differs from his cheerfully nerdy new friends' descriptions of her. The juxtaposition of blindness with (not) judging by appearances is common, but the author gives depth to the trope by highlighting the betrayal Will feels at the exploitation of his blindness. The resolution is optimistic yet realistically open-ended. Thought-provoking and insightful. (author's note) (Romance. 13-18)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170380107
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	01/03/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

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