bgsbooks18
Written on Aug 6, 2019
After a lifetime attending a school for the blind, sixteen-year-old Will Porter's first day at a mainstream high school went about as well as he expected. He accidentally grazed a girl's boob when reaching for a handrail on the stairs, he sat on another student in the cafeteria, and he somehow drove a new classmate to tears without saying a word. His high school career can only go up from there, right?
As Will starts to find his footing, he develops a crush on a charming, quiet girl name 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 could have ever imagined, and as he adjusts to his new sense, he finds the sighted world has been keeping more secrets from him than he realized. It turns out that the girl he's been falling for doesn't meet traditional definitions of beauty. In fact, everything he'd heard about her appearance now appears to be 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 in Will's voice as he transitions from blind to sighted, this is a story about the nature of perception, love, trust, and romantic attraction. With moments of breathtaking poignancy, it's about how we relate to each other and the world around us, and how true friendship is one thing you don't need to be able to see to believe.
- ISBN10 0316305359
- ISBN13 9780316305358
- Publish Date 25 May 2017 (first published 3 January 2017)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Little, Brown & Company
- Imprint Little, Brown Young Readers
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 288
- Language English
Reviews
Pigpen.Reads
Written on Apr 22, 2017
Bianca
Written on Jan 8, 2017
Because that’s all it is, right? Society or the media or whoever says people should look a certain way, and the more you deviate from that, the less beautiful you are.
— A nice take on sight vs. perception. Loved the beginning-middle parts but it went downhill for me after.
Sam@WLABB
Written on Jan 7, 2017
Excuse me as I wipe the tears
This was such a sweet and beautiful story of love and friendship, as well as, a story to spread awareness. I knew of Josh Sundquist from my daughter showing me his awesome Halloween costumes, and was interested in reading a book about someone with a disability written by a person with a disability (who also happens to be an advocate for amputees, a paralympian, and motivational speaker).
When I was in college, my sorority did service for sight, and I had a blind student in my honors chemistry class requiring some training with the NJ Commission for the Blind. Therefore, I have some (limited) experience with blind people, and was quite impressed with the information disseminated by Sundquist, and the way he shared the information. I appreciated the way he acquainted me with the world of the blind. It did not feel preachy, it felt honest. The interactions between Cecily and Will reminded me of similar interactions I had when being a guide/teaching chemistry to a person who had never had sight person. I totally related to Cecily's struggle to NOT use visuals to describe things, and I adored the way Sundquist had her work that out.
At one point in the story, there is a surgery discussed that could possibly enable Will to see. There is a lot of technical talk when the characters discuss this issue, and I found it all really fascinating. I was so struck by the way Will talked about what it would be like to see for the first first time. How it would be the same as a newborn, but how he could remember it and appreciate it so much more. It's amazing what complicated stuff we passively learn, and I was awed reading about the journey from Will's perspective.
This story is well constructed, and moves along quickly without seeming rushed. I felt like there were no throw-away scenes, but rather, each scene was important in fleshing out the story. The characters were quite authentic and likable. Will was not perfect, but he had so many stellar qualities. Cecily had been bullied her whole life, but was able to find comfort and security in Will's friendship. The quiz team were a great group of friends, who adorably were rooting for Wilecily to happen. Mom and Dad were very present parents (Yay!), and there is this one part with his mom that, heck, I am getting misty thinking about it right now.
Overall: This was a very positive experience with me, which left me appreciating many things and put happy tears in my eyes.
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Kim Deister
Written on Jan 1, 2017
Love and First Sight is the first I've read by author Josh Sundquist. I read it in less than a day because I just couldn't put it down. It is a gripping story with fabulous characters and an even ore fabulous story.
So much of YA fiction focuses on girls so I was happy to read this novel, one that focuses on a guy. Will is not your average teenage guy, either. He is blind and has spent most of his life sheltered from the visual world. He has always gone to a school for the blind, and much to his mother's distress, he has chosen to spread his wings and prove to her that he can thrive in the rest of the world, too.
The descriptions of the world as Will "sees" it are vivid and they only become more vivid after Will undergoes surgery. The author really captures his journey and all of the emotionally charged aspects of it. The emotional side of it all is something I never would have considered before reading Will's story and it really was eye-opening.
The story is a wonderful blend of humor, stark reality, and adult choices. It is as much a story of friendship as it is one of growth and coming of age. It is also a story that makes you think. Being in Will's head makes you, as a person with sight, see the world in a different way. It made me reconsider friendship and honesty and how differently even non-vision-related issues can be experienced by someone without sight. And as Will goes through the experience of having to make a potentially life-altering decision, it made me think about all the implications of that kind of choice. Choices that seem like easy ones on the surface, but really aren't. I enjoy a book that forces me to take another look at life and see it from an entirely different perspective.
Overall: This is a great read that will make you think. The story is incredibly engaging and it is one that I won't forget for a long time. This is a book I highly recommend!
Chelsea
Written on Oct 22, 2016
What I Loved
I loved the whole idea of this book. You could tell that the author really did his research about visually impaired people because it felt realistic. There was no face touching (which I never knew if people actually did that or not) but the main character was able to make lots of jokes about his situation. He was a guy that had accepted blindness was a part of him instead of being cranky and cynical all the time. It made him an easy character to like.
The group of friends that our main character mad were also pretty cool. I liked their energy and they really helped to make this a light read. It could have been really easy for this book to become sad or depressing but the author did a really great job keeping it light but still realistic.
What I Didn't Love
The story line was a little predictable and it would have been nice to seem something other than the typical road trip to get the girl back trope. The book was doing so well until we got to that point. I mean there was a few other parts that were a little cheesy but I could mostly look over those.
I feel like that author had so much potential with this book but it ended up falling into the void of typical YA contemporary books. I was a little disappointed because this seemed like such a great plot at first.
Who I'd Recommend To
I’d recommend this for those of you who are actively looking for diverse books. There isn't often book about people with physical disabilities though there seems to be a lot of characters with mental ones lately. It's also a quick and cute read so contemporary lovers will enjoy this one I think!
Leah
Written on Oct 22, 2016
The most shocking, stark thing about reading Love and First Sight was how I clearly take my eyesight for granted. To go into Will’s world, into complete darkness, and even more than that, when Will is offered the treatment to have vision, and it’s not just waking up and seeing things and knowing what they are was so, so scary. Can you imagine opening your eyes and not being able to understand what you’re seeing? No? Me neither. I very much take for granted my ability to look at my fingers and know that they’re fingers. To look at a picture and understand perception and depth. To know a book is shaped like a rectangle. For Will to not understand any of that made my heart break.
What I also loved about the book was the friendships between Will, Ion, Nick, Whitford, and Cecily. How their little group accepts Will is amazing, and they just fall into a routine of hanging out together, without Will being blind being an issue, but it’s really the friendship between Will and Cecily that made me so happy. It’s just this amazing thing, two people who just seemed to have found the right person that they never even knew they needed. *Happy sigh* Going to the art museum, watching a sunrise (well, Cecily watches the sunrise), homecoming, it was all just so perfect.
Love and First Sight was just an amazing read. It made me laugh, it made me want to cry, it made me appreciate the fact that I can see way more than anything ever has done. Josh Sundquist is a fantastic writer, I felt like I was with Will every step of the book, and I just loved every page, this was such a cracking fiction debut, and everyone needs to read this book, it’s so, so cute.