Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist

Born completely blind, sixteen year old Will is embarking on his most challenging endeavor yet: public high school.  As he gains confidence in his ability to navigate his new world, Will finds himself with a fantastic group of new friends and a potential love interest, Cecily.  Everything seems to be going swimmingly in his new life, especially since he has been given the chance to have an experimental surgery that will give him his eyesight.  What Will soon realizes is that seeing is a language of its own, and it holds its own secrets.  Love and First Sight mixes light-hearted teen romance with a thought-provoking perspective on how we see the world and how it sees us.  I picked it up for a light and fun summer read and ended up having several great conversations because of this book.  There’s more than meets the eye with this lovely little novel.  Read more to find out why!

I was in need of a fun, lighter read this summer after a lot of heavy reading thanks to grad school.  When I found Love and First Sight at my local library, I knew it would be just the treat I needed.  Written with care and humor, Josh Sundquist does a fantastic job of creating this fictional tale with a clearly researched background.  Complications arise as Will begins to see.  He learns that not everyone has been truthful with how the world looks, especially in regard to Cecily.  

The changes that occur in Will’s life both physically and emotionally truly allowed me to think about how much I take for granted with my own eyesight.  Sundquist allows readers to experience what it is like both to “see” as a blind person and how to learn the language of sight through Will’s perspective.  He creates characters that are relatable to the age group, but aren’t annoying to adult readers.  

This book really gave me a new perspective on what it means to see.  Will’s reaction to learning what shapes look like, not just what the feel like, was so interesting.  He first learns his colors by tasting Skittles and memorizing their corresponding colors.  His process for recognizing everyday objects is one that we all experienced as children, but took for granted at how difficult it really was.  Sundquist based Will’s reactions and experiences on actual cases of blind patients gaining their sight for the first time.  Sundquist presents an adventure worth sharing.

This was a cute, moving story with a nice little moral in the end.  There’s humor and heart in this relatable story that proves you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover-especially if you’re just learning to see.

TL/DR: Love and First Sight teaches us that there’s more to love than meets the eye.
Rating: 4/5 stars