"Blindsided" - Book Review

 

Synopsis:

In many ways, Natalie O’Reilly is a typical fourteen-year-old girl. But a routine visit to the eye doctor produces devastating news: Natalie will lose her sight within a few short months.

Suddenly her world is turned upside down. Natalie is sent to a school for the blind to learn skills such as Braille and how to use a cane. Outwardly, she does as she’s told; inwardly, she hopes for a miracle that will free her from a dreaded life of blindness.

But the miracle does not come, and Natalie ultimately must confront every blind person’s dilemma. Will she go home to live scared? Or will she embrace the skills she needs to make it in a world without sight?

 

 

My Review:

 

This book was very different than other books that I've read. For one, it's about a girl who loses her sight and now that I think about it I think it's really weird I haven't read a book about someone with a disability. Ever since I was little I've always thought about the perspectives of other people and wondered what it felt like to not have one of your senses.

Blindsided opened my eyes to so many things about the perspective of being blind that I had never even considered before. Aside from the obvious side effects of losing your sight; not being able to see color anymore, not being able to see other people's expressions, or not being able to see if it's dark or light out. But then there were things that had never occurred to me before like how people unable to see have trouble dealing with money here in the States because we're one of the only countries with discriminatory currency unlike other countries that have bills with braille or textured foil. Having to create a system to tell what color each article of clothing is so that they can match, even though they can't see them, but because of how society can be, and to avoid being made fun of. Blindsided was such an enlightening and inspiring book that opened my eyes to a lot of things and empowered me to want to be a stronger person like Natalie.

Cummings did an amazing job taking us along Natalie's journey from having her sight to losing it by the way she wrote. In the beginning we could see the things Natalie saw but as time progressed and her glaucoma got worse we started to see less and less of the surroundings and Cumming's focused more on imagery using the other senses. She began to mainly describe what was going on with sounds, smells, touch, and taste as Natalie started to transition to being completely blind. It was such an interesting and new way of looking at things, and I have greater and stronger respect for people who are born blind or lose their sight and start from scratch.

 

 

 

HAPPY READING EVERYONE! :)