It's a nice little story with a great, strong-willed protagonist. What's more, she's a strong-willed disabled protagonist and we need more of that. The plot unfolds with quite some naturality, but it didn't strike me as great.
The mystery surrounding her father's disappearance promises to deliver a bit more than what it was delivered in the end.
What I see here is a good start for a series of a teens adventure book series.
Laureth Peak is heading to New York, with her little brother Benjamin. She borrowed her mum’s credit card to pay for the flights and told Benjamin they’re off to visit their dad. Which isn’t entirely a lie. Their dad has gone missing and Laureth needs to find him, but she just couldn’t go by herself. Her only clue is one of her dad’s notebooks, found by a stranger, containing the notes for THAT book.
She Is Not Invisible is an absolutely wonderful book. Blindness isn’t Laureth’s defining feature. I picked up the book not knowing anything about it and I slowly came to realise that she is blind through some of her actions rather that it being blatant. The first thing we learn is she’s abducting her little brother and getting on a plane. It’s not a story about blindness, it’s a story about a girl looking for her dad …
Laureth Peak is heading to New York, with her little brother Benjamin. She borrowed her mum’s credit card to pay for the flights and told Benjamin they’re off to visit their dad. Which isn’t entirely a lie. Their dad has gone missing and Laureth needs to find him, but she just couldn’t go by herself. Her only clue is one of her dad’s notebooks, found by a stranger, containing the notes for THAT book.
She Is Not Invisible is an absolutely wonderful book. Blindness isn’t Laureth’s defining feature. I picked up the book not knowing anything about it and I slowly came to realise that she is blind through some of her actions rather that it being blatant. The first thing we learn is she’s abducting her little brother and getting on a plane. It’s not a story about blindness, it’s a story about a girl looking for her dad who happens to be blind. Saying that, it does a fantastic job of relaying what everyday life is like for her and the things most of us take for granted.
At first I thought it was a little overdone and unbelievable that everything Benjamin touches would break, but as we read about her dad’s research into coincidence, it becomes more relevant. There are “extracts” from her dad’s notebook that contains his research for his book. It explains that Pauli started looking at synchronicity just because he had these weird coincidences (breaking experiments), which became known as Pauli’s syndrome. As a side note, my mum always said she broke electronic items (I think it wore off after she discovered eBay).
So there’s two aspects to this book, one is Laureth and Benjamin’s sometimes perilous journey around New York, and the increasing worry about their dad’s fate. It’s full of warmth and humour and a dash of tension. Then there’s all the stuff about coincidence which is thought-provoking. And when you get to the end, don’t skip the tiny bit of advice, it will make you smile.
This was my first book by Marcus Sedgwick but I have a few others on my TBR. He’s certainly an author I look forward to reading more of.
