Title: Not If I See You First
Author: Eric Lindstrom
Publisher: HaperCollins
Release Date: Dec 31 2015
Rating: 4 Stars
“Parker Grant doesn’t need perfect vision to see right through you. That’s why she created the Rules: Don’t treat her any differently just because she’s blind, and never take advantage. There will be no second chances.
When Scott Kilpatrick, the boy who broke her heart, suddenly reappears at school, Parker knows there’s only one way to react – shun him so hard it hurts. She has enough to deal with already, like trying out for the track team, handing out tough-love advice to her painfully naive classmates, and giving herself gold stars for every day she hasn’t cried since her dad’s death. But avoiding her past quickly proves impossible, and the more Parker learns about what really happened – both with Scott, and her dad – the more she starts to question if things are always as they seem.”
(I received a digital copy of Not If I See You First via NetGalley in return for an honest review)
I really really really really really loved this book. When you think of people who are blind, you don’t really consider how much they miss out on and this book totally opened my eyes. This is the sort of book that makes you hate yourself, showing how closed-minded and ignorant you inadvertently are. And that is exactly why its so brilliant. I never stopped to consider how much actually gets missed out when you don’t have sight, how many things that we take for granted, the things that we don’t even think about, are taken away. Things like facial expressions and other physical features, you never stop to think about. Not If I See You First really hammers in Parker’s experience perfectly.
“All of Aunt Celia’s meals are cartoons, like something you might get if you were a captive in an alien zoo and they fed you what they thought people ate by watching TV.”
Other things I adored include Sarah and Parker’s relationship. It did get very near to a ‘roll-your-eyes’ cringe level but stopped just short of it. The friendship was just so warming and, even when they had a mini fallout, I was constantly rooting for them both. I also love Molly who was just the sweetest. She suddenly had this ‘stuff’ (you know what girls are like with their arguments) to deal with after agreeing to help Parker and the fact she was so willing to just get on with it and stick by Parker’s side made me just want to hug her. I also loved Scott. He seemed like the perfect guy and, whilst this isn’t very realistic to my pessimistic mind, it was cute and made the whole thing a lovely, light read.
“Rule # INFINITY: There are NO second chances.Violate my trust and I’ll never trust you again. Betrayal is unforgivable.”
But, and this is a big but, I did think that the characters weren’t very deep. They had the perfect surface but if you scraped that surface away a little I don’t think there would be much there. Which brings onto how much I actually disliked Parker. She seemed to just go round and round and round and round and… and it just got boring. To begin with, I was cool with her over analyzing all this stuff but even when the answer was painfully obvious she kept doing it. I was very close to losing my rag with Parker. She did say some things did make me laugh though. One of my favourite lines where one of hers:
“He can’t like my personality – I haven’t really unleashed it on him yet.”
But then she does use phrases like ‘troll brain‘ that makes me cringe so bad I get a stomach ache:
“Of course you want this guy all over you, my troll brain says.”
I think Parker was the only reason that this book didn’t fit me perfectly and I really recommend that you read it.
What was I listening to?
The Argle Bargle 