Farsighted - Emily Chand

I've been gone for a bit, but not because I've had nothing to do. I've had the pleasure of reading a number of books for review, and here is one of them. "Farsighted" by Emily Chand, and I should add it was a real pleasure to read indeed.

Score: 30
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Synopsis:


Alex Kosmitoras may be blind, but he can
still “see” things others can’t. When his unwanted visions of the future begin
to suggest that the girl he likes could be in danger, he has no choice but to take on
destiny and demand it reconsider.

What worked:

At first I was a little apprehensive about reading the book. There I said it. It sounded cool, interesting, unique in a few ways, but I usually end up having a bone to pick with these kinds of books (I'll get into this later though). I found myself pleasantly surprised though. And here's why:

First and foremost, this was a well written book. Given the number of independent books and especially self-published books I've read, this is a real treat. The language flows nicely, the characters are realistic, have personality, and Chand truly has a gift with word usage. And knows how to edit! These things made the story even more enjoyable because I was able to read and just get lost in the story for a change. And the story is easy to get lost in. The first day I picked it up I had every intent of just reading for a little bit and instead got about 90-pages in. Given that I'm a slow reader, this is pretty cool.

The second thing I loved about this book is the sensory details. The main character is blind, so naturally the story is going to be told through things that are not sight related. The author does a great job of this. It's great to "see" the world in a new way.

Generally my bone to pick with stories like this one is the concept of can you really alter your future? But the book does a good job of dealing with this issue. Plot-wise the story is definitely more coming of age than I thought. I was expecting more paranormal elements, and there were a lot, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't the focus of the story. Same could be said about the romance. Which I should add, I don't ship the cannon pairing, in case the Author was curious.

Finally, the characters were all diverse and easy to connect with. Having a main character you care about is always important in a story, and Alex is definitely a real teenage boy - angst and all. He has social quirks, unique ticks, mannerisms, and flaws. There were times where I didn't like him because he had real flaws. In fact, any time I didn't like a character, it was because of a flaw (sans one, but I'll get to that later).

Overall, it's a great read.

What doesn't work:

Most of the things I didn't like about the book are purely personal. One of them was pacing. There were a few spots where it felt a little off. Descriptions about activities that I wasn't particularly interested in. The other one was that I just didn't like Simmi much, but I'm not going fault the author for that. She's a gentle person, but came across as kind of flat. There's a lot I would like to see expanded about her life. The other thing I had an issue with was the how the mother came to term with everything.  All of them are minor things though. There wasn't anything that really made me not enjoy the book, but I can't sit and say it's a perfect one either.

I would recommend this book to both male and female readers though for sure! Great story, and a fun, easy read.