Julie R reviewed Blind Spots by Thomas Mullen
good, but problematic
3 stars
This was a quick read, kept me interested and turning pages. Not sure I bought the twist, though. I really liked the relationship and character work, but I cringed several times at the characterization of being blind as being something horrible. I think this book seriously needed blind sensitivity readers. It was yeesh and yikes quite a few times. He acknowledges how negative his characters are about being blind in his afterword, but I think this could have been balanced by having some characters be positive about it, you know? He sorta does that with the fighting deacons, but I felt it wasn't enough, and while many characters were head-hopped, none of the blind ones were. I enjoyed the tech aspects--the idea of how do we know what is real, etc. A good premise.
This was a quick read, kept me interested and turning pages. Not sure I bought the twist, though. I really liked the relationship and character work, but I cringed several times at the characterization of being blind as being something horrible. I think this book seriously needed blind sensitivity readers. It was yeesh and yikes quite a few times. He acknowledges how negative his characters are about being blind in his afterword, but I think this could have been balanced by having some characters be positive about it, you know? He sorta does that with the fighting deacons, but I felt it wasn't enough, and while many characters were head-hopped, none of the blind ones were. I enjoyed the tech aspects--the idea of how do we know what is real, etc. A good premise.