Seeing the Unseeable

Have you ever heard sounds that you were sure didn’t exist? Maybe you smelled something you knew wasn’t in the area. Perhaps you experienced both, maybe even both together. I have and it is scary, so scary that you might think you are losing your mind. Never fear for me. I finally discovered I was having “awake dreaming” from lack of good, sound sleep. But the hero of our next book has not found himself so lucky.

While I was having these episodes of hearing and smelling hallucinations, I had my sight to keep me grounded in the here and now. Imagine, if you will, having to rely on your sense of smell and sound to determine what is around you. If you can’t trust those smells and sounds, how can you tell what is real?

Two Kinds of Second Sight?

Farsighted

By Emlyn Chand

Publisher: Blue Crown Press (October 17, 2011)

ASIN: B005WXFG54

About the book:

Sophomore Alex Kosmitoras, a blind since birth young man is entering his first day of class for the year. His biggest worry is staying out of the way of Brady, who, despite being a bully, is the only person in school to talk to Alex. His next biggest worry is whether he will find a girl he likes who likes him, too.

But from the very first day, Alex has problems. First, he mistakes Brady for his dad because he hears his dad’s voice. The next day, he thinks Brady is picking a fight with him and retaliates only to find it is Alex, who, by retaliating for something that hasn’t happened, starts the fight.

Can his life get any worse? Oh, yes, because he does find the girl he wants, Simmi, but he hears her murder…only it hasn’t happened yet. What is going on? When he stops by the All-Seeing Miss Teak psychic shop next to his mom’s florist shop, Alex soon learns how much worse his life can get. From Miss Teak he discovers what second sight is and how it will affect his life.

My take:

Chand does excellent work with the interrelationships of her characters. I found the relationship between Alex, Simmi, and Miss Teak’s daughter, Shapri a reliable representation of a three-way friendship. Alex’s relationship with his parents is a bit more complicated, especially with his dad, but believable. Brady’s interactions with Alex was a little harder to understand since in my school, you worried more about being stabbed than having a few bad words sent your way. I suspect, though, Chand’s take on this might be accurate in most high schools.

Emlyn Chand

While I don’t know what it is like to be blind, I do know what it is like to hear or smell things that aren’t there. The consternation and fear it creates has been so accurately portrayed by Chand, one would think she had experienced it herself.

Chand does a good job of foreshadowing. I kept wondering when we were going to learn what was going on with Mr. Kosmitoras. I just knew there was something more than Alex could sense. Alex’s first visit to the psychic shop left me wondering if Miss Teak was a ghost. Shapri's relationship with her dad was fairly clear from near the beginning but some readers might take a little time to suss it out. To be sure, it was well done - shown and not told.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes YA fiction with a paranormal bent. Beware, for the astute reader there are small unanswered questions leading into the next book in this series.

 

Blog Tour Notes

THE BOOK:  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. Get your copy today by visiting Amazon.com’s Kindle store or the eBook retailer of your choice. The paperback edition will be available on November 24 (for the author’s birthday). THE CASH PRIZES:  Guess what? You could win a $100 Amazon gift card as part of this special blog tour. That’s right! Just leave a comment below saying something about the post you just read, and you’ll be entered into the raffle. I could win $100 too! Please help by voting for my blog in the traffic-breaker poll. To cast your vote, visit the official Farsighted blog tour page and scroll all the way to the bottom. Thank you for your help with that. THE GIVEAWAYS:  Win 1 of 10 autographed copies of Farsighted before its paperback release by entering the giveaway on GoodReads. Perhaps you’d like an autographed postcard from the author; you can request one on her site. THE AUTHOR:  Emlyn Chand has always loved to hear and tell stories, having emerged from the womb with a fountain pen grasped firmly in her left hand (true story). When she’s not writing, she runs a large book club in Ann Arbor and is the president of author PR firm, Novel Publicity. Emlyn loves to connect with readers and is available throughout the social media interweb. Visit www.emlynchand.com for more info. Don’t forget to say “hi” to her sun conure Ducky! MORE FUN: There's more fun below. Watch the live action Farsighted book trailer and take the quiz to find out which character is most like you!