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kbeucler's review against another edition
3.5
This is a fascinating memoir about a man who lost his sight as a teenager but continued to pretend that he could see much better than he could. The story follows his journey through internalized ableism to self-acceptance. I enjoyed this. I thought it was really interesting, though I do feel like Hill could have grappled a little more explicitly with internalized ableism and societal ableism. By the end of the book, it’s understood that he’s come to terms with his own blindness, but I guess I would have appreciated more of a critique of ableism. Hill made some interesting POV choices, telling a couple of the chapters in second person. While I think that was a cool choice and it let me as a reader feel I was experiencing what he did, it did get a little tiresome to read after a while. I think it may have been better to restrict that POV choice to the prologue and tell the rest in first person. But that’s probably just personal preference.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism
iothemoon's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Alcohol
robynryle's review
5.0
Funny and revealing memoir about vulnerability and the things we hide from one of the nicest people on the internet.
zivan's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Hill's memoir touched me deeper then other blindness memoirs I've read. Probably because our level of vision is similar and we are both introverts.
Asking for help is hard, from strangers and from family and friends. Finding the balance between trying to be independent and knowing when you need help is something I deal with every day and even after living with low vision for 38 years I still often get it wrong.
The onus is not only on you, the way others react to your disability effects your willingness to out yourself.
Becoming more comfortable with your identity as a person with a disability lets you both learn to use the tools that give you more independence and the ability to ask for help without feeling shame.