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abaugher's review against another edition
4.0
yep, this was a pretty good read. the characters are perfect teens: full of confusion, contradictions, angst, passion, and jump to conclusions--usually the wrong ones--just as mich as any person you meet in daily life. awesome, and by the end, i was ignoring everything around me to get to the story's conclusion.
sallytiffany's review
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I thought the mystery was well done and kept me guessing until the end. The way the book spoke about the character with autism wasn’t kind and I didn’t like most of the characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Addiction, and Sexual assault
beastreader's review against another edition
3.0
Roz has macular degeneration. A condition that results in the loss of vision in the center of the eye. This usually makes it hard for the person to see very well. In fact Roz is considered “legally blind” by the DMV. With this condition, Roz can come off as being snobbish as she does not make eye contact with anyone. Roz just wants to be normal. That is hard to do with you are stuck taking “Life Skills” class. A class for people with disabilities to learn how to interact with others. One plus about being stuck in the class is the student aide. His name is Jonathan. Also known as “Zeus” for his good looks.
Roz is paired up with Tricia in her Life Skills class. Tricia is into drugs. So that is why when Tricia goes missing after homecoming Roz thinks nothing about her disappearance. That is until she hears the report on the radio about Tricia’s body being found in the river. Now Roz is trying to piece together all of the events leading up to Tricia’s disappearance.
Blind Spot is the first novel by new author, Laura Ellen. I thought it was a good first book but there is room for improvement. For example, I thought that Roz was going to have more special abilities with her macular degeneration. Instead I got a pretty good story, characters that at times were like mean girls, and an ending that made me go…WTF! That was it?
I mean there was no real surprise as to who was the responsibility party in the disappearance of Tricia but I was expecting more in the end. Roz was fine but very gullible. After a while I only tolerated her. Overall though, I did finish this book as there was promise and I wanted to know how the ending would go. Hopefully the next book by Mrs. Ellen will be better. I will keep an eye on this author and try her again.
Roz is paired up with Tricia in her Life Skills class. Tricia is into drugs. So that is why when Tricia goes missing after homecoming Roz thinks nothing about her disappearance. That is until she hears the report on the radio about Tricia’s body being found in the river. Now Roz is trying to piece together all of the events leading up to Tricia’s disappearance.
Blind Spot is the first novel by new author, Laura Ellen. I thought it was a good first book but there is room for improvement. For example, I thought that Roz was going to have more special abilities with her macular degeneration. Instead I got a pretty good story, characters that at times were like mean girls, and an ending that made me go…WTF! That was it?
I mean there was no real surprise as to who was the responsibility party in the disappearance of Tricia but I was expecting more in the end. Roz was fine but very gullible. After a while I only tolerated her. Overall though, I did finish this book as there was promise and I wanted to know how the ending would go. Hopefully the next book by Mrs. Ellen will be better. I will keep an eye on this author and try her again.
beths0103's review against another edition
4.0
Roswell Hart can't remember anything about the night her classmate Tricia Farni died, and she needs to start remembering soon - her life depends upon it.
Roz is used to living in a hazy world. Macular degeneration has caused her vision to fail her on many occasions, but on the night Tricia disappeared, it's Roz's memory that fails her, not her vision. All Roz can remember from that night is that she and Tricia had a fight. What happens after that is completely erased from her memory.
But when Tricia's body is pulled from the Birch River six months after she disappeared, Roz is now a suspect in a variety of crimes, including Tricia's death. Soon Roz finds herself being questioned by the police to which she doesn't have any answers, other than just one: she didn't do it. And she's determined to get to the bottom of who did in order to clear her name.
Blind Spot is an amazing story that helps to fill a hole in modern YA literature: the mystery. There just aren't that many YA writers doing mystery these days and I love that Laura Ellen is helping to change that. While I did have some issues with the story, on the whole, it was heart-pumping and page-turning. It took me a while to get into the book, but then once I did, I stayed up until 2 a.m. finishing it, which I haven't done with a book in a long time.
Read the rest of my review here.
Roz is used to living in a hazy world. Macular degeneration has caused her vision to fail her on many occasions, but on the night Tricia disappeared, it's Roz's memory that fails her, not her vision. All Roz can remember from that night is that she and Tricia had a fight. What happens after that is completely erased from her memory.
But when Tricia's body is pulled from the Birch River six months after she disappeared, Roz is now a suspect in a variety of crimes, including Tricia's death. Soon Roz finds herself being questioned by the police to which she doesn't have any answers, other than just one: she didn't do it. And she's determined to get to the bottom of who did in order to clear her name.
Blind Spot is an amazing story that helps to fill a hole in modern YA literature: the mystery. There just aren't that many YA writers doing mystery these days and I love that Laura Ellen is helping to change that. While I did have some issues with the story, on the whole, it was heart-pumping and page-turning. It took me a while to get into the book, but then once I did, I stayed up until 2 a.m. finishing it, which I haven't done with a book in a long time.
Read the rest of my review here.
jcrawford728's review against another edition
4.0
Read this in one day. Loved the writing. I hope Laura Ellen has many more books to come!
trisha_thomas's review against another edition
1.0
Hmmm. I'm sure this would have been an okay book, I may have even enjoyed it, if the synopsis hadn't lead me astray.
The book opens with a body being found and that Roz, the main character, was around her that night but can't remember anything. The chapters from there start in the past and count down to the day of death of Tricia, the body that was found. Very cool idea and one that I was ready to read.
But, this book is not a mystery. Not really. I was ready to stumble through the world through Roz' sun-spotted eyes trying to understand who done it.
instead, I got a lot of high school drama and a world I just didn't think was very realistic.
The fact that Roz has gotten through her life this far without admitting she needs any help - and with most teachers somehow not knowing of her sight-issues is just so unrealistic I want to scream at this book.
The whole school dynamic, lunches, the students - all of it felt made up. None of the classes or people even felt remotely real and the power one teacher had - I mean really?!?! Not even maybe.
I kept forgetting who each person was because none of them felt real - when they mentioned Heather was missing in the 6 or 7th chapter, I literally had to go back through the book to try to figure out who she was (the lunch buddy...)
It just didn't hold my attention or seem realistic at all.
The book opens with a body being found and that Roz, the main character, was around her that night but can't remember anything. The chapters from there start in the past and count down to the day of death of Tricia, the body that was found. Very cool idea and one that I was ready to read.
But, this book is not a mystery. Not really. I was ready to stumble through the world through Roz' sun-spotted eyes trying to understand who done it.
instead, I got a lot of high school drama and a world I just didn't think was very realistic.
The fact that Roz has gotten through her life this far without admitting she needs any help - and with most teachers somehow not knowing of her sight-issues is just so unrealistic I want to scream at this book.
The whole school dynamic, lunches, the students - all of it felt made up. None of the classes or people even felt remotely real and the power one teacher had - I mean really?!?! Not even maybe.
I kept forgetting who each person was because none of them felt real - when they mentioned Heather was missing in the 6 or 7th chapter, I literally had to go back through the book to try to figure out who she was (the lunch buddy...)
It just didn't hold my attention or seem realistic at all.
malloryeasterday15's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Not much of a murder mystery like I thought it would be. Kind of an odd story 😬
losetimereading's review against another edition
2.0
From my blog:
Blind Spot was by far one of my most anticipated reads of the year. As soon as I read the synopsis I knew I had to read it, it sounded amazing. Such an interesting plot, and the cover is beautiful to boot. I read it almost as soon as I received it, which is unusual as I normally wait a bit but I could not hold off on this one. The entire story I was hooked, I couldn’t put it down-I just needed to find out who killed Tricia and who was involved. In fact, I was approx 20 pages from the end and I thought I knew how it was going to end so I put it down to go to bed. The next day I was telling a friend about it and said, “…I really like it…there’s no way the book can be ruined in 20 pages”. And it was. There will be mild spoilers in this review. Sorry, I really try to post reviews without spoilers but it’s just necessary in this one.
The main character is Roz, she is legally blind as she suffers from Macular Degeneration and her year is started off by being placed in a special education class to help assist in learning necessary life skills. It is now a mandatory class due to a recent suicide of another special education student. Roz is severely pissed off about this as she feels like she doesn’t belong there so she immediately is at odds with the teacher. In Life Skills she meets Tricia, who is a drug addict. Roz and Tricia aren’t exactly the best of friends but they have a sort of mutual understanding and get along so-so. Roz then starts dating the hottest, most popular boy in school and it all goes downhill from there. Tricia and Roz are at a party one night…and then Roz wakes up the next morning and doesn’t remember a thing. And Tricia is missing. Several months later Tricia’s body is discovered and the search for the person involved is started. And Roz is a prime suspect.
Let’s start off with the characters. I have never disliked a main character like I dislike Roz. First of all, she has absolutely no common sense. She dates the most self-obsessed guy in high school and doesn’t even cast a thought that he may be using her? She claims that she is super independent and she doesn’t need any special help with anything but yet when it comes to Jonathan she turns into the neediest, whiniest, clingy human being imaginable. Ugh. Despite that, until the ending was ruined(which I will get to) I still enjoyed the story, which is very rare for me because if I can’t even like the main character normally it’s a DNF. Also, I could not stand that Greg was so sweet and adored her and she was just not having any of it. I loved Greg though, he was so sweet and tried so hard to get Roz to see that he liked her. My favorite character of all, ironically was Tricia. I thought she was interesting and had a really intriguing manner about her. I really wanted to know what happened in her life. And I enjoyed her sassy attitude.
The story starts off before Tricia goes missing, so you do get to experience Tricia’s personality and that’s great. I’m glad the author didn’t start the story off after that night and work backwards. The entire reason that I hated the story is you never really find out how Tricia dies. I honestly thought I was going to scream when it got to the last page and then…nothing. The entire point of the story was trying to figure out how she died and then NOTHING?! So aggravated. The only part of the ending that I enjoyed was at the prom and I won’t spoil that for anyone that wants to read this.
I give it 2 stars because I did like the story until the ending. Unfortunately because I disliked how it finished so much, I can barely remember why I in fact did enjoy it initially. I think a lot of people will enjoy this book, it just wasn’t for me. I really cannot get past the ending and that is unfortunate because I really was on the edge of my seat waiting for it. On the plus side, if I could give an award for best cover… it would probably go to this one
Blind Spot was by far one of my most anticipated reads of the year. As soon as I read the synopsis I knew I had to read it, it sounded amazing. Such an interesting plot, and the cover is beautiful to boot. I read it almost as soon as I received it, which is unusual as I normally wait a bit but I could not hold off on this one. The entire story I was hooked, I couldn’t put it down-I just needed to find out who killed Tricia and who was involved. In fact, I was approx 20 pages from the end and I thought I knew how it was going to end so I put it down to go to bed. The next day I was telling a friend about it and said, “…I really like it…there’s no way the book can be ruined in 20 pages”. And it was. There will be mild spoilers in this review. Sorry, I really try to post reviews without spoilers but it’s just necessary in this one.
The main character is Roz, she is legally blind as she suffers from Macular Degeneration and her year is started off by being placed in a special education class to help assist in learning necessary life skills. It is now a mandatory class due to a recent suicide of another special education student. Roz is severely pissed off about this as she feels like she doesn’t belong there so she immediately is at odds with the teacher. In Life Skills she meets Tricia, who is a drug addict. Roz and Tricia aren’t exactly the best of friends but they have a sort of mutual understanding and get along so-so. Roz then starts dating the hottest, most popular boy in school and it all goes downhill from there. Tricia and Roz are at a party one night…and then Roz wakes up the next morning and doesn’t remember a thing. And Tricia is missing. Several months later Tricia’s body is discovered and the search for the person involved is started. And Roz is a prime suspect.
Let’s start off with the characters. I have never disliked a main character like I dislike Roz. First of all, she has absolutely no common sense. She dates the most self-obsessed guy in high school and doesn’t even cast a thought that he may be using her? She claims that she is super independent and she doesn’t need any special help with anything but yet when it comes to Jonathan she turns into the neediest, whiniest, clingy human being imaginable. Ugh. Despite that, until the ending was ruined(which I will get to) I still enjoyed the story, which is very rare for me because if I can’t even like the main character normally it’s a DNF. Also, I could not stand that Greg was so sweet and adored her and she was just not having any of it. I loved Greg though, he was so sweet and tried so hard to get Roz to see that he liked her. My favorite character of all, ironically was Tricia. I thought she was interesting and had a really intriguing manner about her. I really wanted to know what happened in her life. And I enjoyed her sassy attitude.
The story starts off before Tricia goes missing, so you do get to experience Tricia’s personality and that’s great. I’m glad the author didn’t start the story off after that night and work backwards. The entire reason that I hated the story is you never really find out how Tricia dies. I honestly thought I was going to scream when it got to the last page and then…nothing. The entire point of the story was trying to figure out how she died and then NOTHING?! So aggravated. The only part of the ending that I enjoyed was at the prom and I won’t spoil that for anyone that wants to read this.
I give it 2 stars because I did like the story until the ending. Unfortunately because I disliked how it finished so much, I can barely remember why I in fact did enjoy it initially. I think a lot of people will enjoy this book, it just wasn’t for me. I really cannot get past the ending and that is unfortunate because I really was on the edge of my seat waiting for it. On the plus side, if I could give an award for best cover… it would probably go to this one
jbsmunky's review against another edition
4.0
I was very excited to have won an ARC for this book a few weeks ago. Even signed by the author :) I actually stayed up late last night to finish this book. I could not put it down!
It has a "Girl, Interrupted" feel to it except for the YA crowd. Roz, who is fully capable is stuck in the special ed class because of her eyesight and feels she really doesn't belong. Tricia is the crazy girl dancing in the hallways in a cape. They impact each others lives without being aware of it and Roz does everything she can to help her even though she thinks they hate each other.
In a weird way it also reminded me of "Carrie" by Stephen King. Its far from a horror story but when the most popular boy in school is attracted to misfit Roz, I kept waiting for some bad prank to happen to Roz. Fortunately, it doesn't but still I couldn't shake that feeling.
This book really was so good. Like I said, I could not put it down and read it in one day. Its face-paced and well written with characters we all met in high school.
Definitely worth checking out when its released later this year!
It has a "Girl, Interrupted" feel to it except for the YA crowd. Roz, who is fully capable is stuck in the special ed class because of her eyesight and feels she really doesn't belong. Tricia is the crazy girl dancing in the hallways in a cape. They impact each others lives without being aware of it and Roz does everything she can to help her even though she thinks they hate each other.
In a weird way it also reminded me of "Carrie" by Stephen King. Its far from a horror story but when the most popular boy in school is attracted to misfit Roz, I kept waiting for some bad prank to happen to Roz. Fortunately, it doesn't but still I couldn't shake that feeling.
This book really was so good. Like I said, I could not put it down and read it in one day. Its face-paced and well written with characters we all met in high school.
Definitely worth checking out when its released later this year!
eviebookish's review against another edition
3.0
While certainly entertaining and quite captivating, Blind Spot is hardly an edge-of-your-seat murder mystery. That wouldn't necessary be a bad thing, if it wasn't marketed as one. And it really isn't a bad book, in fact, I quite enjoyed all the drama. And though I expected something entirely different (based on the synopsis), I still had fun reading about the silly love affairs, betrayals and backstabbings, troubled teens and vengeful teachers. Most of all, I found the premise of the book really fascinating and full of potential (not entirely realized potential, but still). It was interesting to read about the lead character's disability and consider all the difficulties she'd have to face in her life.
The body of a teenage girl, Tricia Farni, was pulled from the local river. Tricia disappeared 6 months earlier after leaving a homecoming party at Birch Hill. Just before she disappeared she got into a fight with our MC, Roz, her cheating boyfriend, Jonathan, and their AP history teacher, Mr. Dellian. To Roz, that night is one big blur. She has witnessed Jonathan cheating on her with Tricia and got drunk. She then passed out and doesn't remember what exactly happened. She doesn't even remember how she got back home. All she has is bits and pieces of memories and images that don't make much sense. She now needs to figure out what happened to Tricia that night and who is responsible for her disappearance.
As thrilling and exciting as it sounds, the murder mystery serves only as the backdrop to a plot line focused almost entirely on highschool drama, dating, cheating and getting out of special ed class. And it isn't much of a murder mystery to begin with, but that's yet another plot twist we get to discover as we read on. While Tricia's disappearence takes the back seat to everything else, and it only really becomes the center of the plot line in the last 1/3 of the book (the first 2/3 happens before the prom night), the book is still quite intense and engaging. We know from the get-go that something bad will happen to Tricia, and we get to know her a bit through Roz's first-person narrative, which allows us to get more engaged in her story. We don't necessarily care about Tricia, as she's not exactly a likeable character. She doesn't get along with people, including Roz. But we at least get to understand her better. ("The whipped-cream-squirting, cloak-twirling, I-don't-give-a-shit routine was all an act. Underneath she was a defeated, deflated shell of a girl struggling to right herself. Fighting for control. Broken.").
Blind Spot is filled with characters that are perfectly imperfect. Some are damaged goods, some are lost and trying desperately to find themselves, some are misunderstood and some are downight annoying. It's all too easy to get frustrated with them and not easy at all to relate to them. That being said, I still find all these characters fascinating to read about. Most of them are complex and multi-layered, and not at all what they initially seem to be. Getting to know them and discovering their true selves is part of the fun.
The book touches on many different things - some more serious than others - but doesn't really explore any of them in depth. Roz is legally blind due to the macular degeneration she struggles with, yet all we really learn about her disability is that a) a dot obscures her central vision and therefore to see something/someone, she has to focus on the object/area to the side b) that her condition often results in awkward situations and misunderstandings and c) that she doesn't consider herself disabled in any way and hates when she's labeled disabled by others. We hardly get any insight in how her disability makes her feel (other than mad at the entire world), we don't get to see how it affects her family/peer relationships (other than that her mother insists on Roz's special ed class, and that her friends often think Roz is purposefully ignoring them) and we don't really get to explore her psyche in depth. For the most part, Roz is too focused on dating and keeping her gorgeous (and incredibly narcissistic) new boyfriend happy. And if she's not doing that, she's usually fighting with everyone else - from her teachers to her classmates.
When I finished reading Blind Spot, I sat there for a while trying to decide whether I liked the book or not. I was a bit disappointed, but then again, my disappointment stems from the misleading synopsis, and why should we punish the book for that? The more I thought about the plot and the characters, the more I appreciated the story. It was a good story. The ending was a bit disappointing, yes, but the book had so much more going for it than just that murder mystery everyone was so counting on. So don't think of Blind Spot in terms of a thriller or even a mystery, because you'll end up being disappointed or/and frustrated, think of it as a character study and human drama. It's a story about how sometimes we fail to see things that are right in front of us. A story about mistakes, misunderstandings and misplaced trust.
Blind Spot really is a good book, so if you enjoy dramatic plot lines, flawed characters and real-life struggles, chances are you'll like it just as much as I did, if not more!
The body of a teenage girl, Tricia Farni, was pulled from the local river. Tricia disappeared 6 months earlier after leaving a homecoming party at Birch Hill. Just before she disappeared she got into a fight with our MC, Roz, her cheating boyfriend, Jonathan, and their AP history teacher, Mr. Dellian. To Roz, that night is one big blur. She has witnessed Jonathan cheating on her with Tricia and got drunk. She then passed out and doesn't remember what exactly happened. She doesn't even remember how she got back home. All she has is bits and pieces of memories and images that don't make much sense. She now needs to figure out what happened to Tricia that night and who is responsible for her disappearance.
As thrilling and exciting as it sounds, the murder mystery serves only as the backdrop to a plot line focused almost entirely on highschool drama, dating, cheating and getting out of special ed class. And it isn't much of a murder mystery to begin with, but that's yet another plot twist we get to discover as we read on. While Tricia's disappearence takes the back seat to everything else, and it only really becomes the center of the plot line in the last 1/3 of the book (the first 2/3 happens before the prom night), the book is still quite intense and engaging. We know from the get-go that something bad will happen to Tricia, and we get to know her a bit through Roz's first-person narrative, which allows us to get more engaged in her story. We don't necessarily care about Tricia, as she's not exactly a likeable character. She doesn't get along with people, including Roz. But we at least get to understand her better. ("The whipped-cream-squirting, cloak-twirling, I-don't-give-a-shit routine was all an act. Underneath she was a defeated, deflated shell of a girl struggling to right herself. Fighting for control. Broken.").
Blind Spot is filled with characters that are perfectly imperfect. Some are damaged goods, some are lost and trying desperately to find themselves, some are misunderstood and some are downight annoying. It's all too easy to get frustrated with them and not easy at all to relate to them. That being said, I still find all these characters fascinating to read about. Most of them are complex and multi-layered, and not at all what they initially seem to be. Getting to know them and discovering their true selves is part of the fun.
The book touches on many different things - some more serious than others - but doesn't really explore any of them in depth. Roz is legally blind due to the macular degeneration she struggles with, yet all we really learn about her disability is that a) a dot obscures her central vision and therefore to see something/someone, she has to focus on the object/area to the side b) that her condition often results in awkward situations and misunderstandings and c) that she doesn't consider herself disabled in any way and hates when she's labeled disabled by others. We hardly get any insight in how her disability makes her feel (other than mad at the entire world), we don't get to see how it affects her family/peer relationships (other than that her mother insists on Roz's special ed class, and that her friends often think Roz is purposefully ignoring them) and we don't really get to explore her psyche in depth. For the most part, Roz is too focused on dating and keeping her gorgeous (and incredibly narcissistic) new boyfriend happy. And if she's not doing that, she's usually fighting with everyone else - from her teachers to her classmates.
When I finished reading Blind Spot, I sat there for a while trying to decide whether I liked the book or not. I was a bit disappointed, but then again, my disappointment stems from the misleading synopsis, and why should we punish the book for that? The more I thought about the plot and the characters, the more I appreciated the story. It was a good story. The ending was a bit disappointing, yes, but the book had so much more going for it than just that murder mystery everyone was so counting on. So don't think of Blind Spot in terms of a thriller or even a mystery, because you'll end up being disappointed or/and frustrated, think of it as a character study and human drama. It's a story about how sometimes we fail to see things that are right in front of us. A story about mistakes, misunderstandings and misplaced trust.
Blind Spot really is a good book, so if you enjoy dramatic plot lines, flawed characters and real-life struggles, chances are you'll like it just as much as I did, if not more!