A review by bribreez
Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

4⭐️

Being an artist was what Sadie loved. From painting portraits to expressing her creativity, it was all Sadie had loved for the longest time. Until, one day when an accident occurred, suddenly Sadie’s life turned upside down when she was left with temporary face blindness. With Sadie’s livelihood centered around painting portraits, it was quite the sticky situation for herself especially since she was a finalist in a big art competition that she needed to create a portrait for as her entry. An interesting plot line for a story that I hadn’t heard of before, and with Katherine Center’s writing she put me in the thick of everything Sadie dealt with. 

Sadie’s work as a portrait artist was not only her livelihood, but also played an important role for her in the competition she was part of. With Sadie dealing with temporary face blindness, it really put into perspective how much Sadie relied on looking at people’s faces not just in her portraits, but also day to day interactions with people. I’ve never read a story with a character having face blindness, but seeing things through Sadie’s point of view really gave me a sense of how much she was struggling with especially at the beginning. 

Sadie tried to navigate this new unfamiliar territory that came with face blindness, but again it wasn’t all sunshine’s and rainbows for her. Imagine having to constantly figure out who you were talking to, and only being able to see mixed jumbles of a person’s face? That was basically what Sadie had to deal with throughout the book, but with some subtle hints such as, distinct clothing items, or other key items helped in determining who Sadie was interacting with like her neighbor, Joe. 

You know, in the beginning with Sadie not necessarily liking Joe, he quickly became someone she enjoyed spending time with. I thought it was kind of funny how Sadie thought Joe was some kind of womanizer, play boy when in reality he was the nicest guy ever just wanting to help in any way possible. Always wanting to help others, and occasionally finding himself helping Sadie throughout the story was also endearing. I even found myself changing my tune towards Joe, and thinking, “mmm ok I think I like you Joe.” Goes to show you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover because, Joe was literally nothing like Sadie had imagined. Plus, little by little with the kind of interactions Sadie and Joe had, I could still the sprinkles of attraction that started to form between the two! 

This was an interesting story especially with Sadie’s journey with having acquired face blindness. I liked how in the end, the way Sadie’s outlook on life changed in a more positive way, and in some ways I think we can all take a note from her that we shouldn’t take things too personally in life, some things in life just happen. I also liked seeing Sadie come into her own person artistically and finding her own place in the world. This wasn’t a straightforward situation where girl meets guy, and happy ending. This was a story more focused on Sadie and along the way she found love with someone she had ironically enough had always passed, but with her face blindness never really saw. Towards the half way mark, I had my suspicions on how the story was going to play out, and funny enough I ended up being right haha. Joe was a great guy, sweet, endearing, and literally the most helpful person to all especially with Sadie. While I’ll still have a special place in my heart for, “The Bodyguard”, Katherine Center’s first book I read, I did enjoy this story for what it highlighted and it was good. Katherine Center did a great job illustrating Sadie’s story and highlighting the topic of face blindness and all it entailed. A good book to check out if you’re looking for an interesting plot line.