Sedgwick, Marcus She Is Not Invisible, 224 pgs. Roaring Brook Press, April 2014. $16.99. Language: PG (9 swears; no f); Violence: PG; Sexual Content: PG.
When Laureth Peak's father goes missing in America, he leaves behind his most prized possession: the notebook he uses to jot down writing snippets on his as-yet-unwritten book about coincidences. Unable to reach him and sure that something is wrong, Laureth and her seven-year-old brother hop a plane from England to New York City to track him down. But The Big Apple isn't an easy place to search, especially for a blind girl and her technologically-challenged little brother.
Students who pick this up with the expectation that it will be a thriller -- as promised by the cover and the blurb -- will likely be disappointed. The story, while interesting in spots and full of fascinating insights, moves very slowly. What momentum it does gain is regularly interrupted by giant swaths of introspection and info-dumping about everything from Edgar Allen Poe's final days, to life as a blind person, to bios on the various scientists who have studied the nature of coincidence. It is as if no bit of book research could have gone unshared. When the story does chug along, it is often difficult to suspend disbelief. For example, the Benjamin Effect, as Laureth's family terms her brother's knack for crashing all electronics in his vicinity, seems more like a plot contrivance than an actual affliction, designed solely to make things even more difficult for the two of them. And in the end, when several major complications are shrugged off as misunderstandings and silly mistakes, it feels more convenient than clever. Still, the book does have some interesting thoughts on the nature of coincidence and the lives of blind people, and the secret message hinted at in the last chapter is an intriguing twist.
MS, HS -- OPTIONAL. Reviewer: Caryn
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