Book Blog #253: She Is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick

Title: She Is Not Invisible
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
# of Pages: 218 (hardback)
Genre: YA, Mystery, Contemporary
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Synopsis: LAURETH PEAK'S father has taught her to look for recurring events, patterns, and numbers - a skill at which she's remarkably talented. When he goes missing while researching coincidence for a new book, Laureth and her younger brother fly from London to New York and must unravel a series of cryptic messages to find him. The complication: Laureth is blind. Reliant on her other senses and on her brother to survive, Laureth finds that rescuing her father will take all her skill at spotting the extraordinary, and sometimes dangerous, connections in a world full of darkness.
Review: Even though this was a relatively short read (can be done easily in one sitting, She Is Not Invisible was still not worth the time it took to read it.

Sedgwick doesn't do a good job at making characters at their age. Both Laureth and her brother Benjamin act a lot younger than their age, which he tries to write into the plot (I see this as him being a weak writer; he should have just made both characters younger).

The story at its core is ridiculous; two kids going on an "adventure" with a lot of luck on their side might be something that interests little kids, but not something that continues to appeal to more mature audiences. If it weren't for the parts of the book where creepy guys imply they want to do some inappropriate things with 16 year old Laureth, I would say this book is meant for middle schoolers and younger.

Perhaps I'm the wrong audience for this. This book is told from the Laureth's first person POV, with the occasional chapter being one of her father's journal entries (distinguished by its journal style font and notes in the margins). I can imagine that younger readers might find this style fun and interesting. There was nothing wrong with this, and this quality alone does not make this book less mature; rather, the transition between first person narration and journal entries were executed more like a children's book instead of being better integrated into the story.

I think even young readers could find a better book to read than this one.