Wannabe

I love me a good dystopian young adult novel.  Hunger Games, Divergent, The Giver, Maze Runner, etc. etc. I like them all.  But the overwhelming popularity (and movie deals) of these books makes this genre ripe for imitators.  It's hard to feel original when so many books are focused on a society that looks perfect from the outside, but one young person sees it differently and it all starts falling apart.

Not that you can't, it just takes a little extra something to make your book stand out.  Unfortunately, David Stahler Jr's Truesight feels like an imitation.  When I was reading it my main thought was, "oh, so this is a wannabe Giver." The only difference is that in Jacob's colony (community) everyone is blind.

Jacob is nearing his 13th birthday and is going to get his specialization (ceremony of 12 anyone?) but he is nervous about it.  His parents, like Jonas' assure him that the council (elders) always does what's best for everyone.  But Jacob gets more and more apprehensive and what makes it worse is the realization that he is different from the rest of the community.  Even scarier-maybe he likes being different.

Though the overall plot felt referential, the special education teacher part of me did enjoy learning about all the accommodations this colony had in place to support their citizens.  Everyone is blind, but everyone wears a sounder tuned to a unique pitch that activates when you get close to another person.  School includes classes in mobility, and how to use a finder if you are lost. Sound becomes so much more important-which appealed to the musician part of me.

Truesight wasn't terrible, I just wanted it to be so much better.  This is the first part of a trilogy and I am a little curious as to how the story develops.  Maybe the next two installments are more unique.

Finding your sight...that's kids stuff.