New Sight

by Jo Schneider

YA Urban Fiction/Superhero

Book Description

After succumbing to the sudden and terrifying urge to rip people’s eyes out of their sockets, 16-year-old Lysandra Blake finds herself tied down in a psych ward, convinced she’s crazy. The doctors have no answers, and Lys is ready to give up when the mysterious Jeremiah Mason appears, telling Lys that she’s not insane—she’s addicted to a rare and deadly drug that she has no recollection of using. Mr. Mason offers to take her to his facility where he can treat her. Desperate yet suspicious, Lys agrees to go with Mr. Mason to his facility where she meets with a fellow addict, the tall and handsome Kamau. Together they discover that Mr. Mason may not have told them the truth about their condition—they’re thrown headfirst into a world of daunting powers that are not only unbelievable, they are dangerous.

MY THOUGHTS: 2 OUT OF 5 FLEURS DE LIS

New Sight by Jo Schneider

I had a really, really hard time even getting interested in this book. The premise was nice, but after the first couple of chapters the plot failed to hold my attention at all. I made it through more than 2/3 of the book but couldn’t finish it, but I think that’s enough to express my thoughts.

Lys Blake is in a psychiatric hospital after attempting to claw her mother’s, and then her own, eyeballs out. It’s an uncontrollable urge, and the problem is that it’s not going away. Lys knows that she has to get away from her family so she won’t cause them any more harm, which is why she’s happy when someone named Mason shows up and seems to have an explanation and a cure.

Lys learns that she is not the only teenager suffering, and hey all have something in common–along with these weird urges, they have what seems like superpowers–incredible strength, the ability to persuade others, and in Lys’ case, being able to see through others’ eyes.

Unfortunately there are those out to get Lys and those like her. Without knowing where to turn to or who they can trust, Lys and friends take off and try to go into hiding where they can learn more about their new powers and urges, and how to control them.

Now I know from the way I described the book in the above paragraphs, it sounds like it should be an awesome story. And it really should. Although it has elements that we’ve definitely seen before in books and movies, there are a couple of new twists that make New Sight different from other superhero stories. But the plot gets weighed down by too many characters and too much information being thrown at the reader without giving them the time to digest it. As I said, I read nearly 250 pages of this book, and I still didn’t fully understand all that was going on. I think by the time I had gotten that far into the plot, I should have been able to grasp concepts more, and that just didn’t happen for me.

It doesn’t help that Lys has little to no personality. She has no fight in her, and gladly either backs down or lets someone else take care of her problems. She was way too meek for me to relate to her. I’m not saying that every female heroine has to be a kickass fighter or rebel, but I wish I just would have seen a little SOMETHING from her rather than nothing at all.

At the point where I stopped reading, I simply wasn’t invested in the characters or the plot enough to feel compelled to finish the rest of the book. The story is action packed, but there’s such a thing as too much action and not enough exposition, and that’s what this book suffered from in my opinion.

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About the Author

Jo Ann Schneider grew up in Utah and Colorado, and wonders how people who live in flat places can tell where they’re going. In her sixteenth year, Jo went with her family to Europe. This spawned a travel bug that will never be satisfied. One of Jo’s goals is to travel to all seven continents–five down, two to go.

Perhaps the most challenging thing Jo has ever done (besides write novels) was stick with her Shaolin Kempo classes long enough to earn her black belt. Persistence, not an overabundance of mad skill, is what got her there, and she just keeps going back for more. An intervention may be in order at some point.

Being a geek at heart, Jo has always been drawn to science fiction and fantasy. She writes both, and hopes to introduce readers into worlds that wow them and characters that they can cheer for.

Jo lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her adorkable husband, Jon, who is very useful for science and computer information as well as getting items off of top shelves. By day she is a mechanical designer of disgustingly expensive hand-crafted steel lights, and by night she is a ninja. Woosh, woosh.

You can find Jo Schneider online here:
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