Review of Blind Sight by Eliabeth Hawthorne and Ermisenda Alvarez

About Blind Sight

A blind girl drawing is abnormal even on the magical island of Edaion where leaves brush themselves into piles in the middle of the night. So when Odette Reyes, a girl blind from birth, begins to experience ominous side effects of the island’s “gift,” her brother Leocardo and best friend Aniela must figure out what

the doctors cannot. As an immigrant, Leocardo is not biased by accepted rules of magic and determines that Odette’s drawings are premonitions. Aniela grew up with magic and knows premonitions are impossible. She determines Odette is a medium channeling voiceless spirits.
Who is right? Whose eyes will you read through?
Both books are “volume one” you can read one without the other and still get a complete story, but you won’t see how the characters interpret the same situation differently.

My review of Blind Sight

Blind Sight by Eliabeth Hawthorne and Ermisenda Alvarez

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am reviewing both the Blind Sight books together.

Blind Sight is a unique set of books, as this set contains the same story written from different main characters’ points of view by two different authors. I was really intrigued by this, and wanted to know how this experiment played out, if the stories would be different enough to justify reading both books and if I’d like the idea. I am going to review both books together as, that is how they work best, and as I don’t really have any complaints with the writing style or flow of either of the books.

My initial reaction on reading the book blurb was that this would be a book filled with supernatural abilities or gifts. But, I was disappointed in this regard. The gifts are there as just a background to the story. They do not really play an important part in the books and the books read more like a mystery than fantasy. I know this is just the first book in a long series, so I am going to let this slide as I anticipate these to play a bigger role in the coming books.

I did find the books to be a bit slow to read and the real action comes right at the end of the books. There is a lot of description about the relationships between all the characters in both the books. I have no idea if all these secondary characters will play an important role going forward, so I can’t really comment on whether this space was really wasted. But, if this is not part of the character and world building for the series, I will be really turned off! This being a fantasy series, where this is a necessity, I am going to let this slide as well right now.

The authors say that people can read one of the books and still get the complete story. While true to a certain extent, I am not fully convinced. I read “Through the eyes of Aniela” first and there were parts where I felt lost and did not really understand why certain things were happening. This became clearer after I read the second book. I would recommend readers to start reading the books with “Through the eyes of Leocardo”. This will remove a lot of frustration from not understanding Leocardo’s behaviour in “Through the eyes of Aniela”.

Leocardo and Aniela have two very different ideas of what is happening with Odette. If I decide to read just one book, will I still be able to get both, Aniela and Leocardo’s reasoning and ideas? What if I back the wrong idea? Will I have to go back and read the other books, as things become clearer? For now, I would suggest reading both books. But as the series progresses, I have my doubts about a lot of readers sticking with both books, or sticking with the series itself. This is one experiment which is going to be really interesting.

Both authors end the books on an extremely interesting note. I would certainly like to know what happens next as I can see a really big story arc developing. There is a lot of mystery and intrigue still left to unravel in this world. So, I say, bring it on! Even with the issues I have I highly recommend this new series. I just hope the authors take note and truly try to make both the books work individually as I’d hate to see people not reading this series due to this.

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Buy the book! Both volumes are available as an e-book for Kindle (Aniela’s vol. / Leocardo’s vol.) and Nook (Aniela’s vol. / Leocardo’s vol.) Don’t have an e-reader, pick up a PDF on Smashwords (Aniela’s vol. / Leocardo’s vol.)

The paperback special edition will be available in the fall (northern hemisphere).

About the authors

Eliabeth wrote her first mini-series in second grade when the teacher told her she was not old enough to write a chapter book. Regrettably, for fear of turning into a starving artist, Eliabeth played it safe in college and is now a recent William Jewell graduate with a BA in International Business and Japanese. She now returns to what she truly loves, creating worlds for people to escape to and characters for them to fall in love with. Ermisenda began writing Harry Potter fan-fiction at the age of twelve and started developing her own writing at fourteen when she joined play sites and completed her first crime novel at fifteen. Although her favorite genres were crime and fantasy, she reads a bit of everything. Driven by the desire to evoke the kaleidoscope of emotions her favorite authors are able to, she kept writing. Growing up bilingual amongst her Spanish family in Australia, she found a love and deep appreciation for language and the power it wielded. She is now a Psychology major at the University of Newcastle. Together, they write as Ermilia.

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