Book Review: Mind’s Eye by Paul Fleischman

Title: Mind’s Eye

Author: Paul Fleischman

Genre: YA Plays

Number of Pages: 112

Rating: C

Recommended?: No

---

For some reason I thought this book was going to have more of a magical realism theme. It turned out to be totally realistic in tone which I was okay with, but the book itself was forgettable and boring. Mind’s Eye focuses on the burgeoning friendship between a paralyzed teen and an elderly woman in a care home. The girl, Courtney, feels like her life is over in the wake of her accident but an aging woman named Elva offers her an escape through a imaginary trip to Italy. Courtney isn’t all that into the idea of using her imagination (all that technology and stuff ruining her mind, no doubt) but Elva offers her a different way of living life that also distracts her from the limitations caused by her disability.

Right off the bat I couldn’t stand Elva’s character. Have you ever heard of the ‘I’m not like other girls’ trope? Well, Elva’s a ‘I’m not like other old ladies’ character. She actually blames other people at the care home for having Alzheimer’s, because apparently not being as much of an intellectual as Elva is caused them to end up losing their faculties. She was so stuck-up and Courtney had no personality whatsoever. She just seems like a weak composite of how the author thinks a ‘typical’ teenage girl would act. The only reason I finished this book was because it was so short. I didn’t feel any connection to the story or the characters and I wouldn’t recommend it to others.