Book Review: Blind the Eyes

Blind the Eyes by K.A. Wiggins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Blind the Eyes is a very unique book and one that requires a lot of patience. I was quite confused throughout the entire book up until the last 75% or so. There are many odd things happening to our lead gal and it's difficult to determine what is actually happened, what might just be her perception or imagination. It's the problem (and yet fun) of an unreliable narrator.

Plot
Like I said above don't expect to really follow along with much. What you will know quickly is that there is a gal and she is trying to figure out how to function under the regime of a dystopian society. It is not nearly as clear-cut as she wants it to be. There are people 'helping' her; yet she is never sure who is helping and who is tricking her. Hence as the reader we are never sure who or what is happening.

Imagery
K.A. Wiggins has done a good job of creating imagery that allows us to perceive the world the same way our lead gal does. As Blind the Eyes is written in first person we only get as much information as our lead gal is able to provide. If she can't see then we can't see. If she's confused then so are we (which is a lot of the time!). What we do get descriptions of are the smells, touch feelings and visuals of what our heroine experiences. It kind of reminded of being in a bit of a drug fog. From lost time to being uncertain on who is even speaking there is a trippy confusion throughout.

The Ending
It's very rare I stick with a book this convoluted until the end. In the case of Blind the Eyes I really wanted to know what was happening. Almost every chapter I had a different theory of what was transpiring. From wondering if our gal had a major mental illness to her being drugged 24/7 to her being unable to interpret her surrounds (maybe like someone autistic...) to magical powers to some sort of telepathy or telekinesis to her just being unable to perceive the world and then all the way back to the first theory I had which was that our lead gal was just being lied to by those in power.
I'm obviously not going to tell you what, if any of my guesses above, are correct. What I will say is that it makes perfect sense at the end. One of my personal pet peeves with books are convenient or illogical endings. Blind the Eyes had neither of these and I felt very rewarded when I flipped the last page.

Overall
This is not an easy book. But it is quite clever. I think if I were to read it again I would pick-up on many of the things that weren't clear to me on first read. If there are small inconsistencies then my mind overlooked them out of desire to plow forward and find out what on earth was going on!
After I finished Blind the Eyes I realized that Wiggins has written her story in the way that I wish Carnaval (which I hated) was put together. Sometimes it's appropriate for the reader to drift lost for awhile. So long as the hook is good enough to keep them reading it's okay. I nearly gave up twice and for that reason I give this four stars instead of five. That said, bring on book two ASAP please!

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and Voracious Readers. This is an honest and unbiased review.

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