Faceless, by Alyssa Sheinmel

Hey guys, this is Abi here,

And yesterday I finished Faceless, by Alyssa Sheinmel.

I enjoyed it so much, I thought I'd write a book review about it!

Enjoy!

Title: Faceless

Author: Alyssa Sheinmel

Genre: Contemporary

Status: Standalone

Pages: 343

Blurb: "When Maisie is burnt in a terrible

accident, her face is partially

destroyed. She's lucky enough to

get a face transplant, but how do

you live your life when you can't

even recognise yourself any more?

As Maisie discovers how much her

looks shaped her relationship to

the world, she has to redefine her

own identity, and figure out what

'lucky' really means."

My Thoughts

This book broke my heart. It physically took it, and shattered it into a million pieces. It's one of my favourite books of the year.

Imagine looking in the mirror, and not recognising your face. A stranger's face.

That is what Maisie has to do when part of her face is burned off in a horrific accident. She's told that she is 'lucky', by having a second chance, by being given a new face.

But it's more than just a new face. It's a new medication plan. It's restrictions. A number of things you can no longer do, and some things that you can never do. It's a whole new life.

How do come back from that?

This is a story about Maisie. Who, after her face was basically melted off, has to come to terms with the fact that she'll never be able to have children, won't be able to run again. And being a runner myself, it was hard to accept that I couldn't run for any length of time (at one point), so let alone never again!

This was a book with a lot of difficult topics to say the least. You're in Maisie's brain from the start, when she's on her run, when she wakes up a month later, when she's in physical therapy gaining movement in her left side, when she goes back to school. What makes this book so good and so addictive is that while Maisie is going through all this, you can feel her anger, her pain, and her desperation to get back to the life she used to live before her accident. You feel every emotion as she tries to piece her life back together, every little piece.

But as well as living her pain and anger at the injustice of it all, as she grows to love the person that she's become, you get to see her come to accept this new future, and it's wonderful to see.

Even though it was hard to get past the first fifty pages or so, after that the short and snappy chapters made me eager to find out what was going to happen to this girl next. The endings of the chapters were especially good, like a mini story within each chapter.

The side characters were decent, I grew to like some of them more than others. Ellen surprised me, and I liked Serena from the start. The other characters were just as well written, I just didn't like them as much, which is how it was meant to be.

Overall, it's a wonderful, but a tough read. In it's simplest form, it's a story about a girl learning to love herself and the person that she is, despite the obstacles in her way. (And don't hate on me because I said that losing half of your face was just an obstacles. It's an insanely huge one), which is a hard thing for everyone to do, regardless of the severity of the obstacle.

I highly recommend this book, it'll change your life.

Okay! I hope you enjoyed the review, let me know in the comments what you thought! (Or if you've already read the book, and want to share your opinion.)

I hope you have a wonderful day and I'll see you all soon!

Byeeeeeee!

-Abi xxxxx