My thoughts are muddled even after giving myself a day to think about what I would like to write. Truthfully, WIWYTS is utterly outside my zone of comfort. It falls outside–almost only barely touching–the genres I typically go for. So why did I choose to read WIWYTS? I don’t know. When I read the blurb, I wanted to read it. I was curious and I felt a certain … draw, (shall we say?) to the story.
My instincts weren’t wrong. Despite being so outside my comfort zone, I had no problems reading this book. The humiliation, desperation, fear, excitement, pain and passion in this book are quick to draw you in and keep you from moving.
“I saw you out walking the other night,” she says. “You were lost.”
It takes a moment before I realize she must have spotted me the night I saw her eating ice cream. “I wasn’t lost. I live around here.”
“Lost inside, not outside. Lost in here.” she says, tapping her chest.
I’m hardly one to be caught by surprise in a book, but I rather was in a way. There were some ploys so utterly visible to the eye, and others that in my own ignorance and raptness to the story, I hadn’t placed. A lot of things fall together just as they fall apart in the protagonist’s life.
Usually, the protagonist isn’t questioned so much, isn’t put in too tight a spot without support, isn’t alone in the real sense of the term. But in reality, especially after one makes a mistake, one often finds themselves alone in a battleground of their own making.
What I Want You To See questions a lot of our own ideas of what’s right and not. Whether the rightness or wrongness of something is linked specifically to your situation or to your perception. There were some moments where you wish the protagonist took a stand, moved a step forward, but her learning itself was in how/when or if she would do this. And the fear she experiences was utterly understandable.
Four stars. I would definitely recommend.
Author Bio
Catherine Linkais the author of the young adult novel WHAT I WANT YOU TO SEE as well as the dystopian series A GIRL CALLED FEARLESS and A GIRL UNDONE. A GIRL CALLED FEARLESS was an ABA Indie Next Pick and won the Young Adult Novel Award 2014 from the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association.
A frequent speaker at writing and teen conferences, Catherine received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and worked as a young adult book buyer for an independent bookstore for seven years.
Prior to pursuing a career in publishing, she studied international politics at Georgetown University followed by a master’s degree in business at the University of North Carolina. Catherine is married and lives with her husband in the San Gabriel foothills. Visit her at on her website.
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GIVEAWAY!
Win a copy of WHAT I WANT YOU TO SEE by Catherine Linka (US Only). This giveaway on January 29th2020 and ends on February 12th2020
WHAT I WANT YOU TO SEE Blog Tour Stops
January 29th
The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club – Welcome Post
January 30th
Devourbookswithdana – Review + Dream Cast + Favourite Quotes
Nomadic Worlds – Review
Life With No Plot – Review
January 31st
February 1st
Bookablereads – Review + Favourite Quotes
February 2nd
February 3rd
The Reading Life – Interview
February 4th
Reads Like Supernovae – Review
Laurensliterarylibrary – Review + Favourite Quotes
Amy’s Booket List – Review
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