Faceless - Review

Faceless by Alyssa Sheinmel

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When Maisie is struck by lightning, 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 recognize yourself anymore? She was a runner, a girlfriend, a good student ...a normal girl. Now, after a single freak accident, all that has changed. As Maisie discovers how much her looks did and didn't shape her relationship to the world, she has to redefine her own identity, and figure out what 'lucky' really means.

My review

Faceless is the emotional journey of a young girl after a freak accident that leaves her disfigured. While lucky to have survived she literally has a new face and is left questioning how much she cares about her appearance , paranoid about how others will see her and is trying hard to figure out who she is now, something that is already hard enough for a teenage girl in normal circumstances.

I really felt that Sheinmal didn't hold back on the details, everything was described well, the physical as well as the emotional, so I could get a real understanding of what of Maisie was going through. It' s also clear she did her homework in regards to the procedures Maisie goes through and everything her recovery involves as it wasn't all just glossed over, her surgeries and medicines were explained in a way that wasn't completely simplistic but so the reader could understand without feeling stupid.

This is not the first novel I've read by this author and if you're familiar with her work then you'll already know how well she paints a scene, her writing is beautiful and precise and will get you straight into the head of the protagonist.

Faceless is certainly a book I would recommend, its a touching story of a girls journey after an almost fatal accident changes her life dramatically and will leave you with a better understanding of what its like for people like her.