Sometimes a book just
comes into your life at the perfect time. A Blind Spot for Boys is possibly the
oddest occurrence of this phenomenon for me.
Since her traumatic
relationship with Dom ended Shana Wilde has earned a rep as a heartbreaker.
Finally she’s decided to take a moratorium on boys until she can
sort out her feelings. Which, of course, is when she meets Quattro, a cute,
smart, and stylish boy, as she’s capturing a photo of Seattle’s Gum Wall. Before
she can explore even the possibility of their potential relationship her home
life explodes: Her father learns that he’s losing his sight. The
family decides to take one last epic adventure while he has some vision
remaining. Shana and her parents will start with a Dreamwalk, hiking the Inca
Trail to Macchu Picchu, then she’ll fly home and each
of her brothers will take another leg of the adventure with their parents. It
will be the trip of a lifetime.
But in Peru Shana’s
parents turn into people she doesn’t know. Her mother
becomes indecisive and hovers protectively around her grouchy, petulant,
standoffish husband. Meanwhile Shana runs into Quattro and his father, who are
doing their own Inca Trail hike. Quattro is blowing hot and cold, one minute
flirtatious and the next obviously keeping his distance. Shana, confused and
hurt, decides to keep their relationship at a friendship. But a lot can happen
on a days-long hike through the wilderness, especially when a flash flood and
mudslide strip away the hikers’ outer veneer of civility.
A Blind Spot for Boys is a realistic, romantic fiction novel for teens with
multiple plotlines. On one hand a teenage girl is recovering from an abusive relationship
and learning lessons about life and love from the people around her. On the
other, a family tragedy forces a couple and their children deal with an
uncertain future. For me this novel also had a third plot – the Inca Trail
whittled these trekkers down to the essence of themselves and made them
confront who they really were. Some were strengthened by the experience. Others
were broken by it.
And here’s where we come
to why this novel was so opportune: just weeks before reading this book my
husband and I tentatively planned an Inca Trail hike of our own. Now I’m even
more excited about our upcoming trip. I just wish Stesha could be our guide.
Chen, Jennifer. A Blind Spot for Boys. New York: Little,
Brown and Company, 2014. 4 stars.
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