Seven Hours by Angelina Kerner
My Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Book Summary:
One pill every 7 hours. That could be all it takes to give Chanel the chance to finally see the world around her.
Chanel is an independent 19-year-old, despite what her overprotective mother and senator father may think. Being the daughter of a Senator comes with its own problems, one simple afternoon out with friends becomes overwhelming when they’re swarmed by reporters.
Keeping the secret of the experimental treatment close to her chest, she is able to fool everyone but her hawkeyed bodyguard, Leon, that has now been assigned to protect her. Chanel doesn’t want a bodyguard, but will she get more than she bargained for?
Book Review:
Chanel is a unique lead character – a girl privileged in almost every sense of the word, except that she is visually disabled. This is a very difficult field to write about, because it’s difficult to represent a community while doing full justice to them and the issues they face. It also becomes infinitely more difficult when your only knowledge of that community is a third party perspective. In that sense, it was a very bold attempt by Angelina Kerner, and absolute respect to her for pulling it off.
She showed real issues faced by the blind/visually challenged community. It was written in a very honest way, with primary importance to Chanel’s feelings, and political correctness coming second to that. I appreciate that – it’s a breath of fresh air.
I feel that the story had more potential and it could have touched on more points instead of just building on a prospective romantic coupling.
I would have loved to read a little more about how the medication changes her; its effect on her psyche. As it stands, we do get an insight into how she feels, and the emphasis on colors and shapes is beautifully written, and it shows the struggles of a girl who is experiencing things she has never experienced before, yet manages to seem utterly put together.
One minor issue – This book could do with a copy-editing revision. That is the difference between a 3.5 and a 4 star review. Therefore, though I did enjoy the book, I cannot in good faith give it a 4, though I would have liked to. As I do not give .5 breaks in rating, it does round off to a 4, but I just felt like I should clarify this nonetheless.
I look forward to reading more of Kerner’s work, as I am sure she will only get much better from here! And I would be happy to recommend a good copy editor too. A well conceived book should not suffer due to typos and a lack of editing.
*A review copy was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review*
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