Truesight - David Stahler

Thirteen year old Jacob lives in a colony on a distant planet away from Earth. Everyone in his colony is born blind. They learn about their surroundings by touching, smelling, and listening to everything around them. They follow the philosophy of Truesight, which brings unity, purity, and freedom to the people of the colony. A few weeks before his 13th birthday Jacob gets this searing pain in his eyes during a class exercise. He thinks nothing of it as more than a headache. A few days later he begins to see shapes and colors of everything around him. A few days before his 13th birthday his best friend Egan gets him to go and see a delivery to the colony that night. Egan does not show up and he runs into Delaney. She want to get out of the colony and will do anything to achieve her goal. They are spotted and both run away. The next day Jacob is told that Delaney is dead. No one will say how it happened. On his birthday Jacob gets his sight and he keeps it a secret until the next to last day of school when he tells Egan. Egan then tells the listeners and Jacob is pulled out of school the next day and is taken to see the high councilor. A decision is made that the only way Jacob can remain in the colony is to have his sight removed and his memory of the past few weeks. The next day comes and he is in front of the whole colony, and is taken away to a building to correct his sight. He then learns from Delaney's father that she did not die, she ran away. He decides to run away also. It is the only way to save himself. This book was a page turner and it holds your attention to the end. Once you get to the end you ask your self what is next for Jacob. This is the first book in a trilogy, so we will have to wait until the other books come out to find out what happens.

Tom Burnham