armony is an isolated community on a distant planet. The community is isolated not by geography but by philosophy, for everyone in the community is blind. The first founders, a group of blind parents in the 21st century, decided that their children should be born like them, without sight. Through the use of genetic engineering, every child born into their community saw nothing. Eventually, they fled Earth and set up communities on distant planets to escape the cruel judgment of those they called Seers.
Jacob is 12, about to turn 13, and learning all of the myriad rules that keep Harmony functioning. He learns about the Seers, who are tasked with helping to keep Harmony safe, and he learns about the listeners, who are responsible for making sure all the rules and regulations are enforced. Jacob spends time with his friend Egan, getting into minor trouble now and then. And he spends time with Delaney, one of his mother's music students.
So far, life for Jacob has been normal, but all that is about to change, for not only is Egan interested in getting into more serious forms of trouble, but Delaney has started to express her displeasure with life itself. To top it all off, Jacob has started getting headaches. Just before one of his father's and mother's fights, Jacob learns that Delaney had actually tried to run away from Harmony the previous week. To make things worse, Delaney is the daughter of the High Councilor, the highest-ranking official in Harmony. As bad as things are for Jacob, they are about to get worse, for his headaches increase until one day a bright fuzziness invades his mind and he realizes that he has begun to be able to see. The right thing to do would be to tell his parents or the High Councilor and be blinded once more, but something keeps him from telling anyone. Before long, he can see with perfect vision. What he sees and what he learns will turn his world upside down and change his life forever.
Interesting but unfocused
Readers looking for something in the mood of Margaret Atwood could do a lot worse than pick up this book. Having said that, however, it should be noted that Stahler writes like someone new to the genre.
Truesight is an interesting book, especially considering that it's geared toward the young-adult market, although I do wonder when that targeting may have actually happened. Stahler does a good job of taking a standard what-if situation and expanding it toward some interesting conclusions. The idea that blind parents might decide that being blind is a good thing and then want that for their children is an interesting premise. Setting the story on a distant planet allows Stahler to study the implications away from current belief systems. The slow discovery that Jacob goes through gives Stahler the time needed to develop both the character and the motive for the plotting. It's well done for a debut novel.
But—and it is a pretty big but—Stahler also shows his newness to both the genre and writing in the way he develops the story. There's a sense that Stahler is truly in love with what he thinks is a novel idea. This internal sense of wonder floods out in the exposition and at times threatens to overwhelm the basic story. Stahler also may have felt a need to beef up the idea as he makes the community different not just because of the blindness but because of an almost fascist adherence to a set of seemingly arbitrary rules. This tends to get in the way of what really should be a fascinating exploration of a single thought.
