Book Review: A Little Less Invisible by Maisie M. Peters
[ID: a light purple book with an illustration of a brown haired teen girl sitting at a desk nervously clutching her collar. On either side the illustration is framed by swirls of pink, purple, and blue smoke with lurking shadow monsters with yellow eyes. Tiny fairies, a werewolf, and a boy with smoke coming from his palm are depicted alongside the smoke. “A Little Less Invisible, Maisie M. Meyers” is written in dark purple text in the center of the illustration. A gold and moon shaped hair pin extends like a bookmark in the book. The book sits on a white shelf covered in loose book pages in front of a set of brown cubby drawers. One drawer is open with book page confetti spilling out. A row of light purple roses sits on the cubby with a dark blue ribbon winding around the front of the shelf. A bronze, old-fashioned pocket watch with a white face sits open to the left of the book. End of ID.]
Happy Release Week to A LITTLE LESS INVISIBLE by Maisie M. Peters, a new YA novel with chronic illness representation based on the author’s personal experience with POTS, hEDS, MCAS, and chronic pain. Thank you so much to the author and Netgalley for an early look at this fabulous YA fantasy!
Summary: Sixteen-year-old Seda has one goal: stay in school and on track for her future. But chronic heart issues and pain make it feel like she’s getting rotisserie chicken roasted from the inside out. School administrators are trying to force her into the hospital-homebound program because of all her absences, and her doctors are stumped, unable to diagnose what’s wrong.
Then, right as she’s made a plan to outfox the administrators and avoid being sent home, fae monsters masquerading as humans—beings who feed on pain—hunt her down at school.
Nikolai is probably human and definitely Seda’s only hope for protecting herself as the fae close in. Too bad he’s prickly as a bundle of IV needles, with a smile that does funny things to whatever is wrong with her heart. While he has a secret agenda of his own, he’s willing to help Seda acquire a secret weapon to defeat the fae, but they have to hurry—before the fae make a meal out of Seda and erase her from existence forever.
A LITTLE LESS INVISIBLE took me by surprise with its clever writing, relatable characters, and fun fantasy hijinks! I was totally absorbed in Seda’s journey and her perspective. Her first person narration blends searing disability representation with delightful humor and teenage realism. She’s hilarious but also extremely relatable.
You can really tell when a book with disability representation has been written by an author who gets it. Maisie M. Meyers 100% gets it! A LITTLE LESS INVISIBLE punches you in the gut and than makes you laugh. It gets real when it comes to the frustration and pain of chronic illness and ableism. Every page is threaded with disability justice (as opposed to just disability inclusion). It’s so refreshing to see a YA novel call out ableism and give a realistic portrayal of what chronically ill people experience every day.
The idea of a fae feeding on chronically ill person’s pain was simply genius! I had so much fun with this premise, but I’ll admit I was a little unsatisfied with how the fantasy plot wrapped up. Don’t worry, there isn’t a magical cure, but I just wanted a few more pages to wrap up the story! Honestly, my fingers are crossed for a sequel so we get more of Seda!
I’m so thrilled that chronically ill teens will be able to see themselves in this book! I’m now a forever fan of this author and I’ll be eagerly awaiting whatever she writes next. This book releases tomorrow April 14th and I highly recommend you run to buy your copy now (and maybe a few more for any teens in your life!)