Imagine my surprise, then, when I recently made my routine visit to the site and discovered that their recent book club selection was none other than Sarah Neufeld’s Visibility! (Click here to read the strip!) What makes their book club feature really cool is that they only feature books they like! Just the fact that the book was selected makes it a favorable review. I’ve never been led astray by their recommendations, which in the past have included such cool books as Coraline by Neil Gaiman, Strangers in Paradise: High School by Terry Moore, and The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg. Check out their full list of recommendations.

So join me in extending my thanks to the creators of Unshelved for featuring Visibiity. Be sure to visit their site and read a few strips. (They recently launched a killer search engine for past strips.) If you like what you see, be sure to drop ‘em a line and let ‘em know. I’m sure they’d appreciate it.

Read the full review here.

Natalie Irving is the teenage daughter of the world’s only invisible woman. Jadyn Irving is largely invisible from Natalie’s life as well, and because her mother has refused to work with the authorities for the public good, Natalie must also deal with living in the shadow of someone who is widely disliked as well as famous. Her one constant is body-gaurd Peter, but even he has a mysterious past he keeps secret from her. With no one to really trust, Natalie must decide whether to keep her own secrets when she suddenly manifests invisibility powers herself. Unfortunately someone else has noticed.

In this confident first novel, Neufeld takes a very down-to-earth view of what it might be like if people really had powers. The story is refreshingly free from even a whiff of super villains, focusing instead on the more mundane evils of petty classmates, cold parents, and merciless crime lords. Echoing the powers motif–and Peter’s desire to become a comic book artist–several pages of paneled artwork by Meister are scattered throughout the book. Although an interesting device and a cute nod to the book’s content, these pages do not actually add much to the story, simply representing graphically scenes that have already been described. Natalie narrates the tale but is mostly a reactive character, and beyond her relationships, readers do not learn much about her. As a coming-of-age story, the book is solid and fun, enlivened by the extra ingredients of superpowers, but it does not quite push beyond interesting to exciting.

~ Lisa Martincik

This review appears in the August 2008 issue of Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA). It is reprinted with permission of Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA).

As an illustrated novel, Sarah Neufeld’s Visibility falls in between graphic novels and common novels. Less intimidating than a graphic novel, it has the potential to introduce otherwise cautious readers to the genre. As someone who is always trying to convince her friends to try out a graphic novel, I am thankful to find a book I know they won’t regret reading. Furthermore, Meister’’s illustrations are extraordinary, adding to the vividness of the plot without distracting from the text. Neufeld skillfully merges the power of invisibility into her work of fiction so that Visibility remains accessible to readers of all genres, not just fantasy.      

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[Visibility] was an enjoyable read, and the illustrations added depth to the reading experience. Teenagers will relate to Natalie’s struggles with peers and parents. Adults can appreciate the new twist on the superhero story while they are introduced to the genre that is so popular with their children.

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