Where You See Yourself by Claire Forrest

The quick cut: A teen girl balances her current school needs in a wheelchair with her future college needs and prospective schools.

A real review:

Life rarely turns out the way you planned, but for those who are disabled that is doubly true. What we want typically ends up in competition with our unique needs, leading us to a shorter list of prospects. These are struggles for our heroine, Effie.

Effie is used to having to take extra effort to do everyday things, especially since her high school barely does the minimum for her wheelchair needs. Since it's her senior year of high school though, there's a much scarier question mark known as the future and college. What college can she go to that will give her the accommodations needed to succeed? Can she successfully navigate these complexities on her own?

I love the representation with Effie because there isn't enough representation for the wheelchair community currently, but the struggles she deals with are universal to the disabled community. While ADA makes it required to accommodate us, rarely do companies and schools follow those without arm twisting involved. You have to stand up for yourself and really push the point to get what you need.

This book lets you watch Effie transform from a meek, quiet girl frustrated by the system to someone who openly speaks to the items she needs to succeed, along with future girls like her to come. She finds her voice and uses it to help the entire community she's a part of. These are the types of voices and representation we need.

I loved that the ending is a little unexpected, but it still feels almost too happy ending for me. Things rarely wrap up in a bow like that in real life and I would've loved a more realistic ending. It's my only squabble with the story.

A fun and well needed wheelchair representation story.

My rating: 4.5 out of 5