It's world book day in the United Kingdom, and its a day where many book lovers young, old and in between share their love for books. I have always found books to be a great escape from my reality. I could be an action hero, a love interest, solve murder mysteries and even learn important life lessons. I have always enjoyed reading a good book and for everyone in my life who knows me, you never see me in public without a book in my hand 😂.
In this blog post, I am going to talk about a book that impacted my life whilst I was having my reconstruction surgery in London. The book was such a reflection of the current journey and the challenges I had to face that when I finished the book it left me in tears.
Faceless by Alyssa B. Sheinmel
What is it about?:
Faceless is about a young girl who gets struck by lightning that results in her having a face transplant. The character deals with isolation, helplessness, sadness, self-love and what the word 'lucky' actually means in a world where a person becomes visibly different.
Opinions about the book:
I am so grateful that I found this book because it was exactly what I needed to read at the time. Maisie as a character was so real, authentic and honest with her emotions on how she dealt with her life-changing operation, that it made my emotions on how I felt about my situation all the more understanding. I knew that Maisie was a fictional character but I truly felt that we were both learning, evolving and getting through this scary journey together. Maisie had to deal with learning to eat, drink, talk, reimmerse herself back into society whilst also trying to build a new life where she accepted herself. I also had to go through those same things and it was very comforting to imagine that I wasn't alone.
You can tell Alyssia tried her hardest to make the character as authentic as possible because to a person like me, it causes a great impact.
Dream come true - getting to speak to the author:
In 2017 I decided to pluck up the courage to send an email to Alyssa Sheinmel expressing my gratitude on her writing such an amazing and authentic book. I felt so passionate about the characters and the story topic that I just had to email her personally. I was shocked when she replied to my email straight away because I was aware that she was a busy author, so I wasn't expecting a reply back, but she was kind, considerate and even agreed on me interviewing her for my blog! I was elated 😁🎉 here is what she had to say:
Alyssa Sheinmel
What inspired you to write this book?
One of the things that inspired Faceless was an article from The New Yorker that my wonderful editor shared with me a few years ago about a man who’d received a full face transplant. I’m pretty sure I underlined more of the article than I left blank! My favourite line came from a plastic surgeon, who explained that while many types of surgeons make you well by taking you apart—by cutting out the parts of you that are no longer functional, that are diseased—plastic surgeons make you well by putting you back together. (A version of that explanation made its way into Faceless.)
How long did it take for you to write this book?
It seems like every book I write takes a different path to publication, and Faceless was no exception. In fact, I began jotting down notes for the story of a girl who survives an accident that changes her face years before I began writing the story that eventually became Faceless. It wasn’t until my editor shared the New Yorker article I mentioned that I knew how I wanted to tell this story. I know it sounds corny, but I honestly felt like it was meant to be somehow like this was the story I’d been waiting to write when I made all those notes, years ahead of time.
(Alyssa had that gut feeling from the universe to make such an impactful story like this. Little did she know it would cause a great impact on the facial difference community for years to come).
Who inspired you to write a character like Maisie?
The inspiration for Maisie didn’t come from one person in particular. She was such a fun character to write because she’s very different from me—from the first page when she makes fun of her best friend for preferring yoga to running. (I much, much, much prefer yoga to running.) I loved slipping into her voice with every chapter—her humour, her intelligence, and her passion.
Have you ever met anyone with a facial difference?
Maisie’s injuries weren’t based on any real person, but I’ve been deeply touched by messages from readers with facial differences who’ve responded to her story. I can’t tell you how much it means to me when I hear that Maisie’s story resonated with readers.
(big virtual hugs🤗)
If what happened to Maisie happened to you how would you of acted differently? Or would you have acted differently at all?
I honestly don’t know. But I hope I might have some of Maisie’s strength and determination.
Would you ever turn this book into a movie?
I would love if Faceless became a movie!
(and I would LOVE to be that person in the starring role as Maisie😉)
📚Thank you so much to Alyssa Sheinmel for creating this amazing book and also to her team that helped build this book from the ground up. The main purpose for creating these blog posts is for people with a visible difference to feel better supported as a community and know that there are amazing authors like Alyssa who is willing for us to become better understood by society. I found this book during the darkest days of my life and it helped propel me into becoming the confident person I am today. I am so very thankful that I found Alyssa and I can't wait to see what the future holds when more authors, directors, scriptwriters and storytellers tell more stories like this one because I know it is going to inspire the next generation of people.
I hope you have an amazing and fun World Book Day and I hope that you add 'Faceless' by Alyssa Sheinmel onto your library. 😁💖