What Milo Saw
Virginia Macgregor
This month's Adult Fiction choice from BooklyBox was What Milo Saw, a story about a boy named Milo who was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigementosa. Milo's eyes are deteriorating and at the time being, he only sees through a pinhole and does not have any peripheral vision, but even this will go away with time leaving Milo blind. Milo is the main character, but there are a few other voices we hear from throughout the book, including: his mom, Sandy, his gran, Lou, and his friend, Tripi.
As Lou gets older, Milo feels the need to care for her until she sets fire to the kitchen and Sandy decides it's time to put her in a nursing home. Milo visits her everyday and sees things that no one else does, things that people don't want to hear even though Milo tries his hardest to get people to take his accusations seriously. Tripi is the cook at the nursing home, but he's also a refugee from Syria trying to find out what happened to his sister after they were separated and he fled to England illegally. Sandy is trying to deal with her grief after her husband leaves her to be with his 'tart' and their newborn baby in Abu Dhabi.
There are many themes in the book, and a lot of issues between the characters that all ends up connecting to one main event at the end of the book. Although there are a lot of characters and a lot to keep track of, the book was a refreshing read about a boy dealing with his disorder and adults that don't seem to pay attention to what matters. The book had a lot of great main and secondary characters and was definitely entertaining. I felt that there was a little too much conflict to the point where it almost felt like a soap opera with everything going on at once, but that's what kept the book interesting. I didn't like the ending, though. It's just my preference but I don't like open ended books unless it's absolutely necessary, and in this case it wasn't. It was one of those and then... endings that just ruined the victory ending for me. If it weren't for the ending, I believe that this book would have gotten 4 stars from me, but it was still a fun story that makes you think about what we actually see vs. what we choose to.
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