Young Adult Novel
“I See You" is a book for teens published in 2017, through the online writing and reading platform, Wattpad. The book narrates the story of a girl named Melissa who falls in love with Xavier Ward. The book is written by Augustina Mogomotsi, who goes by the nickname Tina Mag, a South African author and publisher. She is currently a second-year student at the University of South Africa, where she is studying Mathematics and Computer Science. Tina plans to continue her studies until she earns a doctorate in Mathematical Sciences. Additionally, it stated that she has a passion for writing and reading books of all genres and is a big fan of Andy McNab.
The young Melissa Albert, or Melissa Hue is a rich teenage girl with blonde hair, blue eyes and an auto proclaimed nerd at the bottom of the social ladder in her school at Hillbrow. Her best friend, Julissa, tells her that Maddox (Melissa’s crush) invited her to a party. There Melissa finds out it was a bet. That same night Xavier Ward and Candice (the it couple of Hillbrow) break up after she cheated on him with his brother.
As an act of revenge, Xavier meets up with Melissa to start a plan where they fake date each other as revenge. However, this story ends up becoming the beginning of a love story. Leaving the idea of revenge as a second train of thought, rather than a precise goal.
Nonetheless, the story takes a 360 degree turn by surprising us with a devastating ending, where Melissa ends up in love, but Xavier’s emotions were rather cruel and full of indecisiveness. Throughout the story, the idea of a healthy loving relationship was raised, however, it was a temporary period of affection and love, which ended unexpectedly with the end of the relationship and an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy came into the scene.
The protagonist ends part of her happiness and that of her parents with the unexpected news, the story closes its reading with the statement “I’m pregnant” and gives the readers room for intrigue about Melissa’s future. This plot and Julissa’s plot as Melissa’s twin sister are addressed through a second book named “I need you”.
The ending of this story definitely leaves the reader’s with uncertainty, and shows how love or the idea of it can turn anyone into a reckless being; and even result in irreversible consequences. Correspondingly, the journey experienced by Melissa shows her new paths, growth, change and auto exploration.
To conclude, the question “Would we recommend this book?” arises.
So, if you want an easy read (with little to no grammatical or lexical complexity) and are looking for a painfully entertaining book, this is for you. This particular story is the equivalent to any Netflix movie that follows the overused “girl starts fake dating the popular boy, and ends up falling in love” trope.
It contains the cliche lines and character arcs that a lot of people enjoy, but it is definitely not a catch of fresh air. The first perspective allows the reader to understand the story and emotions a little more, and makes you imagine every scene very vividly. But quite frankly, it was extremely excruciating.
Even though this story shows some of the biological, emotional and social hardships that some teenagers experience to a certain level; the lack of realism, plain characters, and uncomfortable lines puts this book in the “please don’t read” list.
Nonetheless, bear in mind that the best way to know if something is of your liking or not, you have to try it, or in this case read it. Hence, this is only our personal opinion shaped by our experience reading this story.
