I was so disappointed with this book. It relied on so many tropes that disabled people have been fighting against. I feel like we put so, so much effort into educating people and they still stick to traditional stereotypes. 
 I was very unsure as I read the first chapter. Ollie mentions that his illness might have something to do with science and experiments and alarm bells began to sound. But I reasoned that it could just be the wild imagination of a 14-year-old boy who hasn't really had the opportunity to socialise, so no harm done. Denial is great, isn't it? I can't say whether Ollie is a realistic portrayal of someone with epilepsy as I don't have it. I know a few people who do, but not really close friends that I've discussed it in detail with. So I'll leave that up to someone way more qualified than I am. 
 But Moritz...He is an interesting one. He was born without eyes and so he is blind, though he flatly denies this. Ok, I've met people who shake off the term blind even though they can't see anything at all. But that's not most people, and it's usually those who haven't really come to terms with the fact they have a disability. It's really, really problematic putting this in a book though, especially such a highly anticipated one. The problem is Moritz says he isn't blind because he uses echolocation. 
 For those who don't know, echolocation is something that some blind people use to assist them to navigate. Essentially it involves making clicking sounds and listening to the way the sound bounces back. Most of us use it without even knowing. Have you ever walked under a tree and realised how muffled the sound is? Well, that is echolocation. However, Moritz can use really, really advanced echolocation. He says he can even hear where grains of dust are. I take issue with this for a number of reasons. Firstly, echolocation should never be used as a substitute for safe travel with a cane or dog. Portraying it as such is irresponsible and does blind people a huge disservice. We couldn't realistically travel like this. The blind people who I know and have met who are famous for using echolocation even emphasise how you must use a cane also. It should be used to compliment cane travel, if you use it at all, not as an alternative. Portraying it as such has an impact on us because people will finish this book believing that blind people do have these amazing skills, and so they look at your average blind person and see them as inferior as a result. 
 "My ears are so sensitive that I can tell individual eyelashes from one another when someone blinks. Because I can hear the sound of eyelids closing". 
 No, stop it already! 
 It is dangerous to fall into the trope of magical disabled person, and from the moment I began to read about Moritz I saw this book rushing in that direction. We aren't magic, sure, if you're going to write a book about witches and wizards where one happens to be disabled then I'm totally down for that, but making the disability itself somewhat magical is in my opinion a way of getting out of researching what it's actually like to be a disabled person in the real world. If you throw in some magical qualities then who cares if you don't do your research. In answer, a lot of us. 
 "I am not blind. I have never been blind. 
 It is fair to say I have a reading impairment. Echolocation does not allow me to see the contents of screens or most books. Flat surfaces are impenetrable to me. 
 Father suggested I feign blindness at school. To raise fewer questions. To make it easier to belong. But I loathe the notion of using a cane when I don't need one. To pretend to be blind, for the sake of fitting in with people--with children--who have no interest in me in the first place? What a repulsive idea. I'm nothing like them. They can rot." 
 This is really, really unhealthy. And I hope that people will realise this and please stop recommending this book. I think this goes further than being just a bad portrayal of a blind person. Yes, the super senses thing is a trope that has been done to death and the fact that it's even in here makes me crazy, but my biggest issue here is the attitude this character has. He's rude, which is fine, a lot of people are rude and it might make him unlikeable in the start, but people will read that and see it for what it is. However, his attitude towards blindness is a whole other problem. Most people won't read this book and see why it's wrong, and damaging. Most people will assume that we have these super senses and it sets us apart. We become something other worldly; something to be studied and I shouldn't have to be here in 2015 telling people that we are not. 
 Oh, but we are. Because, (view spoiler)[they were science experiments. That's just great really isn't it? Because we're not getting a story about two teenagers with disabilities, we're getting a story about two modified humans. Notice how disabled people are subhuman again? Yup that. (hide spoiler)] So you as a reader go into this book thinking it's contemporary yafiction then towards the end of the novel everything is upended and this weird sci-fi plot comes marching in. It felt completely out of place. 
 There were aspects of this book I appreciated. Fiction centred on friendship, and two boys becoming friends is really rare. I think we need more books with those kinds of stories, but can we please, please do away with the disability tropes. They totally overshadowed any good things about this book. 
 I can't, in good conscience recommend this book. I want young disabled people to be able to find positive portrayals of themselves in literature. Neither of the characters qualifies in my opinion. Moritz was a really unhealthy portrayal for all the reasons I've discussed above. And Ollie, although he was much more likeable ultimately (view spoiler)[develops defences against the things that harm him. Newsflash, people with epilepsy can't do that. Yes, some may live pretty much seizure free lives because they have found a balance of medication that works for them, but other people don't. I think teens deserve better than this. Effectively curing him is a really cheap way of getting out of doing your research. (hide spoiler)] And I feel like that's what this book was. Everything to do with the characters disabilities was unbelievable and the author gets away with it by (view spoiler)[making them science experiments. (hide spoiler)] It was like she tried to write a contemporary story about friendship, knew nothing about the disabilities she was writing about and so threw in (view spoiler)[science (hide spoiler)] to excuse her ignorance. 
 Also, can we just consider the fact that maybe, just maybe disabled people don't need to be cured? A lot of us are really comfortable with our identities, we recognise, even celebrate the fact that we are people with disabilities but it's just another aspect of our lives. I found the fact that characters like Liz were focussed on curing Ollie another negative aspect of the book. Ok, so Ollie's epilepsy does make it difficult for him to have normal social interactions. I can see why he might personally want to find a cure. But this book wasn't about Ollie's journey, his decision. It was other characters deciding that he would be better off without a disability. 
 Bottom line: do your research, or just don't bother writing disabled characters.