Faceless 12+

About this book

While on a run one day, Maisie gets into a terrible accident. A hot-burning electrical fire consumes her, destroying her face. Where her nose, cheeks, and chin used to be, now there is . . . nothing.

She is lucky enough to qualify for a face transplant. But with someone else's features staring back at her in the mirror, Maisie looks -- and feels -- like a stranger. The doctors promised that the transplant was her chance to live a normal life again, but nothing feels normal anymore. Before, she knew who she was -- a regular girl who ran track and got good grades, who loved her boyfriend and her best friend. Now, she can't even recognize herself.

From New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Sheinmel, coauthor of The Haunting of Sunshine Girl, comes a gripping and gorgeously written tale of identity and love. This is a story of losing yourself, and the long, hard fight to find your way back.

Reviews

Praise for Faceless:

A New York Public Library Best Books for Teens 2015

"Faceless is gorgeous and wrenching, full of gigantic questions and even more gigantic answers about love, identity and appearance. I'm sure I'll reread it many times, as I do with my favorites. It is a vivid, compelling, beautiful, immediate novel, and Alyssa Sheinmel's writing is so true, her characters so real, that they live on long after the last page is turned." -- New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice

"[Sheinmel's] depiction of a disfigured adolescent girl, already searching for herself and now suddenly forced to accept this new enormity, is compelling... absorbing." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Fascinating... Maisie's struggle is certainly one that not many teens will have to face, but teens will identify with her struggle to accept that her old life is gone forever. The anger and grief that she feels is palpable and vividly expressed. Fans of R. J. Palacio's Wonder will also enjoy this book and relate to its similar theme about how physical appearance does not define who you really are." -- Voice of Youth Advocates

"A fascinating human portrait of a unique medical procedure, this work paints a complex picture of a young life impacted by a mammoth change... Give this to fans of Trisha Leaver's The Secrets We Keep and other readers ready for an all-too-gritty piece of realistic fiction." -- School Library Journal

"Sheinmel's prose is accessible to a wide range of readers who, for whatever reason, find themselves struggling with differences. A touching reminder that real change is rarely skin deep." -- Booklist