Never Seen the Stars

The ethereal romance of Dustin Thao’s You’ve Reached Sam meets The Fault in Our Stars’ exploration of coming of age with a disabilityin a tragic yet uplifting story of love and grief.

Hattie Murphy thinks the universe hates her.

She has a secret: she has the same genetic eye disease as her father and is slowly going blind, just like he did. Nobody knows. Not her friends. Not her family. As if that weren’t hard enough, Hattie’s good friend Mason drowns unexpectedly, leaving their friend group shattered.

After Mason’s death, Hattie isn’t ready to let go. There are too many things left unsaid between them. But while it’s hard for her to find her seat in the dim light of the church at Mason’s funeral, Hattie finds that she can see something no one else can: Mason’s ghost. And when he speaks, teasing her the way he always did, it’s clear their chemistry hasn’t changed. Sometimes, when Mason visits her, Hattie can pretend that everything is how it used to be.

But the longer Hattie keeps her secrets, the harder it is to deny the truth. Her eyesight is getting worse, and she’s mourning not just Mason, but the life she thought she’d have. Hattie’s sick of being told that the only way to heal is to move on . . . because how can she move on if it means losing Mason forever?

Kate Korsh has been a public school teacher as well as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist for teens. Kate has Retinitis Pigmentosa, and though she still has her driver’s license, her night blindness requires her to keep a vampire’s schedule in reverse and be parked at home before sunset. She is the author of the chapter book series Oona Bramblegoops’s Sideways Magic. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. You can find her online at katekorsh.com.