A Blind Spot for Boys

Overview

Justina Chen's novel follows Shana, a Seattle teenager who declares a personal ban on dating after a painful breakup, redirecting her energy toward photography instead. Her resolve is tested almost immediately when she literally runs into Quattro, a lacrosse player whose presence she can't quite shake, even as she tries to keep her attention on her camera and her self-imposed rules.

The story shifts in tone when Shana's family receives news that her father is losing his vision. The prospect of his encroaching blindness reorders the family's priorities, and they plan a trip to Machu Picchu so he can see it while he still can. The photo safari becomes a backdrop for Shana to reckon with impermanence, both in her father's sight and in her own uncertain feelings for Quattro, who lingers in her thoughts across the distance.

Chen weaves together a lighthearted romantic premise with a more somber family reckoning, letting humor and grief occupy the same narrative space without one canceling out the other.

A Coming-of-Age Story About Looking Closely

Photography functions as more than a hobby in this novel; it becomes Shana's way of processing what she's afraid to face directly, from a failed relationship to her father's fading eyesight. The book uses the craft of seeing and framing images as a metaphor for how its teenage narrator chooses what to notice, what to preserve, and what she's not yet ready to look at head-on.

Set against a real, named travel destination, the novel also fits within a tradition of young-adult fiction that pairs a family crisis with international travel, using the unfamiliar setting to sharpen a character's sense of what matters. Chen's broader body of work often centers young women balancing identity, family expectation, and romance, and this title continues that pattern while giving equal weight to the quieter, harder story of a parent's declining health.

Why A Blind Spot for Boys Has Been Challenged

Romantic and sexual content involving teenage characters is the primary source of objection to this novel. Critics of the book have pointed to its depiction of a high schooler's attraction and physical closeness with a boy she meets, arguing that the material is too mature for the intended teen readership. This title has been the subject of 1 challenge tracked in this catalog, spanning 1 state and 1 school district.

Underlying these objections is a broader disagreement about how frankly young-adult fiction should portray adolescent desire, particularly when romantic plotlines are paired with a protagonist's private, unfiltered internal narration. Supporters of the book counter that its treatment of first attraction is presented alongside a serious family crisis, and that the pairing of romance with loss reflects the kind of emotional complexity teenage readers are equipped to engage with.