A college freshman is swept into shaky moral territory within the cut-throat world of visual arts in this razor-sharp novel. Winning a scholarship to California’s most prestigious art school seems like a fairy tale ending to Sabine Reye’s awful senior year. After losing both her mother and her home, Sabine longs for a place where she belongs. But the cutthroat world of visual arts is nothing … world of visual arts is nothing like what Sabine had imagined. Colin Krell, the renowned faculty member whom she had hoped would mentor her, seems to take merciless delight in tearing down her best work–and warns her that she’ll lose the merit-based award if she doesn’t improve.
Desperate and humiliated, Sabine doesn’t know where to turn. Then she meets Adam, a grad student who understands better than anyone the pressures of art school. He even helps Sabine get insight on Krell by showing her the modern master’s work in progress, a portrait that’s sold for a million dollars sight unseen.
Sabine is enthralled by the portrait; within those swirling, colorful layers of paint is the key to winning her inscrutable teacher’s approval. Krell did advise her to improve her craft by copying a painting she connects with…but what would he think of Sabine secretly painting her own version of his masterpiece? And what should she do when she accidentally becomes party to a crime so well-plotted that no one knows about it but her?
Complex and utterly original, What I Want You to See is a gripping tale of deception, attraction, and moral ambiguity.
more
My Thoughts:
I love the beautiful and artistic cover on What I Want You to See. Once I read the synopsis, I was intrigued, and knew this was a book I wanted to read. What I Want You to See was a super fast read. The chapters are short, and the writing flows effortlessly. I love how the author gave just enough description of the setting, characters, and plot, that I could easily visualize everything, without being bored or making the narrative drag.
The story is told from college art student Sabine Reyes’ point of view. She is in her first year of college and attending the California Institute for the Visual Arts, after being awarded the prestigious Zoich Scholarship. We get the present, as well as flashback’s in to Sabine’s past, through memories, and her reflection on sketches that she previously created. We learn of her painful, sad, and heartbreaking past.
Sabine has high hopes of becoming a famous painter one day, and learning from the renowned Professor Collin Krell, who also happens to be the department head. However, Sabine quickly realizes that she will not get what she had hoped for from her professor. During group critique he constantly humiliates Sabine and puts down her paintings. Then Sabine meets Adam, Master’s candidate and work study grunt. He offers her a solution to her struggle with Krell. Is this the answer to her problem? Can she trust Adam, or is he not who he appears to be?
What I Want You to See had a very important theme in it about not just looking at the surface of things, but delving much deeper, and looking past anger, hurt, and fear. We see it when Professor Krell is trying to teach Sabine about art, as well as when it comes to looking at the people you meet. Many times our perceptions are blurred when we just take things and people at face value.
Art has always been a passion of mine, and I took three years of it in high school. So I was completely enraptured as Sabine learned about light, reflective surfaces, color, texture, negative space, etc. I could easily visualize her pencil and pastel drawings, as well as her paintings.
I enjoyed getting to know the secondary cast, and Sabine’s friends, Taysha and Kevin were wonderful characters, but my favorite was Mrs. Mednimov, Sabine’s sweet, generous, and nurturing landlady. These three made up a surrogate family/support system for Sabine, and I enjoyed her interactions with all of them. There was a light romance in the story, but the focus was the art, the mystery behind Adam and what takes place in the plot, and the overall message.
There were some serious topics addressed in the story, such as death of a loved one, homelessness and poverty, as well as depression and suicide. If you are an art lover, enjoy a suspenseful little mystery, light romance, and a fast-paced story that will keep you eagerly turning pages, I suggest you check out, What I Want You to See by Catherine Linka.
WHAT I WANT YOU TO SEE
By Catherine Linka
This book was a non-stop read for me. I was immediately connected to the incredible writing of Catherine Linka and I found an instant linking to the main character, Sabine Reyes. It touches on so many real and intimate topics that young adults are facing across the world today but often go unseen or is downplayed; such as the homelessness of college students. It really tells the story in such an impactful way and that these homeless students do have hopes, dreams for a future and are doing everything to survive homelessness so that they may continue and complete college to have a chance to change the cards they have been dealt.
Sabine Reyes was not someone you’d ever picture to be homeless. Growing up in Beverly Hills. But when her mother dies, the job her mother had, furnished not only a paycheck but a home to live in as well. Her mother was the Assistant to a demanding celebrity that had no need for Sabine since her mother was gone; leaving Sabine with her mom’s last paycheck, guitar and pride. She managed to get herself a car to live out of while she acquired a scholarship to the famed art school, CALINVA.
Sabine keeps her homelessness a secret from her teachers & other students. She has a tough critic in Professor Krell’, the class she must master in order to maintain her scholarship. She takes two part time jobs and finds a room to rent. She meets a grad student who shows interest in helping her show Professor Krell her true abilities. While her intent is pure, we come to find out his is not. He sneaks her into Krell’s studio to replicate a recently sold painting that Krell did that sold for almost a million dollars. She learns a lot and is excited to show Krell her improvement. Her copy is almost an exact replica. But suddenly both the grad student and the paintings go missing. Then Sabine’s replica shows up at the unveiling and is duped as being the original that the buyer had purchased. What happened to the real painting? Things get personal when the replica gets tagged and a fire is set. How did Sabine get involved in all this unknowingly? What is the risk? Is she a criminal if the truth gets out? Can she find the grad student that she now realizes she knows nothing about. Faced with voices telling her to speak up and tell the truth & risking everything she’s done to have a better future, Sabine questions everything about herself and her future.
This book was surprisingly fun and quite intriguing. What I Want You To See by Catherine Linka is a unique and captivating story about art, beauty, imperfection, and learning how to be true to yourself.
I like to think of myself as an artsy person. I love arts and crafts, I love being creative. I’ve done scrapbooking, jewelry making, pottery, and even started my own handmade nail polish business a few years ago (I don’t do it anymore though). But, I personally don’t know that much about art criticism and theory so reading this book and learning about that was very interesting for me.
WIWYTS is different from anything I’ve read before, but I really enjoyed it and connected with Sabine more than I expected. Her struggle to gain the approval of her professor, Krell, her insecurities and fears about never being good enough, her passion for what she loves, and every other emotion she experienced I could also feel. I’m really shy and was one of those students who dreaded being called in class, and doing presentations and speaking in front of everyone. So, I could easily sympathize with Sabine and my heart just ached for what she’s dealing with.
Linka’s writing style has its own allure and I enjoyed it. It’s easy to read and the pacing, while slow at times, had a nice flow. I liked the storyline which is well written and engaging. There’s enough intrigue, conflict, thrills, twists and excitement. I won’t go into details, but through all the lies, forgery, and deceit, I found myself on edge a few times and hoping the best for Sabine. Another thing I liked is how Linka vividly described the art pieces. It made me feel like I was there looking at them and that was really fun for me. The romance aspect of the story didn’t really do it for me. Maybe I was into the other parts of the book, but usually I enjoy romances so that was kind of a bummer. As for how it all ends, I have mixed feelings since I was hoping for more, but I think Linka wrapped up the story pretty well.
Sabine is a complex character, but all her flaws, fears, and vulnerabilities made me root for her. As I’ve already mentioned, I felt a connection with Sabine from the start so watching her story unfold was at times heartbreaking, but also quite riveting. I was engrossed and while I did put the book down a few times, I couldn’t wait to pick it up again and continue. I wanted to know what she would do, what would happen next, and what the ending would be like for her.
All in all, this book is different from what I’m used to reading, but in an unexpectedly good way and I quite enjoyed it. What I Want You To See is a unique, thrilling, and fascinating story that I’m sure would appeal to plenty of readers. This novel is so much more that what it seems and there are so many aspects of the story that will make you think and see things differently.
I received an advance reader copy of this book from the author and publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review and for participating in a Blog Tour hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club (FFBC). I also received free hardcover copy of the book for joining the Bookstragram Tour also hosted by FFCC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.