Book Review: Unseen by Molly Burke

INTRO

              As an able-bodied woman, I’m always looking to learn more about the disabled community. I grew up watching Molly Burke on YouTube, fangirling over her late guide dog, Gallop, and listening to her struggles as a blind woman. In one video, 10 Things That Amaze Me About Sight, Molly marvels at the idea of all the colors sighted people can identify. She wonders how we just know the names of all the colors in the world, something I never thought before. As I write this, I look at my headphones and know they’re coral. My nails are painted scarlet. The boy across from me wears a charcoal sweatshirt. Watching Molly, listening to her testimonies, helped me appreciate all the sights around me. In her memoir, Unseen, I felt this further in her unsparing stories.

OVERVIEW

              Molly Burke is a 31-year-old advocate for the blind and disabled communities. At a young age, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, causing her to lose the majority of her vision in her early teens. Her book, Unseen, explores themes of exploitation, discrimination, coming-of-age, and how we can make the world a more accessible place.

THOUGHTS

Burke is a very well-spoken writer which makes sense given her public speaking background. Her book doesn’t always follow a chronological order, but I found that choice to be rather compelling because I was excited to find out what the next section would be about. Despite the out-of-order timeline, her strong voice came through.

              In comparison to other celebrity/influencer memoirs, Burke is a bit more honest than the rest. I’ve found that celebrities tend to write what’s already posted online but Burke brings us in for the whole truth. Viewers of her YouTube channel know she used to work for a public-speaking company, but for the first time we learned the extent of her early career working for an exploitative “charity” preying on people’s emotions. She compares it to a cult-like atmosphere. Close to the end of the book, she even calls out television shows for stealing her identity for their blind characters. My jaw was on the floor listening to her stories.

              The only critique I have for Burke’s writing is the millennial-jargon/humor throughout. The top example is her use of “shook” (in place of shocked) in several places. It took me out of the story because I know how quickly slang comes and goes. It may be a relevant (albeit dying) word now, but in a year, two years, a decade, I would read Unseen and cringe at the “old-fashioned” language.

              I would recommend Unseen to pretty much anyone. It’s a very accessible read with easy-to-follow stories and great educational moments. We can always be improving on how we treat the disabled community, and while Burke says herself she does not speak for every disabled person, her book is a great place to start even if you haven’t grown up with her on YouTube.

Lorraine Durbin ’26 is a creative writing major at Susquehanna University with a specialization in creative non-fiction