FACELESS

Narrator Susan-Kate Heaney portrays Maisie, a dreamy 16-year-old who fantasizes about the prom and telling her first boyfriend she loves him. But Maisie herself and Heaney's narration change quickly when Maisie awakens in a hospital, the victim of a freak accident that has burned her face. After a partial face transplant, Maisie is tormented by living with "the donor's" features as she suffers insensitive classmates and her ex-boyfriend's kindness. Heaney voices Maisie's outward self as sarcastic, bitter, and sometimes cruel. Inner monologues reveal her hurt and gradual transformation into a young woman who thinks for herself. S.W. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2015]