The Sight follows Faith who as a child acquired the ability to see how people would die. Eventually, Faith learns how to control her visions and she is able to join her family’s traveling carnival. 

Faith uses her ability in public and is kicked out of her family carnival. This is her main source of income and this is how she is supporting her sick mother's medical bills. With the help of her best friend Betsy Faith tries to make money in a world where she gets paid to tell people how they die.

I liked the premise of this book but found myself bored at times. I feel like the ending happened so fast but the rest of the book was oddly paced. I won't spoil the ending but in the summary, you are promised a jaw-dropping conclusion. I will say I didn’t see this one coming but it also did not shock me.

The theme, tone, and location of this book kept making me think it was a period piece. I kept forgetting it was taking place in modern times and I was reminded when cell phones were used or terms like viral videos were brought up.

While I didn’t love this book I did enjoy it. I wouldn’t rush to read it but it's worth your time if you have a small backlog.

I enjoyed this dive into an exotic world of circus performers and the practical magic of the protagonist and her gift of the sight. On top of that, this is at its heart a thriller, a mystery, and it had all the twists and surprises, with the bonus of a very big "feel" element.

Thank you Netgalley for the advance audiobook copy of The Sight by Melanie Golding in exchange for an honest review. This was a really interesting story with a lot of different things happening that kept me guessing and intrigued till the end of the book. There was a circus and death visions, family plotting and betrayal. I recommend this book.

I received an audio arc of this book and am giving my honest feedback.

As far as the audio goes it’s great. I really enjoyed the narration and no problem seeing the story as she told it.

As for the actual story… I am angry.
Her family sucked so bad. Even with the reveal at the end, they still did so many horrible things!

They blamed her for deaths because as a child she had a dream and did not tell anyone about it.

They then treated her like a curse or evil person because she could see people’s deaths.

They put the blame of the circus losing people on her.

Then she had to see her mothers death.

And as her mother got sicker and sicker, they forced her to pay for her care… even though atleast her uncle had money to spare as he was always offering to pay for anything but his sisters care.

No wonder the girl created an imaginary friend.. Everyone in her life sucked!

When her family saw her talking to herself did they try to get her help or treatment… no!

They manipulated her out of her family’s shares in a very condescending and humiliating scene.

Even at her mother’s funeral everyone was an ass to her.

Best part of this whole story was when I thought Callum was going to get off’ed by the very thing he stole from her… okay I’m being dramatic but that would have been some sweet karma!

Also I don’t know any 10 year old boy who would spend 12+ years with some weird ass grudge against a girl who had a dream.

Let’s not mention that same boy stalked her out and tried to kill her… almost killing others in the process… but didn’t receive any punishment. I’m glad he got stabbed.

So my main issue is by the end it seems like we’re suppose to understand why the family treated her that way. It’s as though all is forgiven. No! Her condition did not justify any of the actions above.

Best thing that girl could do was get her horse and wagon and get as far as she can from those people.

The reveal towards the end is what makes this story. I did not see that coming. Golding does a fantastic job of laying clues throughout but keeping your attention elsewhere. So at the time I didn’t realize it, but once you find out it’s like “ohhhhhh!”

Overall I enjoyed the concept and the main character’s plot. What held this book back for me was the irrational behavior of her family and the circus.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
I really enjoyed this audiobook.
The setting of the circus was a great atmosphere and had my interest right away. I loved Faith as a character and her story was interesting throughout the book.
I thought it would be creepier or more of a thriller type based on the description but it wasn’t for me. However I still enjoyed the book itself.
Narrator did a great job as well.

Faith has a gift, a very unusual gift. She can look into someone's eyes and knows how they are going to die. At an early age she learned to hide her gift from others. Faith worked in her family's traveling carnival/circus until an incident with an unruly person resulted in her experiencing a vision in front of the entire audience. One would think this would be interesting for carnival goers and part of the show, but Faith is kicked out and lost her only way to pay for her mother's care.

Now with the support of her friend, she will use her gift to make money and is unsettled when she sees herself in a vision....


I had such high hopes for this book. I loved Golding's other books Little Darlings and The Hidden and was expecting to love this one as well. It is only 272 pages long but felt much, much longer. It was slow in parts and had a very strange vibe. When the book began, I could have sworn that the book took place during the Victorian age, but it takes place in the modern day. I might have enjoyed this more if this book had taken place in the past, it might have made more sense in terms of people's reaction to her visions.

I can't fault, Melanie' Golding's writing. It is top notch. She also does a great job creating tone and atmosphere in this book. I just had a hard time connecting with this book and the characters. The synopsis was intriguing and as I mentioned I had high hopes.

Although this was not my favorite of her books, I will still be excited to read what she writes next.

What if you could look into someone’s eyes and see how they are going to die?! Would you consider this ability to be a gift or a curse?

In @melaniegoldingauthor’s newest novel, The Sight, main character, Faith, has this ability. Her family sees it as a curse and she is ostracized from the family business that she loves so much, a traveling carnival. This slow burn thriller explores toxic family dynamics, superstitions, and heartbreaking betrayal.

I love the way Melanie writes and how she weaves folklore and magic in to every day issues and problems. I absolutely loved her book, The Hidden, and equally love The Sight. The audiobook is well narrated and the characters are well developed. I highly recommend this book especially if you love character driven magical realism novels.

Thank you @dreamscape_media and @netgalley for allowing me to listen to this audiobook ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

First line: By the time she left the wagon after breakfast, she had almost forgotten about the dream.

Summary: Faith has the gift of the sight. By looking into someone’s eyes she can see how they will die. It is a horrible gift that she wishes she could banish but over the years she has learned how to limit its power. Then one night an unruly carnival guest leads her to make a prediction for the whole world to see. By using her gift she has broken the carnival rules and is banished from the only world she knows. Without a way to earn money for the care of her dying mother, Faith has to turn to this cursed gift and the consequences it may entail.

My Thoughts: I was very excited by the premise of Golding’s new book but I was a bit underwhelmed by it in the end. So much of the beginning was talking of the past and just her life while hiding her gift. Things did not really pick up until the last quarter of the book when Faith starts to use her gift more freely and sees things she would love to forget. There are several twists at the end that were shocking. I did not see them coming at all which gave it a little higher rating. It was fun and quick with a fun atmosphere but just not Golding’s best work.

Faith discovers at a young age and in a tragic way that she has the “gift” to foresee how someone will die. She and her family are carnival performers, but this is a dangerous gift and they demand Faith to keep it a secret. When an event occurs that makes Faith blurt out a vision, she is ostracized from the carnival. She’s not forced to leave but since she cannot work with the performers, she’s given the job of running a carnival ride so she can make money to support her dying mother. After an altercation with a customer, Faith blurts out yet another vision and it goes viral. Shortly after she senses she’s being followed and has a vision of herself killing the man following her. Now with no one except her best friend on her side, she finds out the pack up crew have raised her rates out of reach. She needs money fast and she also needs to find out who this man is and what circumstances must transpire to cause her to kill him at some future date. Could her gift help to raise the much needed money and also help her to change the events that lead to murder?

The characters here are richly drawn and I loved the story. This is a great and atmospheric paranormal thriller by the author of Little Darlings which I also enjoyed. I listened to the audiobook which is beautifully narrated by Ella Lynch @narrator.Ella

Thank you to @dreamscape_media @netgalley @melaniegoldingauthor for an advance audio copy.

I’m really hoping Book of the Month or Aardvark feature this as a September selection as I will definitely want a hard copy for my bookshelf. A great read for the fall season coming up!

A dark but very atmospheric audiobook, The Sight is a little bit of supernatural (Faith can see how a person is going to die when she looks into their eyes), a lot of superstitions (the circus performers think she is bad luck, so she has to keep her magic eye covered with an eye patch) and a lot of family drama. They are all present in this extremely interesting look at circus life and what it means to be part of the family that IS the circus. I loved hearing the journey that Faith went through to understand her gift or curse and how she coped with such trauma as a young child.

Faith has the ability to see when and how people will die. After foreseeing a family tragedy and being shunned, she learns how to control her visions, she then returns to the family carnival. When an unruly customer attacks her, she has a vision in front of a crowd, and she is then banned from the carnival. Now she needs to figure out how to support her and her dying mother and decides to go to dangerous lengths to earn money, no longer hiding her ability. But then she sees herself in a man's future death...

The Sight was not exactly what I was expecting but I did enjoy it. Now, I absolutely loved the first book I read by Melanie Golding, The Hidden. So, I had high expectations. I received The Sight as an audiobook ARC and usually I can finish an audiobook rather quickly, but I had a little trouble staying interested. I am not sure if it was the book, the narrator, or a mix of both, but I didn't love it. Faith's ability was interesting, and I wanted to see what she was going to do with her gift. I will say, I didn't expect the twist! It was a nice surprise. Now that I am writing out this review, I am thinking maybe I would have enjoyed it more as a physical book. If you're interested in reading The Sight, I say give it a go as a physical or ebook!

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC and giving me the chance to listen and review it honestly.

Happy reading!

This book was very good! I loved the storyline. I was very captivated from the beginning. I thought the narrator was really good and I enjoyed the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley, Melanie Golding & Dreamscape Media for an audio ARC of The Sight.

"As a child, Faith acquired the ability to see when and how people would die—a “gift” she neither wanted nor could get rid of.

After foreseeing a family tragedy and being ostracized, Faith learns to control her visions and returns to perform in her family’s traveling carnival. But when an unruly customer attacks her, she has a vision in full view of a crowd.

She is banned from the carnival she loves—and loses her only source of income to support her dying mother. Desperate to support her mother and with only one friend standing by her, she sees no reason to continue hiding her ability and goes to dangerous lengths to earn money. But when she sees herself in a man’s future death, Faith must face her own fears of her powers and tune into her gift to fight against a future that would ruin her life—and end someone else’s."

I was EXTREMELY excited to get an advance audio of this title because I really loved The Hidden by Melanie Golding. The Sight was not up to the same standard as The Hidden. It wasn't bad - it just wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be. The plot sounded great & the cover is gorgeous, but it just didn't deliver.

Even though it was set in modern times, it felt like it was set in the early 1900s. I couldn't get on board with how everyone is modern times was shunning Faith like they did. The way everything played out just didn't fit with the time period in which it was supposedly set.

The pacing was quick and characters were just "ok." I did enjoy the little twist at the end. That was definitely unexpected. But, other than that, it was just ok.