Review of Invisible Ellen by Shari Shattuck

Invisible Ellen is the story about a young woman who had an abusive childhood and as a result tries to keep herself out of the eyes of people. She seeks solace in junk food and is very overweight as a result. She has a disfiguring scar on her face which makes her even more reticent about engaging with people. She spends her non-work hours observing the people around her including the residents of the apartments in her building which is in a bad neighborhood. Her life changes when one day she saves a young blind woman from muggers. Ellen slowly opens up to the possibilities of being emotionally close to someone and actively doing things to help them. The story moves along at a good pace. I found the book hard to put down because of the interesting characters and developments.