Looking for a book recommendation featuring a main character girl or woman who is misunderstood by nearly everyone around her due to her ability to see things others don’t. Not things like paranormal ghosts or things that aren’t there but more like her exceptionally high intelligence and interpersonal intuition listening to the connections between the words people use allow her to make predictions about people and events that she sees happening before others put it together. Not necessarily a book about a psychic medium but could also be about spotting political trends or societal dangers or corporate or community disasters or family fallouts but basically the theme is that no one believes her until after the fact which could be years later and even then they don’t seem to see the patterns of her predictions coming true because the predictions are scattered across various domains of people who aren’t necessarily connected to one another or communicating with one another. So basically the theme is untapped powers of connection spotting in a way that there is really no metric of measurement for measuring this skill so no way to “prove” it to others before the fact. And also living as an outcast to all but a few other people who are perhaps autistic savants or just general outcasts in other ways who also see the same patterns or at least see her ability to spot these patterns and believe her predictions. Again I want to stress that I’m not referring specifically to magical powers or religious visions from god or anything supernatural but more like just a highly enhanced ability to consume information and digest it and then spit out the connections in ways that only those who also have this ability can see as accurate and then to the rest it’s just undetectable and they see this girl as a weirdo outcast except for a few powerful people who do see her giftedness but don’t really know what to make of it since there isn’t a current way to assess it or harness it or apply it in a consistently organized way. Anything along these lines would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.
by spirited_unicorn_
6 Comments
Maybe the Millennium trilogy?
Maybe “Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow” by Peter Hoeg? Not sure if it really qualifies though because while the main character is very smart, part of the reason why she sees things differently or also in more detail is due to a different cultural background.
Nicola Griffith’s Hild is exactly what you’re looking for!
Possibly Nemesis by Isaac Asimov. One of the MCs is a teenage girl who is oddly perceptive about other people and other species (it’s sci-fi/fantasy). Most people are just uncomfortable around her and don’t believe her, except for a few. Downside: this is an older book and some mid-20th-century values come through in places.
Liar, Dreamer, Thief might be up your street, though she does see some things that are not there due to her mental illness
You’d like the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett! Tiffany is a witch with the ability to make connections and sense things that others can’t (an ability referred to as “third thoughts”).