Tag Archive | Carrie Mac

REVIEW: 10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac

10 Things I Can See From Here by Carrie Mac

Read: March 4-22 , 2017

Format: Paperback ARC

My Book Rating: 2 Stars

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (Random House)

Release Date: February 28, 2017

Genre: Contemporary YA / GLBT / Mental Health

Pages: 320

Reading Challenge(s): 2017 YA, 2017 LGBTQIA

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Perfect for fans of Finding Audrey and Everything, Everything, this is the poignant and uplifting story of Maeve, who is dealing with anxiety while falling in love with a girl who is not afraid of anything.


Think positive.

Don’t worry; be happy.

Keep calm and carry on.

Maeve has heard it all before. She’s been struggling with severe anxiety for a long time, and as much as she wishes it was something she could just talk herself out of, it’s not. She constantly imagines the worst, composes obituaries in her head, and is always ready for things to fall apart. To add to her troubles, her mom—the only one who really gets what Maeve goes through—is leaving for six months, so Maeve will be sent to live with her dad in Vancouver.

Vancouver brings a slew of new worries, but Maeve finds brief moments of calm (as well as even more worries) with Salix, a local girl who doesn’t seem to worry about anything. Between her dad’s wavering sobriety, her very pregnant stepmom insisting on a home birth, and her bumbling courtship with Salix, this summer brings more catastrophes than even Maeve could have foreseen. Will she be able to navigate through all the chaos to be there for the people she loves?


REVIEW

I was really excited to start this book, and actually it jumped ahead of a LOT of other books in my pile. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

The thing about Maeve is that she’s a really annoying and boring narrator. I understand WHY the story was told as it was, but I just didn’t really like her or care about her for a good half of the story. I know that anxiety is a real and often crippling thing for someone to go through, but for my personality type, this book was too much for me. I actually found humor in a lot of Maeve’s thoughts, but they were very repetitive and didn’t move the story forward.

I hated the adults in this book. Her dad was a joke of a father, and her mom was… well, not there. Which I get. But she made questionable decisions (such as not allowing her daughter to take medication to help her through her anxiety.) The only adult who seemed to really look out for Maeve and want to help her was her stepmom, Claire, who is a fun and slightly kooky character herself.

I liked that there was a f/f romance, but I didn’t buy it. I’m not really sure what Salix sees in Maeve. It was a little too “insta-love” for my liking. Salix was actually the best thing about the book, though.

By the time I reached the halfway point, the book actually seemed to be developing a plot versus the endless pages of Maeve freaking out about everything. Salix really helped with that. The ending was really good too.


So do I recommend this book?
It had it’s good parts, but on a whole it was mostly just boring with not much happening plot wise. Ultimately for me this just wasn’t a very memorable book.

 

I received a copy of this book from Goodreads First Reads in the hope of an honest review.


Get the Book here:

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QUOTES

(Taken from an advanced release copy. There’s a chance the following passages may vary from the final copy)

There were no laws against crossing the border with a hunting knife. Or a box cutter. Or a blowtorch. Or a hammer. A person could do a lot of damage with a hammer. There have been an inordinate number of murders involving hammers.


But my parents actually agreed on a lot of things, and one of them was that they wouldn’t let me take prescription drugs for my anxiety until I was an adult. Your brain is still developing, Maeve. You might grow out of it. It’s too soon, they said. I disagreed. My brain was hardwired differently. What was the point of trying to put out a wildfire by pissing on it?


A cute girl playing the violin for me at a sidewalk café? I wouldn’t have been surprised if a
Tyrannosaurus rex lurched down the street and swallowed her whole. It was about a as likely.


I blinked. “I love that you know that.”
“Thanks.” Salix lifted her sunglasses and grinned at me. “I love that you don’t think that knowing that is completely dorky.”