With her mother on a six month work assignment in Haiti, Maeve, who has OCD and severe anxiety, is staying with her no longer sober father, her very pregnant stepmother, and twin six-year-old brothers in Vancouver. She meets a cute street violin player while she struggles to manage her anxieties.
Maeve was a great character filled with both positive and negative characteristics. I loved that despite her anxieties, she was able to see the impact of her behavior on others. She cared about her friends and family and knew she wasn't the center of the universe. Her stepmother Claire, was one of my favorite characters. I enjoyed seeing the relationship she had with Maeve. It was based in love, care, and concern. It was not the usual combative stepmother/daughter drama often found in novels.
"10 Things I Can See From Here" also felt uneven to me. Nearly the entire first half of the book was anxiety after anxiety, and statistics of people dying from this and that. The plot was almost lost in Maeve's anxieties. The stressors in her life increased as she and Salix became closer. Instead of her anxieties increasing, they seemed to decrease. I am always leery of the unintentional message that dating/falling in love is a cure for mental illness. No one seemed to cure Maeve's anxiety by the end of the book, and I also thought the resolution with her father's drinking was too easy.
I enjoyed Carrie Mac's writing style, and thought she really made the characters come to life. I HIGHLY recommend this book for people interested in mental illness, LGBTQ stories, step families, and substance abuse.
I give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Special thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the copy!
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