Review: The One Thing by Marci Lyn Curtis

SUMMARY FROM NETGALLEY.COM:

Ages 12 and up
Maggie Sanders might be blind, but she won't invite anyone to her pity party. Ever since losing her sight six months ago, Maggie's rebellious streak has taken on a life of its own, culminating with an elaborate school prank. Maggie called it genius. The judge called it illegal.
Now Maggie has a probation officer. But she isn't interested in rehabilitation, not when she's still mourning the loss of her professional-soccer dreams, and furious at her so-called friends, who lost interest in her as soon as she could no longer lead the team to victory.
Then Maggie's whole world is turned upside down. Somehow, incredibly, she can see again. But only one person: Ben, a precocious ten-year-old unlike anyone she's ever met.Ben's life isn't easy, but he doesn't see limits, only possibilities. After awhile, Maggie starts to realize that losing her sight doesn't have to mean losing everything she dreamed of. Even if what she's currently dreaming of is Mason Milton, the magnetic lead singer of Maggie's new favorite band, who just happens to be Ben's brother.
But when she learns the real reason she can see Ben, Maggie must find the courage to face a once-unimaginable future...before she loses everything she has grown to love.

MY TAKE:
While I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would, there were definitely things here that I liked.

In The One Thing, Maggie became blind after a bout with bacterial meningitis. She's tried adjusting to her blindness, but her life changes when she finds that she can see when she's around a new boy she meets. But why exactly can she see him?

Part of the reason I was so eager to read this one was because I wondered why she could see Ben. My bet was it was a psychiatric or neurological disorder of some sort. The real reason, however, was definitely not what I expected. As far as I know, that's not medically/scientifically possible, so it really stretched my suspension of disbelief.

That reveal aside, I did like the other aspects of the book, such as how Maggie reacted to becoming blind and how it affected her dreams and relationships with her friends and family. The romance was interesting too. I liked that while there was mutual attraction between them, it wasn't exactly insta-love. However, while I liked Mason as a character, he's not my type at all, so I didn't get into it as much as I probably could have.

Ben, on the other hand, annoyed me at first. I tend to dislike characters who are too cocky and in-your-face. Yes, I know he's a child, but he had moments wherein he acted so much like a teenager that I forgot he was still young. The fact that he was a child only helped a little bit at first. It was only after about halfway through, when his and Maggie's friendship stopped and Maggie had an epiphany that I started to like him more.

As for Maggie, strangely enough, though she could be whiny and self-centered sometimes, as a whole, I actually liked her. Usually, characters like that tend to annoy me, but there was something about her and her struggle that made these normally annoying traits seem perfectly natural and made her seem more real.

Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for the e-ARC.

THE GOOD:

1. It feels like a very realistic portrayal of life for a blind girl.
2. The romance is sweet.
3. It's just as much about Maggie's acceptance of her condition and her mending her relationships with others, as it was about the romance.

THE BAD:

1. I wasn't sold on the reason why Maggie could see Ben.

READ IT IF:

1. You wonder what it would be like to be visually impaired.
2. You like musicians.
3. You like coming-of-age stories. 

RATING:


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