Everything, Everything - Review

Everything, Everything

By: Nicola Yoon

Published: September 1st 2015 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers

307 pages

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Source: Borrowed from the elibrary

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Goodreads description--My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

This book had such an original concept. Maddy has SCID which as the description says basically means that she's allergic to pretty much everything. Anything could cause her to get sick and getting sick for her could very well kill her. That being said, she's confined to her house and only people who go through a rigorous decontamination process can come to visit. And even then she could still get sick. Maddy's mother and full time nurse, Carla, are mainly the only two people that she's has contact with. Maddy's mostly content with this life as she loves to read and that keeps her mind engaged, but she's had periods in her life when depression over what all she can't do gets her down.

A moving van shows up and Maddy can't stop herself from watching from her window. Carla's concerned that this might be similar to a time when she was much younger and watching the family next door sparked one of her depressions. But Maddy can't bring herself to stop. Olly gives Maddy his email address by writing on his window and the two begin to talk online over email and IM. Olly and Maddy do have an insta-love-ish relationship. Personally, this didn't bother me in the case of Everything, Everything.

And as one can imagine, being allergic to everything causes some serious roadblocks to any real kind of relationship. But Olly and the possibility of love causes Maddy to reconsider what kind of quality of life she's had so far and will she be able to return to life as it was before the possibility of a future.

Favorite quotes:

-It's a strange thing to realize that you're willing to die. It doesn't come in a flash, a sudden epiphany. It happens slowly, a balloon leak in reverse.

-Wanting just leads to more wanting. There's no end to desire.

Everything, Everything was a fast, feel-good book for me. It was unique in the dilemma and plot. I liked all of the characters for the most part (minus Olly's father). Yet, I felt like things wrapped up way too quickly and easily considering the magnitude of the issues Maddy and Olly were facing. I also wanted to know a little bit more about how Maddy and Olly's conversation at the very end of the book would have gone. Everything, Everything was enjoyable, but not without a few issues. Everything, Everything gets 4 Stars from me. Have you read Everything, Everything? What did you think? Let me know!