*I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*
Title: Everything Everything
Author: Nicola Yoon
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: September 2015
ISBN: 9780553496642
Synopsis from Goodreads:
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.
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I loved this book. I started it and finished it in an evening. Madeline is born with a rare disease (severe combined immune deficiency) that inhibits her ability to leave the filtered air sanctuary of her house. She lives her life in books with the company of her mother, her nurse, and the friends she’s made online. She takes classes through Skype. It takes so much time for people to come through the decontamination chamber to get into her house, that she’s only met a few of her teachers of rare occasions. She’s by herself a lot. She’s a pretty cool girl. She has bright ideas and she’s positive, although her situation is quite dreadful. She has a great outlook on life.
Then Olly moves in across the road. Olly has troubles of his own with his family life, but he reaches out to Maddy, inspired by her strength and her desire to keep on learning and growing as a person. I’m not usually a fan of romances in books, but Olly helps to empower Maddy. He encourages her to try new things. They support one another and help each other through their difficult situations. I loved that Maddy develops feeling not because he’s the best looking boy she’s ever seen, but because they get to know one another. They can see past the difficulties in each other’s lives without pitying one another. Their lives, their personalities, and their situations don’t seem false or unbelievable. They’re very real and well-developed characters.
I never quite knew where the story was going. Yoon throws in quite a few twists that you don’t see coming. There are so many twists, turns, and surprises. This book took my breath away. The story is presented through many forms: traditional narrative, drawings, charts, graphs, IM conversations, etc. I have few words to describe it other than to say it was a really amazing book.
Worn Pages and Ink 