Every now and then you read a book that makes you want to throw it across the room.
Or at least I do.
Everything Everything is one such book. It starts out innocently enough. Madeline has a rare disease that prevents her from leaving the house. Her mom, nurse and one teacher are the only people with whom she has regular contact. Then a boy moves in next door and everything changes.
So far it sounds like a pretty typical teen love story, right? She wants what she can’t have, but surely they’ll find a way to be together because young love rules over all.
If only things were that simple for Maddy and Olly.
Everything Everything is about living a life of wild abandon and taking risks when you’re still young enough to try and recover from mistakes. And, this is a book about family and loss and tragedy and self-control and allusion and illusion and everything (everything) in between. It’s about what happens when you realize that your life isn’t the life you want to live and taking a leap of faith into the great unknown.
Debut author Nicola Yoon creates a complicated world that is still somehow simple. Maddy stays inside or she could die. And from that trope, an entire world is born. Yoon weaves the narrative so clearly and carefully that you don’t see the twists and turns coming until you’re right in the middle, moving right along with them.
I definitely recommend this one. I do not recommend reading it while you’re waiting for an oil change. Especially the last 100 pages or so. The other customers may look at you like you’ve lost your mind.