Everything, Everything
I received a complimentary copy of Everything, Everything from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
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.
Published September 1st 2015 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Everything Everything was a very quick read. In fact, I started it one night and finished it the next day. Don’t let this fact sway your choice of this book. Sometimes easy reads require deep thinking. Everything Everything is exactly one of those books. The premise of the book is pretty simple: a girl has a disease that keeps her in an airlock house where she has no visitors, can’t go outside, and never really experiences life.
At first, I really liked this book. I loved the whole plot line, characters, the style of the book. I really found Maddy’s notebook pages a nice touch and helped me understand Maddy’s life and mindset. I can’t imagine never leaving home and not having any friends or companions besides my daily nurse and my mom. I didn’t mind the cheesy romance developing between Olly and Maddy. The romance was very well written and within the boundaries of most middle schoolers’ comfort level. I think most high school and middle schoolers will find it very believable and not be distracted by its quick intensity.
I think the book as a whole made me think about being satisfied and unsatisfied. Maddy is completely satisfied with her life until she learns how different it could be. Once she discovers this, she is no longer happy in her own little sanitary, germ-free world. This book makes me think of Room. In Room, the main character, Jack, is kept in a 11 X 8 foot room for the first 5 years of his life. He knows no difference between the life he leads and the lives lead by “normal” people. It’s like you don’t know what you are missing until you are exposed to it. Everyone likes vanilla ice cream until they try chocolate. It also reminds me of the children’s book, If You Give A Mouse a Cookie. This applies to Maddy. Until Olly moves next door, she is completely happy with the life she leads.
If you are going to read this book, please stop reading this review now.
SPOILER ALERT
Now to the part I did not like.
Those of you that know me know I have very high expectations for my authors. Boy, did Nicola Yoon let me down with her ending. I’ll give her credit; I never saw it coming….because it was just all of a sudden thrown in. Her mother crazy? She was never sick? Please, Nicola needs to give her readers some more credit. We know when an ending is thrown together or rushed to meet a deadline. If it writer’s block, get an extension to the deadline. Don’t get me wrong, I think the ending would have been good if she had built up to it. Foreshadowing might have been nice. You know more hints about the mom being unstable, more information about how the mom dealt with the death of her husband and son, and the mentioning that she saw no other doctors her entire life. Now some might call it a plot twist. In fact, I have had some heated discussions about plot twist with some of my reader friends. I agree that a plot twist is totally unexpected, but it must be believable. I did not find the fact that Maddy was never sick and her mom was a psycho believable. I believe Nicola Yoon could have pulled the ending off with more notice to the reader.
Ideas for the Classroom
- Because there is a “plot twist”, this book would be a great example to use to discuss this literary device.
- Students could compare and contrast other plot twist books.
- Students could rewrite the ending.
- Students could talk about things the author could have introduced to make the ending more believable.
- Discussion about connections between people: Maddy and Olly
- Psychology of death and dealing with grief.
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