Book Review: Everything, Everything

Title: Everything, Everything

Author: Nicola Yoon

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Pages: 306
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.
Goodreads

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I read this entire book this past Sunday afternoon. This is a great contemporary read to pick up this summer… and then maybe watch the movie? (I’m not a movie person, but I’d guess it’s probably also a good summertime movie.) I got a lot more out of this book than I generally expect from contemporary novels.

This is a nice little story that is easy to fly through. I enjoyed the style of the writing; it mixes in Maddy’s notebooks, drawings, IMs, and emails. There aren’t really chapters, just sections that are often very short. I personally really liked this and it put focus on events that happened within each little section.

There’s the usual story of young adult, girl meets boy and they fall in love knowing each other for 3 months, but this is pretty obvious from the synopsis so I was expecting it going into the book.

This book had a lot of meaning to me because I have been struggling so much with figuring out what I want from life lately. Maddy’s perspective of not being able to really have much of a life solidified the thoughts I’ve been having that I need to do what will make me the most happy. I don’t know if it would have as much meaning if I had read this at a different point in my life, but it was a very uplifting read for me.

I was not expecting the ending. At first I was disappointed, but the more I have thought about it after finishing the book, I like the message it sends. I usually have at least a vague inkling of what is going to happen by the time I get to the end of a book and I think I enjoyed this book more for not having any clue what was coming.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a quick and meaningful summer read. This book made me think while also just being able to enjoy the story.

P.S. I really, really like the cover now that I’ve read the book.

What did you think of Everything, Everything? Have you seen the movie? Did you see the movie first or read the book?