Everything, Everything 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. (Image and Synopsis from Goodreads)
Hey y’all! The Everything, Everything movie comes out today and I am super excited! I just finished reading the book earlier this month and I really enjoyed it! It isn’t my favorite book ever, but book to movie adaptations make me so happy! I love when books get rep in other forms!
Before I talk about the things I loved in this book, I want to talk about some things I had problems with. First, I do not know much about SCID, but what I do know makes me question how they went about treating her. If her allergies are so severe to warrant being diagnosed with SCID, then she should have been taken better care of. Of course, they have the airlock and all, but nobody changes their clothes, they just get an “air shower”. This is hardly effective in keeping the allergens out of the house. It was also way too easy for her to get outside, she was able to just run out the front door. There is also an issue with the portrayal of depression. Both her and her mother showed the signs and it was hardly addressed. The author brushed aside both the physical illness and the mental illness for the sake of a good story. Illnesses should not be exploited for a plot device. Real people have these diseases and real people are struggling with them everyday.
Now, to the things I did like. I liked the easy writing style. I sat down and read this book in a matter of 3 hours! The writing is simple and concise, yet still incredibly lovely. Also, I loved the charts, images, IMs, and book reviews interspersed throughout the book! It made the reading experience so much fun!
I enjoyed seeing how she and her mother interacted. It reminded me a lot of my mom and I. Not necessarily all of their game nights, but how they share everything and watch lots of movies together. It was a nice change from books where the parents are distant and uncaring. Her mom truly cared about her daughter’s well being, even if she sometimes had a funny way of showing it.
The overall plot was fast paced, but I found it to be rather predictable. I saw most of the plot twists before they happened, but I am pretty sure that it is just me. I would be sitting there thinking, “What if…”, and then I turned the page and it happened! It was kinda crazy! I enjoyed the overall plot, but that last twist was hard for me to swallow (even though I saw it coming…).
As for the characters, I absolutely loved Maddy, Ollie, and Carla! They were developed so well and it was amazing seeing how each one grew over the course of the novel. There are not too many side characters in this book, but the ones that were there were well rounded and added a lot to the story.
I do think that the romance was rather insta-lovey, but they did take time getting to know each other before they expressed those feelings. I just had a bit of a problem with the fact that she fell in love with the first guy she ever met. The romance was well developed, even if they moved a little fast.
I also loved Maddy’s great sense of humor. There were many times when her wittiness made me laugh out loud! There were so many jokes and funny stories. The humor added so much to what would be an otherwise rather depressing novel. Her humor made interactions with the other characters more realistic, which almost validates the insta-loveliness. She is an incredibly loveable character, so I can understand how Olly would fall for her.
I gave Everything, Everything 4/5 stars. I enjoyed almost every aspect of this book, with the exception of the portrayal of SCID and depression. I think that Nicola Yoon could have done a better job explaining and developing these illnesses. Yet as a whole, I found the novel to be adorable, addicting, and hilarious!
Have you read Everything, Everything? What did you think? Please comment down below. I would love to hear from you!
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