Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon (4/5)

The book Everything Everything is about a young adult, Madeline Whitter, who is living with a disease called SCID. SCID is also known as “bubble baby disease”, which means that the people suffering from this disease have trouble fighting infections that are typical to healthy people. For Madeline, this means that she is trapped in her high-tech, healthy home with her mother, who is a doctor, and nurse. Madeline and her mother have an amazing relationship due to the fact that her brother and father passed away in a tragic car crash when Madeline was very young. Madeline has always been okay with the fact that she would never see the world and would probably never live past the ripe age of twenty. That is until she sees her new neighbors move in across the street. She is immediately intrigued by the boy, Olly, and his family that had just become residents of her town and family. Olly helps Madeline see the world she is missing out on, leaving her to take risks she thought were never possible. My initial reaction of the book was pretty good, I do not believe the novel was anything astronomically spectacular. However, it was a good short and light read that was not too difficult to understand. This story triggers emotions of happiness, anger, and sadness. All of which enhance the read and make it that much more intriguing to the readers. The novel lets the readers into the life of Madeline Whitter and the struggles she needs to live within her day-to-day life, including no visitors, no human contact, and no one to keep her company during her long days. Her struggles allow the readers to get in touch with their emotions as well as hers, allowing the novel to have a deeper meaning than it would have before. When Madeline “meets” Olly she is instantly taken over with emotions she has never felt before causing the readers to feel joy for the young girl. All of the emotions experienced definitely lift the meaning of the book and the skill of the author, Nicola Yoon, to a whole new level. My advice for future readers of Everything Everything would be to not get discouraged by the slow start. For the first few pages, the novel is pretty dry, unentertaining, and quite frankly depressing. However, if you stick with the book, the emotion, meaning, and creative writing are all very impressive and very fun to read with.