Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Title: Everything, Everything

Author: Nicola Yoon
Publisher: Random House Canada
Publication date: September 15, 2015 

Genre(s): Young Adult (Contemporary)

Source: Publisher

Format: ARC

Pages: 320

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Madeline Whittier is allergic to the outside world. So allergic, in fact, that she has never left the house in all of her seventeen years. But when Olly moves in next door, and wants to talk to Maddie, tiny holes start to appear in the protective bubble her mother has built around her. Olly writes his IM address on a piece of paper, shows it at her window, and suddenly, a door opens. But does Maddie dare to step outside her comfort zone?

Everything, Everything is about the thrill and heartbreak that happens when we break out of our shell to do crazy, sometimes death-defying things for love.

I had high expectations of Everything Everything after I heard a publicist at Random House Canada rave about it. Once I got into it, I could totally understand what the rave was all about. I loved how different and unique the pollen was. Our main protagonist, Maddie, is allergies to everything. She basically lives in a make shift clean room that is isolated from the outside. The air is all purified and synthetic, she can never step one foot outside, and everything she eats and does is monitored  including her vitals. I felt so bad for Maddie but her optimism and how she makes the best of her situation is so joyful to see. Ofcourse she's a teen and they tend to get melodramatic, but for the most part, she's such an upbeat happy teenager. One thing I liked is how Maddie is 17. I am somewhat tired of the typical 16 year old YA heroine. I wish more authors wrote about 17 and 18 year olds, they are still considered young adults since they're technically still (most of them) in high school. 

The love interest, Olly, is just so freaking adorable. I found myself holding my breathe whenever she did, when she would peek from the curtain of her window, when she would start to want more from her life, when she finally met him in the same room. Oh boy, I had heart palpitations throughout most of their scenes. He was more than just the love interest, he was the door to Maddie's undiscovered world. He had her questioning, experiencing more, wanting to take control of her life, and I was equal parts scared as well as excited for her. 

However, two thirds in is when I started losing sight of the book's original message. Things got messy and crazy. Things got unrealistic and unnecessary resolved perfectly. I want real life stories that don't always have that perfectly constructed (and synthetic) happy ending. Everyone's life is messy and sometimes you can't get out of a life long situation scot free and perfectly new. I have to admit I was so disappointed, very painfully disappointed with the revelations and ending. My rating went down from a 5 to a 3.5 just for that. However, I hope this doesn't deter you from picking up the book because even with the last part of the book, I don't regret picking it up. It was one of the few books this year that had me obsessing over it and wanting to make time just to read more. I will definitely be reading more books by Nicola Yoon because I feel she really does have that magical contemporary touch like many authors, such as Jenny Han, Morgan Matson, and Stephanie Perkins, have. Also, I would like to thank her for giving awareness to a rare, incurable disease to the general public, it is always nice to see authors raising awareness to such diseases.