Everything Everything

 

 I lived every single moment with Madeline Whittier, an eighteen-year-old girl locked up in her painfully simple home as a result of her diagnosis of SCID, a Severe Combined Immunodeficiency. This specific disease is a group of possibly deadly inherited disorders of the immune system, or, as Madeline calls it, “bubble baby disease,” where she is allergic to basically everything. Every day is completely the same for Madeline, and everyday she compares her life to palindromes such as “Madam, I’m Adam,” as they are the same forwards and backwards. Because of her disease, Madeline doesn’t see people very often. Her education is acquired through Skype or online, and her tutors never visit her unless they agree to be fully decontaminated. All of this “sameness” is true until Olly, the boy from next door changes Madeline’s life forever. Thus, when she falls hard for this mysterious boy, the situation becomes completely out of hand.

Nicola Yoon, the author of this fantastic book, Everything, Everything, has an amazing way of sucking the reader right into the story, as if they were experiencing the same exact event as Madeline was. Whether it was “IMing” Olly, or even reading one of her many books that either made Madeline cry, laugh, or groan at the thought of it, I felt as though I was right there with her. Yoon thoroughly connects with the reader, however she also gives the reader some room to imagine what the settings or characters look/feel like. To clarify, when describing Madeline, Nicola Yoon gives a vague borderline of her, and lets the reader come up with the rest. Thus, allowing the reader live in the story. By the third page, Madeline is already saying snarky comments such as, “Basically, I’m allergic to the world.” therefore proving that Madeline is incredibly testy. Nicola Yoon shoots amazingly witty statements at the reader, making it incredibly hard not to laugh. If I was told to describe Everything, Everything in seven words, I would say, “Everything, everything about this book was brilliant.”