Everything, Everything”

Description

Everything, Everything” is a new young adult novel written by Nicola Yoon that is very exciting and beautiful. The story focuses on the aspects of love, risks, and self-discovery for her main character, Madeline Whittier. She has been confined indoors since birth due to a very rare illness. This novel deals with love, the sense of identity, and the risk it takes to play for what really matters.

Summary:
Known to everyone as Maddy, Madeline is afflicted with SCID, a horrible, very rare condition: she is allergic to the outside world. Thus far, she has spent her entire life indoors in the house where her doctor mom keeps her bubble-wrapped and in complete control. She’s homeschooled, spends time with her mom and her nurse, Carla, and grows up knowing that this is it-she will never know what is to exist beyond the confines of her home.

Everything changes when a boy the same age as her moves into the house next door. Olly is an adventurous, lively, and curious lad, poles apart from Maddy’s life of sheltered protection. They communicate through messages and windows, and a deep bond soon develops between them that forces Maddy to question the life she has been living and the safety bubble within which she’d lived.

As Maddy falls in love with Olly, she also wants to want more from life, and for the first time, she entertains breaking the rules and encountering the world outside, where one might risk their health.

Major themes in the novel are Maddy’s journey of self-discovery as she makes bolder decisions, which lead to shocking revelations about her illness and life.
Love and Risk: The relation of Maddy and Olly portrays the fact that love is worth risking for. On the other hand, her going out of her comfort zone to experience life despite it costs her so much show the central theme of the novel.

Freedom and Isolation: The novel explores both physical and emotional isolation by describing the way in which Maddy was cut off from the world because of the illness that tormented her, and so forth. Her relationship with Olly symbolized her desire for freedom to break free from the tight control her mother had around her.

Coming of Age: She undergoes the rites of passage into maturity, learning not to obey but to ask questions and go for herself, just because she can, even if she should not.

Health and Control: The novel also takes on issues of how far individuals will go to protect their loves, sometimes at the expense of themselves being free and happy.

Writing Style:
Written in a format that is one of a kind-be it emails, text messages, pictures, and diary entries-this novel will make a reader want to read it even more and get an idea of what’s happening in Maddy’s mind. The book is fast-paced, very readable, and full of romances blended with mystery and emotional depth.

General Message:
“Everything, Everything” is indeed a story of love. Everything the inside dozes about the description of courage and taking charge of one’s life – that’s how balanced the novel is between safety and being fully alive and living, from the power of love to the discovery of self, through Maddy’s story by Nicola Yoon. The novel is a beautiful and touching emotional journey about stepping outside of fear in order to reach out and enjoy everything that life offers.