Summer Reading Report: Everything, Everything

Over the summer we had to read two books for my English class and I chose "Red Queen" and "Everything, Everything". I'm choosing to do my project/blog post on the second because I read it more recently.

SUMMARY:

So basically this book is about a girl who has a severe allergy to everything. That's right, everything (Hence the title). She has to live inside of her home where everything is white, filtered, and ultra clean. Madeline is 17 years old and she doesn't know what the sun feels like on her face. She doesn't know what the salty air of the ocean tastes like or what it feels like to run your hands through the sand. Her very best friends include her mother (who is also her doctor) and her nurse, Carla. Her life has been a routine schedule for as long as she can remember. Until Olly. Olly moves in with his family next door which begins a heartbreaking story of forbidden love.

PROS:

Characters- To start, I am literally in love with Olly. He comes across as the kid who is always moving, doing, thinking. And although the reader knows he has this certain energy, he also has a very understanding side too. He always seems to know what to do and say and most of all what I love about him is that he loves Madeline more than anything in the world with all his heart. Which is funny, really, because Maddy couldn't be more different. She's timid, she is highly intelligent, and never at all spontaneous. Carla is also a character I really liked in this book, she seems to always look out for Maddy and have her best interest in mind. Carla tries to give her the life she can't have but still wants more than anything.

Plot- I loved the way the author used suspense in this book. (I'll try not to spoil anything) Like when Maddy runs outside to try and see if Olly is okay, the descriptions are just soooooooooo good. I could perfectly picture her busting through the air enclosure and out the door to run Olly's front porch. I can see Olly's face as he realizes what she just did for him and registers what could happen next. And I can even feel the panic in Maddy's moms voice as she screams for her to come back inside. The entire time I was just waiiiiting for something to go wrong.

CONS:

Characters- So I only have a couple complaints in this department. I really and I mean really do not like Maddy's mom. I can't really give the main reason without giving away the story, but she just seems to ridiculously selfish to me. The whole time she shields Maddy from anything good like Olly, friends, hobbies. If Maddy does the smallest thing like say she doesn't want to play a board game that night or not act interested enough in the movie she gets all sad and mopey. I feel like the whole parenting aspect is backwards in this book because Maddy is always watching what she does and says to minimize the damage for her mom.

Plot- Some parts of the plot were weird to me because I didn't totally believe it could happen. Like the second time Maddy sneaks out to Olly's. I don't think that with all the precautions her mom takes to keep her from the outside she would just let things go back to normal without changing the door passcode or anything. Also, I'm not sure, but I feel like two teens can't just leave and fly to Hawaii without parental guidance or permission. Lastly, although I was surprised that I was right, the ending plot twist was kind of predictable. It wasn't one of those twists where you're totally shocked and then read the entire thing again too see what you missed. Like I was kind of waiting for this one.

OVERALL:

Overall this was a really cute book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes love stories or just heart warming stories in general, although there is a bit of a cliff hanger at the end.