
She arranges for Olly to go through decontamination and have visits during the day they keep secret from Maddy’s mom, who would never allow it. Nurse Carla has her own 18-year-old, and takes Maddy’s longing to heart. Since Maddy spends most of her life reading, there are also short one-sentence book reviews interspersed throughout the story.įor the first time, Maddy begins to want more than she has. (These were made by Yoon’s husband, David Yoon.) They start getting to know each other through frequent texts and messages, the content of which is shown in an appealing mix of formats throughout the book that also includes occasional medical charts, drawings from Maddy’s journals, and other illustrations. Olly sees Maddy in her window, and writes his email address on his window. The unhappy family grouping consists of an alcoholic abusive father, a terrorized mother, and two kids – Kara who is younger than she, and Oliver, or Olly, who is around Maddy’s age. Then from her window Maddy sees new people move in across the street. When she makes a birthday wish, she doesn’t ask for the obvious – “a magical cure that will allow me to run free outside like a wild animal” she just wishes for “world peace.” Every other day these omissions are easy – easier, at least – to ignore.” Another year of my mom doing nothing but working and taking care of me. Another year of missing all the normal teenagery things – learner’s permits, first kiss, prom, first heartbreak, first fender bender. “Another whole year of being sick, no hope for a cure on the horizon. The book begins on Maddy’s 18th birthday. Maddy’s mom is a doctor and helps care for her every day after Carla goes home. The only people who can enter the house, such as her nurse Carla, have to go through a hour of decontamination each time. The story is about Madeline (“Maddy”) Whittier, who has lived her entire life since early infancy inside a sterile environment, never allowed outside her house in California. But thankfully, because it’s a wonderful book, the “Nicola Yoon” part of the equation won me over. The outside world, however, saw them as “heroes.” The thought of revisiting those memories sort of made me sick. The two top doctor-researchers were sexual predators and used grant money to fuel their affairs. It’s not at all that I mind reading books about illnesses rather, the problem is that I used to work for the team that made some seminal discoveries in treating SCID. Everything Everything was this author’s debut book.Īt first I avoided reading this book, even though I loved her next book so much, because I knew this one was about SCID, the immunodeficiency disease that requires kids to live in vacuum-sealed sterile environments. This is another exceptional book by this author (her book The Sun Is Also A Star made my top ten list last year).
