Review by New York Times Review
EVEN IF YOU knew love could kill you, what would you risk to experience it - just once? Just for a little while? The world outside the home of 18-year-old Madeline Whittier, the heroine of Nicola Yoon's gorgeous and lyrical debut novel, is filled with threats: viruses, allergens, bacteria, deadly airborne particles. These are all things that Madeline's compromised immune system can't handle. She has SCID, or severe combined immunodeficiency, known as "bubble baby disease." So Madeline is a princess trapped in a castle - except her castle is a spotless, decontaminated house in Los Angeles with white walls, where she lives with her mother, a physician. She hasn't left the house for 17 years. In order for people to visit (and they don't; besides her nurse, Carla, Madeline's only friends are virtual), they would have to endure a thorough physical and spend an hour in a decontamination airlock. For a teenager who has never felt sunshine on her face or her bare feet on the grass - and for whom the future holds none of that - Madeline is remarkably grounded. She inhales novels instead of fresh air, has online tutors ("If I were going to be something when I grew up, an architect is what I'd be"), and spends evenings playing games with her mother. "I am not lonely," she tells her mom. "I am alone. Those are different things." The possibilities of love and loss aren't an option for her. She's never weighed the heart-opening adrenaline rush of connection and newfound intimacy against the potential agony of heartbreak and rejection. Until the rumble and steady beep of a moving truck are heard next door, and suddenly, there's a boy to marvel over: a boy who wears all black, practices park-our as if he's weightless and has a window that looks directly onto Madeline's. From what Madeline can surmise through her window, Oliver - Olly - spends his days hanging out on his roof and shielding his mother and younger sister from his alcoholic, abusive father. After nights of impressively detailed analog window communication - hand gestures, nods, smiles, an elaborate skit - email addresses are exchanged, and the 21st-century courtship begins. There are hours of instant messaging, inboxes full of emails, and then, finally, a secret rendezvous, post-Olly's checkup, set up by Carla. For someone who has never had a relationship, much less an IRL friendship with someone her own age, Madeline plays it extremely cool. Somehow she has the self-discipline to wait days before checking her email after seeing him, a feat a mature adult would not be able to accomplish - even though she's crazy with longing: "Wanting just leads to more wanting," she says. "There's no end to desire." Don't worry, Carla tells Madeline. Love can't kill you. "Just because you can't experience everything doesn't mean you shouldn't experience anything," Carla says. "Besides, doomed love is a part of life." And Madeline and Olly are doomed. "What would happen if you went outside?" Olly asks. Her head would explode, Madeline says. Or her lungs. Or her heart. But when she sees Oily's father in a violent, drunken rage, she can't help it: She runs out the front door, determined to protect Olly - and exposes their relationship to her mother. Carla is promptly fired. And within days, Madeline has taken the biggest risk of her life, even bigger than letting herself fall in love with Olly. There's some thematic overlap with Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series (intimacy equals death) and, of course, with John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" (love in the context of terminal teenage illness). But with offbeat, pragmatic and sweetly romantic characters and an unconventional narrative style - the text is punctuated with medical charts, kissing primers, and other illustrations from Yoon's husband, David Yoon - "Everything, Everything" tells us something we will always need to hear, no matter our age: that it's not the risks of love or heartbreak that might end us. It's the fear of the pain we might experience along the way that keeps us trapped in our cocoons - or our white, decontaminated houses. (And in the one major plot twist that doesn't quite work, Madeline's mother is trapped by fear as well: Her love for her daughter turns out to be darker than we expect.) Madeline might think she has only a few days with Olly before her body gives out - and whether that's true is left to the reader - but she'll take it. WHITNEY JOINER is a senior editor at Marie Claire magazine and a co-founder of The Recollectors, a community for people who have lost parents to AIDS.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [November 24, 2015]
Review by Booklist Review
Featuring illustrations by the author's husband, David Yoon, Nicola Yoon's debut tells the story of Maddy, a biracial teenage girl with severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID, who's essentially allergic to the world. Cared for by her physician mother and Carla the nurse, Maddy is confined to her antiseptic white home, where she communicates with tutors and online friends through her computer. She's never had a companion her own age until the arrival of Olly, who moves into the house next door. With Carla as her ally, Maddy defies her mother, allowing Olly into her house and her heart, and putting her very life at risk. Romance readers will root for the precocious Maddy as she falls hard for the boy next door, while careful readers will entertain the significant possibility of a plot twist. Though the interspersed illustrations and other documentation don't significantly enhance the reading experience, they do quicken the pace in a book that teens in search of a swoonworthy read will devour.--Barnes, Jennifer Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Madeline "Maddy" Whittier, an 18-year-old, has severe combined immunodeficiency, a rare condition that renders her allergic to nearly everything and requires her to live inside a carefully sealed environment. That doesn't stop her from falling in love with Olly, the boy next door. Since much of the novel is told from Maddy's point of view, reader Turpin's versatility is on full display here, not only with Maddy and Olly but also with Maddy's anxious, protective mother and Carla, her loving, funny nurse. Actor Daymond occasionally chimes in to read Olly's messages to Maddy. Voice-over veterans Hillary Huber and Ann Marie Lee also appear in brief, unheralded cameos, giving voice to the parts of the story that feature other narrative devices such as journal entries, medical reports, and other kinds of text. At times, these abrupt transitions give the audiobook a disjointed feel, but Turpin's performance is stellar. Ages 12-up. A Delacorte hardcover. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Yoon's superb debut begins and ends with books. Stories are how 18-year-old Madeline has survived with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency-"you know it as `bubble baby disease'"-in her sanitized world that includes only her doctor mother and a nurse. She's been content enough with taking classes via Skype, having movie nights with Mom, and posting Tumblr book reviews, until Olly and his troubled family move in next door. What begins with glimpses through windows progresses to computer screens, until love proves unavoidable and the truth inevitable. Narrator Bahni Turpin showcases her signature diverse range, effortlessly voicing 18-year-old mixed-race Japanese African American Madeline, her middle-aged mother, and her nurse, a Mexican immigrant. Although Robbie Daymond faultlessly narrates Olly's online exchanges, the effect is noticeably jarring when Turpin reclaims the narration-including as Olly. Brief drop-ins by veterans Hillary Huber and Anne Marie Lee reading minor characters' life-altering messages are thoughtful enhancements. VERDICT Swooning first-love-with-a-seriously-ill-partner novels are undoubtedly multiplying; this is the best multicultural choice of them all. ["Everything, Everything is wonderful, wonderful": SLJ 8/15 starred review of the Delacorte book.]-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Yoons debut novel adds a twist to the time-honored genre of a terminally ill teen seizing his or her final days: for Maddywho is suffering from Severe Combined Immunodeficiency and who, allergic to the world, hasnt left her house in seventeen yearsits living to the fullest that would kill her. Maddy is resigned to her sequestered existence of online classes, voracious reading, and human contact with only her devoted mother and a sympathetic home nurse, until fellow teen Ollyisolated in his own way by an abusive father and frequent relocationmoves in next door. He and Maddy begin a secret friendship that blossoms into romance, then escalates into euphoria and then disaster when the couple runs away to Hawaii. The amalgamation of brief narrative chapters, emails, chat transcripts, sketches, and other visually distinct ephemera lends a jagged immediacy to this unconventional love story, and the minimalist intensity of Yoons prose is well suited to the unfiltered wonder with which Maddy experiences the world outside her bubble. With its assured twists, matter-of-fact presentation of a biracial (black and Asian) protagonist, and sensitive depiction of loneliness in many different forms, Everything, Everything offers a thoughtful exploration of how we define life and living, while still delivering a breathless romance. claire e. gross (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Suffering from "bubble baby disease," Madeline has lived for 18 years in a sterile, sealed house with her physician mother. Madeline is a bright, witty young woman who makes the best of life with a compromised immune system by playing games with her mother, studying with online tutors, and writing brief spoiler book reviews on Tumblr. Her life is turned upside down when a troubled new family moves in next door and she sees Olly for the first time. Olly, a white boy "with a pale honey tan" and parcours moves, wants to meet her, but Madeline's mother turns him away. With the help of an indestructible Bundt cake, Olly perseveres until he gets her email address. Madelinehalf Japanese, half African-Americanchronicles her efforts to get to know Olly as she considers risking everything to be with him. She confides to her wise and understanding nurse, Carla, the truth she keeps from her overprotective mother: that it's painfully hard to be a teenager with a crush, yearning to venture outside and experience the world. Spot art by the author's husband, occasional lists in Madeline's handwriting, emails, and instant-messaging transcripts add a lively dimension to Madeline's quirky character. In her debut, Jamaican-American Yoon gives readers complex characters and rich dialogue that ranges from humorous to philosophical. This heartwarming story transcends the ordinary by exploring the hopes, dreams, and inherent risks of love in all of its forms. (Fiction. 12-17) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
