Pictured edition: audiobook edition of Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, Listening Library, 2015. Novel first published by Delacorte Press, 2015. Photographic image from the film Everything, Everything (2017), Warner Bros. Illustration by…? Image used on this blog under the “Fair dealing for criticism or review” provision of the Commonwealth Copyright Act, 1968. Surrounding design made by me using Canva.
Maddy loves books, movies and architecture. And she hasn’t left the house in eighteen years. She’s a girl in a bubble, unable to leave her filtered air environment because she’s allergic to the world. Her beloved nurse, Carla, monitors her health for eight hours a day; she does school online; and her doting mum, a doctor, loves having family dinners and movie nights with her. So, even though she can’t have friends or go outside, and her dad and older brother died in a car accident when she was a baby, life’s not too bad. She’s learned not to want what she can’t have.
But then a new family moves in next door, and she sees… Olly.
This book was pretty darn good. It’s smart and funny and heart-felt and life-affirming. It’s also unexpected. Of course, I love all the references to books teaching us about the world, and its clever intertextuality. The structure is also very well done and the ending is a delight, with some great callbacks. I listened to this on audiobook, which I enjoyed, but I see by looking at some sample pages on the internet that there are lots of playful visual treats in this book as well. I love playful visual treats! So I think this one is better read than heard.
Title: Everything, Everything
Author: Nicola Yoon
Cover: Photographic image from Everything, Everything (2017) directed by Stella Meghie, starring Amandla Stenberg and Nick Robinson, Warner Bros. Illustration by…?
Publisher: Delacorte Books, 2015
Audio: narrated by Bahni Turpin & Robbie Daymond, Listening Library
Genre: YA, coming of age
Representation: BIPOC (main character), people with disabilities/mental illness (various characters)
Suitability: 15+
Fyi: domestic abuse, death of loved ones, car accident, alcoholism, betrayal, coercive control, mental health problems, chronic health issues, cardiac problems, heartbreak, a non-graphic sex scene
Themes: love, coming of age, importance of literature, carpe diem, wonder, abuse
Literary features/tropes: multimodal, intertextual, well structured, callbacks
NSW syllabus: genre study (coming of age); wide reading
If you like this, try: Simon and the Homo-Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE LIBRARY... 
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