Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon - A Review

Synopsis: 

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. 

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He's tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

Date Finished: 8-29-15

Rating: 5/5

Thoughts:

*Thank you NetGalley and Random House Children’s for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for an honest review!*

The moment I read the synopsis of this novel, I knew I had to read it. Instantly I thought of The Fault In Our Stars, and the train wreck of feels that it was. Luckily Everything, Everything isn’t as much about life and death as it is about simply living and taking advantage of the life we have to live. It had very much a Carpe Diem, Seize The Day type of feel to it, and I loved that about it. 

This book isn’t completely text. All throughout, we have snippets of IM and Email conversations, journal entries, medical charts and documents, book reviews and cute little sketches. This, coupled with the short chapters, makes it a fast, but memorable read. Nothing is put in this book just for fluff though. Every word and image have a purpose to bring Maddie’s story to life.

Speaking of Maddie, I absolutely loved her. She’s a reader, just like me, but mostly because she’s got nothing better to do that read and do homework due to her isolation. I loved that she’s actually half black, and half asian. DIVERSITY! I also loved than Nicola Yoon didn’t use Maddie’s race as a plot point. She simply is who she is, with her interesting curly hair and features. She’s brave and daring despite her sheltered life, and we really get to see how love changes her perspective on life.

Olly is a great character as well. He’s got family problems, but that doesn’t define him. He’s still a caring, thoughtful, and deep character, and you can really see that he comes to care for Maddie very much. To be honest, he felt more like he could be a real person than Augustus Waters ever could (I’m so sorry, Gus, but it’s true!)

The plot is really interesting. I won’t give any spoilers, but the last bit of the book threw me for a whirlwind of emotion. I loved that last chapter though, and I’m sure that if you read this and love it as much as I did, you will too. I couldn’t put the book down, always curious if the relationship would work out, if Maddie would be ok, and what would happen next! It’s definitely a page turner!

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves contemporary novels, and especially John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars. This book is thoughtful and unique, and explores what it really means to live your life. 

Step aside, Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace Lancaster. Maddie and Olly might just be the next big thing. ;)

Go Ask Alice - A Review

Synopsis:

Date Finished: 2-26-15

Rating: 2/5 

Thoughts: *spoilers ahead*

I never really thought I’d find a book I didn’t like as much as this book. I’ve always heard about Go Ask Alice, but I didn’t have the chance to read it until recently. Let me just say that I’m glad I was able to read it online for free on PulseIt Reads, because if I had paid for this book, I would have been quite disappointed. 

Let me just start with the unnamed narrator. Um.... Whiny! After her first drug experience, she sort of just goes along with the whole drug thing, hanging with the wrong crowd and selling stuff for one of her boyfriends. She goes back and forth between wanting to be a good girl and a bad girl, swearing off drugs one moment, then falling back to it’s influence within the next 20 pages. We learn her voice through a series of journal entries which seem a bit too... unreal for them to be the true journal entries of a teenage girl, especially one getting involved in some serious illegal drugs. She seems to bounce back between sobriety and drugs a bit too easily, which, in addition to other reviews and information I’ve read, leads me to think that this is a fictionalize tale. Nevertheless, I still have some more problems with Go Ask Alice.

One problem that I had was our narrators parents. I mean, they obviously punish our protag when she and her friend were caught with drugs, but that’s it. When she and a friend run away to San Fransisco and LIVE THERE for a while, the parents didn’t even go looking for her. They just came to pick her up from the airport like nothing was wrong. Um, maybe it’s just different for my family, but if I ever ran away, I probably wouldn’t even make it to the airport without my parents snatching me back home, grounding me for life, and probably punishing me severely. Maybe that’s part of the reason why I couldn’t like this as much as I could. Plus, that isn’t the only time she runs away. She runs away again later to Denver! There, she has some more drugged out experiences, and then goes home again, vowing to stay clean. UGH. Her parents didn’t do nearly enough to help her! If I were a parent and discovered that my child was having some drug problems, I would probably temporarily isolate the kid and keep them within my sight at all times to keep them clean, for their own good. Gosh, the parents made me so mad.

And WHAT HAPPENED AT THE END??? She just dies? Literally just 2 weeks after she mentions everything getting better? Of course, we don’t know if it was on purpose, or if it was another drugging like what happened during the babysitting incident, but still. By the time I got to that epilogue, I was already quite done with reading this story, but I finished for the sake of reviewing it. 

Now, I guess I should talk about some redeeming qualities of Go Ask Alice. From what I understand about drugs, it’s a fairly realistic depiction of addiction, life, and all the demons that come along with it. Despite everything I’ve said about it, it might actually help some people, especially young teens in middle school or early high school, to learn the consequences of drug usage. It’s got everything it needs to teach someone about what could happen, and this is exactly the type of stuff that they don’t tell us about in Health class. Sometimes you get the best info on real life from books instead. In that aspect, I would recommend it.

If you get the chance to read this for free, perhaps a borrowed copy from a friend or library, go ahead, I guess. But if you’re considering buying this one, I’d skip it. Unless, of course, you don’t mind having this joke”journal” on your bookshelf. I personally didn’t like it, but who knows. Perhaps those of you who have an interest in drug-related books would be interested in this. I’ve never done drugs, nor have I really been exposed to people who have, so I’m not sure if this is an accurate depiction of a drug problem, but who knows? Maybe this book will ring true for someone. Maybe it’ll save a life.

I’d recommend the Crank Series to people who enjoyed this, but not necessarily vice versa. Meh. 

Welcome to Starlight-Reads!

Hello Starlight-Readers! I'm Leah Nova, and I'm an reviewer and the owner of the Starlight-Reads blog (both here, and on tumblr.) I focus mainly on book reviews, but I also occasionally write articles on other book related things, such as where to buy books from, favorite elements of a certain genre, and so much more. I always post recommendations that you could add to your TBR list!

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