I read almost every Sarah Dessen novel she wrote, reread one of my favorites of hers and finally moved onto Everything Everything and I was so moved that there aren't any words to explain what I'm feeling right now as I type up my review. I literally just finished this book about a minute ago and I cannot explain to you how I feel. It was an incredible book which I adored to pieces despite feeling like the ending was a bit rushed and wanting another chapter at least! The main character Maddy was incredibly relatable and her love interest Olly was perfectly perfect and their romance made me melt. I would give this book a 5/5 and I would definitely definitely recommend it. The synopsis is as follows and this is the end of my non-spoiler-y section so if you haven't read this book yet, go read it and then come back cause this is a book you don't want to spoiled on!
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.
Let's start with the way the book was written. I'm always such a sucker for uniqueness in general but when there's a fun new way that a book is written, it reels me in like in the Shatter Me trilogy when words and sentences were crossed out to show how hesitant and unsure the main character was and how as the books progressed, there was less and less of the strikeouts until in the final book, there was none. As such I loved the little notes and webpages and drawings that were placed in between characters making this feel more like a diary than a novel. I loved how much they showed you what the main character felt more than words cause heaven knows I understand that struggle with not knowing how to describe what I'm feeling.
Maddy and Olly. What can I even saw about them but that I loved their romance so much??? It felt completely believable and my heart broke right alongside Maddy as we both knew where their romance was heading and that was nowhere good. I could not stop smiling when I read their back and forth dialogue and their chemistry was palpable through the pages. I loved their trip to Hawaii and I couldn't stop crying when Maddy broke it off.
Maddy was an amazingly written character. Unlike a lot of heroines in contemporaries, she wasn't afraid to say how she felt or to feel fully. A lot of characters struggle with either realizing what they want or they struggle with saying it but Maddy wasn't like that which I loved. She was so strong and brave and I couldn't help but love her. I loved her relationship with her mom at the beginning of the book but as the book went on, I started to feel more and more suspicious of her because of how she reacted to everything that went down. I understood why she got so upset after Maddy ran out to help Olly but her reaction to that in never allowing Maddy to talk to Olly again and firing Carla the only other constant in Maddy's life and then hiring a super professional nurse just to keep Maddy isolated from anyone but her was so strange that I started to have my doubts about what kind of person she was which is the ending hit me so hard.
Now for the elephant in the room, the big plot twist. As I mentioned earlier, I was super unsure how this book would end cause I hoped and hoped that maybe a cure could be found to let Maddy go outside but after Me Before You, there was a distinct possibility that Maddy would die and I felt like that was okay too. I'm a sucker for happy endings but sometimes the best ones are the bittersweet ones. That's why when I got to the end, I was completely thrown. Option C never even came to my mind! Suddenly I was furious on behalf of Maddy and I got even more so when all the characters kept telling Maddy that she should forgive her mother for lying and that it was only eighteen years of her life and that she'd have plenty more. NO! Whether it was eighteen years or more, whether Maddy's mom was mentally ill or not, it was not okay in any sense of the word. Maddy lost eighteen years of her life for nothing and I was furious. The book left it kind of open ended as to whether Maddy would forgive her mom or not but if I were Maddy, I don't know if I would be able to honestly and if I did, it would take a lot of time before I found it okay.
Anyway I loved this book and I would definitely recommend checking it out!
xoxo Allie
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