What Is Beautiful In Nicola Yoon's Everything, Everything

Whoa. Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything can be summed up in one word: beautiful. After finishing this book in a matter of 5 hours, I was left feeling anger, happiness, and everything in between. The novel is centered around Madeline Whittier, an 18-year-old girl who has SCID and has never seen the outside world. She’s never seen the outside world because SCID means that you are basically allergic to the world, anything could trigger a deathly reaction. I think I may cry every time I read this (like Maddie when she reads Flowers for Algernon). In all honesty I did not want to read this novel. I assumed that it was going to be a cheesy teenage love story and that Madeline was going to die. I am so glad that I was wrong. I feel manipulated by Yoon, but I’m not mad about it. She captures hurt, loss, fear, and love like I have never read before. From cover to cover and all of the pages in between, once again, this book was beautiful. I feel as if I were reading a diary more or less than an actual novel. I love Yoon’s short, sort of poetic writing style. From medical charts to kissing primers to illustrations of computer screens, Yoon’s husband adds life and creativity throughout as well. These small illustrations made me feel as if Maddie herself was drawing these for me specifically to …show more content…
For someone who has been inside the same house her entire life, with very little social interaction, she is so normal. She is content with this life she is living, doing well in school, and is still able to find fun and excitement in her routines. Some of my most favorite lines are when she and her mom are talking and Madeline says, “I’m not lonely. I am alone. Those are different things.” How powerful. I felt lonely just reading about Maddie’s situation and here she is saying she isn’t lonely?! That is until she meets Olly of course. After she has experienced his presence, she needs