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‘Everything, Everything,’ by Nicola Yoon

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By Whitney Joiner

Nov. 6, 2015

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 parkour 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.”

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Everything, everything.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 16 Reviews
Kids Say 148 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Engaging journey of sick teen risking it all to truly live.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 13+?

Not a lot of sex in the book, but it is described graphically. First-person desc

A few scenes of domestic violence. A dad is an abusive alcoholic, throws things

Infrequent swearing: "s--t," "God," "a--hole," "Jesus," "bastard."

Most brands and media used for scene-setting: Pictionary, Scrabble, Band-Aids, S

Neighbor dad is an alcoholic and shown several times drunk and with a drink in h

Any Positive Content?

Sometimes you have to take big risks to get big rewards. Love is worth the poten

Many references to classic books, with The Little Prince and Flowers for Algerno

Carla loves and nurtures Madeline, teaches her life lessons, and is a person Mad

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Not a lot of sex in the book, but it is described graphically. First-person descriptions of kissing, heavy making out, foreplay, and sex.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

A few scenes of domestic violence. A dad is an abusive alcoholic, throws things at his family and verbally and physically abuses them. Teen and adult are punched, grabbed, and shoved.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Most brands and media used for scene-setting: Pictionary, Scrabble, Band-Aids, Skype, Abba, Keds, Tumblr, Jell-O, Young Frankenstein , Jump London , Godzilla , Mission: Impossible , Four Weddings and a Funeral , the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice , and The Notebook .

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Neighbor dad is an alcoholic and shown several times drunk and with a drink in his hand. Teen smokes cigarettes regularly.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Sometimes you have to take big risks to get big rewards. Love is worth the potential pain. Have compassion for those who make mistakes or hurt you.

Educational Value

Many references to classic books, with The Little Prince and Flowers for Algernon figuring most prominently. Other titles mentioned include Lord of the Flies , Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , Invisible Man , The Stranger , Waiting for Godot , and Nausea . Some information is given on Madeline's disease, SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency), and how to live with it. Hawaiian facts and phrases.

Positive Role Models

Carla loves and nurtures Madeline, teaches her life lessons, and is a person Madeline can trust with anything. Madeline is a smart, grounded kid. Olly is intelligent, takes care of Madeline, and tries to protect his mom and sister from his abusive dad. Madeline's mom devotes her life to making sure Madeline is healthy and safe, though she does have some serious issues of her own.

Parents need to know that Everything, Everything tells the story of Madeline Whittier, an 18-year-old who can never leave her house. She has SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency), which means she's allergic to just about everything in the outside world. When a boy moves in next door, Madeline's Zen-like acceptance of her situation is turned upside down and she begins taking risks and wanting to live a life beyond the sanitized walls of her home. One teen character smokes, an adult drinks alcohol to excess, and characters lie to parents. There are scenes of domestic violence. The story has a few scenes of kissing, making out, and sex, and the foreplay and sex are described graphically. Swearing is infrequent (includes "s--t," "a--hole," "God," "Jesus," and "bastard"). This book is a good choice for readers looking for diverse characters; Madeline is of mixed race, with a Japanese mother and an African-American father, and her nurse is from Mexico.

Where to Read

Parent and kid reviews.

Parents say (16)
Kids say (148)

Based on 16 parent reviews

Amazing Book Had Some Iffy Stuff But Nothing A 14 Year Old Cannot Handle.

Good story, but the premise is too shaky to believe [spoilers], what's the story.

In EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING, Madeline Whittier is a self-described "bubble baby," which means she suffers from a rare disease called SCID, or severe combined immunodeficiency. She hasn't left her house in 17 years, and anyone who comes in must go through an airlock and long sanitation process before entering the contaminant-free home. Her brother and father were killed in accident when she was a baby, so her only relationships are with her mother and her nurse, Carla. Madeline is calm and accepting of her isolated life, reading books, taking classes online, and playing games with her mom. That changes when Olly moves in next door. They catch each other's eyes through the window, and through a series of pebble throwing and messages on windows, they strike up a friendship over the Internet and eventually fall in love. For the first time in her life, Madeline wants more than her safe, sanitized existence can give her. She struggles to decide whether it's worth risking her life to experience it fully. Her physical and emotional journey reveals much about who she is and the lives of those she loves.

Is It Any Good?

Thankfully, this isn't just another "sick teen" novel but a compelling romance and coming-of-age story told from Madeline's point of view, and she has a fun, engaging voice. She's kind, smart, and pragmatic about how she has to live due to her illness. When she breaks free of her "bubble girl" environment, she experiences the world's joy and wonder the average person takes for granted. Author Nicola Yoon uses Madeline's illness to good effect this way. So when Madeline meets the boy next door, the reader truly gets how it would shake up her world. She doesn't come across as a typical hormonal teen. We feel how badly she wants to see the world outside and experience things, even if those experiences could cause her pain, emotionally and physically. Olly, the boy next door, is a good, sympathetic character who's dealing with an abusive, alcoholic dad. Even though he and Madeline fall for each other pretty quickly, it's believable because they're both in unfortunate, isolating circumstances and find solace in each other.

The graphics sprinkled throughout are entertaining, although one in particular (a sticky note from a nurse) has a glaring error. The story has a big plot twist that comes of out of the blue and with few clues. It seemed like a twist for the sake of having one or a device to easily wrap things up. There are a few other hard-to-believe scenarios in the book, and a light resolution that seems like something out of a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy. Even so, with a little suspension of disbelief, Everything, Everything is an engaging ride.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether teens should make some of their own health and medical decisions. At what age should kids get a say in their health care? When should a parent's decision override a kid's?

Many books and movies center on taking huge risks for love. Does this resonate with you? Do you think the potential big reward is worth putting your heart on the line? Why do you think this is such a popular theme in books and movies?

In Everything, Everything, Madeline reads The Little Prince every year or two, saying the meaning changes every time she reads it. Which books, movies, or songs have meant more to you as you've grown and matured?

Book Details

Author : Nicola Yoon
Genre : Coming of Age
Topics : Friendship , High School
Book type : Fiction
Publisher : Delacorte Press
Publication date : September 25, 2015
Number of pages : 320
Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
Last updated : August 15, 2021

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EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING

by Nicola Yoon ; illustrated by David Yoon ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2015

This heartwarming story transcends the ordinary by exploring the hopes, dreams, and inherent risks of love in all of its...

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. Madeline—half Japanese, half African-American—chronicles 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.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-553-49664-2

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION

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by Dhonielle Clayton & Tiffany D. Jackson & Nic Stone & Angie Thomas & Ashley Woodfolk & Nicola Yoon

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PEN America Addresses ‘Toxic Literary Culture’

SEEN & HEARD

From the Caraval series , Vol. 2

by Stephanie Garber ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 29, 2018

Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.

Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.

Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.

Pub Date: May 29, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2

Page Count: 464

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE

THE FIELD GUIDE TO THE NORTH AMERICAN TEENAGER

by Ben Philippe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 8, 2019

Despite some missteps, this will appeal to readers who enjoy a fresh and realistic teen voice.

A teenage, not-so-lonely loner endures the wilds of high school in Austin, Texas.

Norris Kaplan, the protagonist of Philippe’s debut novel, is a hypersweaty, uber-snarky black, Haitian, French-Canadian pushing to survive life in his new school. His professor mom’s new tenure-track job transplants Norris mid–school year, and his biting wit and sarcasm are exposed through his cataloging of his new world in a field guide–style burn book. He’s greeted in his new life by an assortment of acquaintances, Liam, who is white and struggling with depression; Maddie, a self-sacrificing white cheerleader with a heart of gold; and Aarti, his Indian-American love interest who offers connection. Norris’ ego, fueled by his insecurities, often gets in the way of meaningful character development. The scenes showcasing his emotional growth are too brief and, despite foreshadowing, the climax falls flat because he still gets incredible personal access to people he’s hurt. A scene where Norris is confronted by his mother for getting drunk and belligerent with a white cop is diluted by his refusal or inability to grasp the severity of the situation and the resultant minor consequences. The humor is spot-on, as is the representation of the black diaspora; the opportunity for broader conversations about other topics is there, however, the uneven buildup of detailed, meaningful exchanges and the glibness of Norris’ voice detract.

Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-06-282411-0

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES

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Everything, Everything, by Nicola Yoon | Book Review

The Children’s Book Review | December 12, 2015

Everything, Everything

Written by Nicola Yoon

Age Range: 12+

Hardcover: 320 pages

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (Sept. 1, 2015)

ISBN-13: 9780553496642

What to expect: Allergies, Health

Nicola Yoon’s debut novel, Everything, Everything , is a must-read, inviting a broad spectrum of audiences, from preteens to the older generations. This trendy-styled book illustrates the life of eighteen year-old Madeline Whittier through plain text as well as with pictures, instant messages, journal entries, and emails. Through Madeline’s innovative narrative, the reader is immersed into her life of an “allergic to everything” teenage girl.

Starring Madeline Whittier (Maddy), a young adult with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), is content in her air-filtered house with her mother and nurse, Carla. Although Maddy’s allergy to the outside world has confined her to her house, she compensates by living vicariously through her books. It was not until her new neighbor, Oliver (Olly), forced her to realize that the life she had been living was not really “worth” living.

Maddy and Oliver first communicate through emails, forming a harmless friendship that turns quickly into young love, secretly meeting behind her paranoid mother’s back. She fails miserably to not let her feelings for Olly grow because deep down she knows she will never have a normal relationship. Throughout the novel, Maddy shows emotions that many teenagers experience, making this novel appealing to read.

Nicola Yoon will have you hooked from the begging to end, taking you on a journey through the life of a SCID patient dealing with normal teenage problems in a not so normal life. Will Maddy risk her life for love? Find out by reading Everything, Everything .

Add this book to your collection: Everything, Everything

Available Here:

About the Author

NICOLA YOON grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, who created the artwork in these pages, and daughter, both of whom she loves beyond all reason. Everything, Everything is her first novel.

Everything Everything , by Nicola Yoon, was reviewed by Jaclyn West. Follow along with our articles tagged with Mental Health and Young Adult Fiction to discover more great books for teens.

What to Read Next:

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Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

I agree wholeheartedly with Ms. Schulze’s review. This is an extremely well written book, with a lot of heart wrenching dilemmas to pull the reader along. Not only does Maddy have problems, but her friend, Olly, has bad things happening in his life and Maddy helps him overcome them. This is definitely a good read. Sarah Maury Swan, author of “Terror’s Identity” available through www.sablebooks.org

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Book Review

Everything, everything.

Nicola Yoon
Contemporary , Drama , Romance

Readability Age Range

Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books
Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature’s Best Multicultural Books of the Year, 2015; School Library Journal Young Adult Best Book, 2015

Year Published

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

Madeline Whittier is an 18-year-old with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID). She is violently allergic to countless substances, so she lives in a sealed-off and sterilized home with her mother. Her only other company is her nurse, Carla.

Her quiet life changes when a new family moves in next door. The Bright family has two teenage children, and their mother sends them over to the Whittiers’ house with a cake as a present. Madeline’s mother does not accept the cake or allow the teens to enter her home because they might contaminate her daughter.

However, Olly Bright, one of the teens, is determined to meet Madeline. He writes his email address on the glass of his bedroom window, and he and Madeline quickly become friends by exchanging emails and instant messages. Madeline begs Carla to allow Olly to visit her, and eventually Carla agrees. After just one visit, Madeline starts to feel like she’s falling in love with Olly. She agonizes over whether to continue their friendship since it might lead to a broken heart, but ultimately decides to keep meeting Olly.

During one in-person visit, Madeline reveals to Olly that her father and older brother were killed in a car accident when she was a baby. The settlement money from the accident allowed her mother to pay for their specially sealed home and its industrial quality air filtration system. Olly also begins to discuss his family’s difficult situation, specifically his father’s alcoholism and domestic violence problem.

Carla is concerned that Madeline is neglecting her relationship with her mother in order to spend all her spare time emailing and IMing Olly. It grows harder for Madeline to keep her romantic life a secret from her mother.

One day, the secret is revealed when Madeline looks out her window and sees Olly being punched by his drunken father. For the first time in 17 years, Madeline leaves her home, rushing outdoors to help the boy she loves. She screams at Mr. Bright to stop, which surprises him so much that he stops beating Olly. Madeline is then dragged back indoors by her mother.

Madeline’s mom grounds her after she discovers Olly and Madeline’s secret relationship. She also fires Carla for jeopardizing Madeline’s health by allowing another person into the house. After several weeks of being grounded from the internet, except for her school studies, Madeline realizes that her old routine of solitary study and hangouts with her mother is no longer satisfying. She wants to live for a few days in the outside world, even if it means she will die quickly.

Madeline sneaks out of her house and convinces Olly to run away with her to Hawaii. She lies and tells him that she has experimental pills that will allow her to manage her SCID symptoms. After landing in Maui, Madeline and Olly check into a hotel and visit the beach. She is able to shop for souvenirs, eat tropical foods, go snorkeling and even go cliff diving with no ill effects. Olly and Madeline confess their love to each other and sleep together.

Madeline wakes up in the middle of the night in severe pain. She is rushed to the hospital, where her heart stops and she has to be resuscitated. Her mother arrives in Hawaii and takes her home.

Once again Madeline is grounded as she recovers from her near-death experience. When she regains internet privileges, she tells Olly that she can’t talk with him anymore because it’s too painful to be reminded of the life she can’t have. One day, Madeline sees a moving van next door and realizes that Olly and his mom and sister are finally moving away from the abusive Mr. Bright.

Weeks later, Madeline receives an email from the emergency room doctor who treated her during her hospitalization in Hawaii. The doctor says that Madeline’s violent allergic reaction was the result of a viral infection and her medical tests show no evidence of SCID whatsoever. Madeline confronts her mother with this new piece of information, but her mother insists that she does have SCID.

Madeline secretly looks through her mother’s old files and records. She discovers that when she was 6 months old, just after her father and brother had died in a car accident, her mother became obsessed with keeping her safe. Madeline had been constantly ill as an infant, so her mother decided that Madeline had SCID without receiving any formal diagnosis. Madeline is horrified to realize that she does not have a disease and that she has been kept locked away for her entire life because of her mother’s paranoia.

With Carla’s help, Madeline finds a new doctor who urges her to enter the outside world carefully and gradually. Although Madeline doesn’t have SCID, she does have a compromised immune system due to living in a sterile environment.

In the following weeks, Madeline grows more independent. She books a flight to New York to go see Olly, this time with her mother’s knowledge. She texts him that she’s leaving him a present at a local bookshop. She hides in another aisle in order to surprise him, then they joyfully reunite and (it is implied) restart their romance.

Christian Beliefs

As part of a joke about an indestructible Bundt cake, Olly wears a robe and a large cross necklace as he pretends to be a priest administering last rites to the dying cake. It’s mentioned that Olly looks at Madeline like a nonbeliever seeing his first evidence that God might exist. Madeline says that her mother believes in being on time the same way that others might believe in God.

Other Belief Systems

Olly says that people are like math formulas. He believes that each person is a series of outputs determined by inputs, essentially just a product of their experiences. Olly’s friend Zach wants to be called Zachariah since he wants to be a rock god and he thinks the new name sounds like “Messiah.”

Authority Roles

Madeline adores her mother, Dr. Whittier, and the two women easily express their affection for each other with hugs, shared jokes and words of affirmation. The relationship gradually cools as Madeline begins to lie to her mother about her time with Olly.

Dr. Whittier initially seems to be a perfect parent, totally dedicated to the wellbeing of her child. However, when it becomes clear that Dr. Whittier’s own fear and mental instability led her to raise a healthy girl as if she were terminally ill, she no longer seems heroic. Dr. Whittier does enter therapy to help her sort through her psychological issues, and there is hope that she and Madeline can one day mend their relationship.

Madeline’s nurse, Carla, loves her deeply. Carla laments that her relationship with her own 17-year-old daughter, Rosa, is not as close as that of Madeline and her mother. Madeline grieves when Carla is fired and makes sure to visit Carla before she travels to Hawaii. Carla constantly offers thoughtful advice to Madeline and encourages her to live bravely.

Olly’s mother, Mrs. Bright, is an enthusiastic woman who shows affection for her children and sends a Bundt cake to her new neighbors.

Mr. Bright is an alcoholic. He is physically abusive toward his wife and verbally abusive toward his children. He regularly yells at his family over perceived slights. On one occasion, he roughly grabs his wife and punches Olly in the stomach.

Profanity & Violence

Profanity uses are s— (1), b–tard (3), godd–m (5), and a–hole (1). Characters use Oh my with God and Jesus a few times.

Sexual Content

Madeline and Olly kiss several times.

Olly’s friend Zach is gay but hasn’t told his parents yet.

Madeline and Olly have sex. It’s mentioned that she is a virgin and he is not. Olly assures Madeline that she doesn’t have to consummate their relationship if she doesn’t want to, but she insists that she is a willing participant and has even prepared for the occasion by buying condoms.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

Stalking: When the Brights move in next door, Madeline keeps a journal of all their outdoor activities, listing the complete daily schedule of every family member. This level of observation could be considered invasive or obsessive.

Smoking: Olly’s teenage sister, Kara, smokes frequently.

Lying: Madeline’s lying grows increasingly problematic. At first she hides her friendship with Olly from her mother, and then hides the fact that she and Olly have touched and kissed from Carla. Then she lies to Olly about having pills that will enable her to safely travel away from her home. Dr. Whittier lies to Madeline her whole life — telling her she’s terminally when she’s a healthy girl.

Movie Tie-In: Producers often use a book as a springboard for a movie idea or to earn a specific rating. Because of this, a movie may differ from the novel. To better understand how this book and the movie differ, compare this book review with Plugged In’s movie review for Everything, Everything .

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

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Book Review: “Everything, Everything” by Nicola Yoon

Posted at 2:17 pm by laura , on december 16, 2015.

Publisher: Delacorte BFYR Published: September 2015 Genre: young adult, contemporary ISBN: 9780553496642 Goodreads : 4.03 Rating: ★★★.5

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.

Maddy is allergic to everything. She only interacts with her mother and Carla, her nurse. Everything other contact must go through a decontamination chamber for an hour and not be sick/have been around sick people, cannot touch Maddy, and cannot introduce new foods or clothes or fabrics to Maddy. No open windows or doors. Shaded spaces. Cleanliness. But then a family moves in next door, and Maddy’s interest in the world outside reawakens. Her curiosity over this noisy, rather abusive family is heightened when their son, Olly, manages to find a way to interact with Maddy. He clearly wants to find a way out of his own cage, and Maddy is the answer. For Maddy, Olly is her answer, too.

I was drawn far more to Maddy’s experience of the world — seeing everything through her eyes and wondering how much of her life was a ticking clock — than the romance. The romance was a great way to propel her out of her house (talk about an even faster, heart-pounding ticking clock!), but I was not drawn to the romance mostly because I wasn’t drawn to Olly. It seemed real enough, sure, and they discuss whether she loves him because she genuinely loves him or because he’s the only one she’s interacted with — but even still, if it weren’t for the romance, for that enticing slice of the Outside, Maddy wouldn’t have left her home.

Or discovered all the shocking things after leaving home. *dun dun dun*

Not only was Maddy’s situation an interesting and unique one — absolutely fascinating, this “bubble baby” scenario — but this book is another good tool to discuss mental illness and the impact it has on everyone outside of the primary individual. YA is loaded with mental illness books through the eyes of the mentally ill, rather than the friend or family member witnessing it and experiencing it from another perspective. Maddy, Olly, Carla, and Maddy’s mother all express and experience love in different ways. It’s amazing how love can inspire or hinder us. Love is worth everything, and everything is worth love. It’s how we act upon it that define who we are in this world.

Enhanced with the supplementary images, charts, tickets, and IM convos, this novel will send you for a spin across two extremes in environment: experiencing a pristine, glass world, and a world of chaos and vibrancy.

Author: Laura

One thought on “ book review: “everything, everything” by nicola yoon ”.

bbooksmartblog

December 16, 2015 at 6:29 pm.

I liked all the cool emails and IMs and pictures and stuff when reading this book. It added so much for me:)

Hello, I’m Laura!

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Book Review Rating Key

★★★ — It’s good ★★★★ — It’s great ★★★★★ — OMG LOVE!!!

Book Review: Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

I think some of the most exciting work happening in children’s literature is found in the Young Adult niche. A couple of my most favorite reads from the past year are young adult books. They are stories that dig deep into the human spirit. Plus, I love that they typically read a bit quicker than many books geared toward adults–perfect for summer days when you’ve got one eye on the kids in the pool and one eye devouring your book. Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon is just such a book.

Intended Audience of Everything Everything

Young Adult (high school, college, or even a 38-year-old)

Spoiler-Free Summary of Everything Everything

Madeline (Maddy) is one of those unique book characters you’ll remember forever, in large part due to her unusual circumstances. She is 100% home-bound because of a medical condition that prevents her from being able to be exposed to anything outside her air-filtered home. She’s now 18 and hasn’t left her house since she was a baby. She makes the best of her circumstances with a devoted nurse, attentive mother, an unyielding commitment to her studies, and shelf after shelf of great books. But then a friendship turned romance with a young man, Olly, who moves in across the street, makes her realize just how much she’s missing in the outside world.

What To Know in Advance of Everything Everything

This is a teenage love story and includes one sex scene. It’s handled very responsibly, and I would actually encourage my sons to read this in their teen years in part because of this scene. Olly repeatedly asks Maddy for her consent to move forward physically. They use protection and the necessity of this is discussed very openly between the two. They are already in a mature, committed relationship before this scene. If you want to give it a review, it begins on page 222.
There are episodes of domestic violence in Olly’s home that Maddy witnesses and that Olly is forced to be a part of. Again, I appreciate the way the author includes open discussion between Maddy and Olly about his family’s problems, as we know one way to break cyclical violence like this is through communication and support from loved ones.

Why You Or Your Child Should Read Everything Everything

The plot twist in the last few chapters is reason enough to settle in for a wild ride. No spoilers but there are as many lessons for parents as there are for teens. It would make a great book to read at the same time for quality family discussion after.
Maddy’s unrelenting optimism (and how she handles darker moments) is inspirational, and her circumstances give anyone living a relatively healthy, normal life a giant dose of perspective.
One of the biggest reasons that Maddy and Olly are drawn to each other is because of their different academic interests. It demonstrates to teens that relationships can be based on more mature foundations and that enjoying reading and math CAN actually land you a girlfriend/boyfriend.
Maddy has an African-American father and an Asian-American mother. Olly is caucasian. The author, Nicola Yoon, is Jamaican-American. We love books that not only have diverse characters, but come from diverse writers who can share their experiences in such an authentic way.

After You Read Everything Everything

Watch the movie ! I haven’t seen it yet so I can’t speak to how closely it follows the book (and we know books are always better), but could be a fun way to celebrate reading it.
You can follow Nicola Yoon on Twitter @nicolayoon . She’s always sharing other great reads and books that her readers will enjoy, so it’s a wealth of recommendations for YA fans. She’s also active on Instagram at @nicolayoon .

More Books By Nicola Yoon

The Sun Is Also A Star , another soon-to-be-a-major-motion-picture book.

If you liked Everything Everything , try:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
Every Day by David Levithan

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Want to know what we’re reading, what we’ve loved, and what’s sitting in our Amazon cart? Check out our GoodReads bookshelves! Got a children’s book in mind that you’d like to see us review? Leave a comment or email us at [email protected].

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Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Favorite Quote: “Life is a gift. Don't forget to live it.” ― Nicola Yoon, Everything, Everything

The book Everything, Everything, written by Nicola Yoon, is a realistic fiction novel focused around how Madeline Whittier lives her life with SCID, severe combined immunodeficiency. Everything, Everything is a beautifully written, descriptive, and enthralling novel. Yoon does an extraordinary job of describing her characters, settings, and plot throughout the entire story and never falters in details. She is able to keep the reader entertained with quotes that make you ponder life and the ideas in the quote such as “You can't predict the future. It turns out that you can't predict the past either. Time moves in both directions forward and backward - and what happens here and now changes them both.” Everything, Everything is a work of art that I highly recommend to others and give the utmost amount of respect.

The book opens with the description of Madeline's disease and another explanation of her life as it is. The book is only being introduced and described when Olly moves in next door and Madeline realizes that her life if about to change drastically. They befriend each other online and slowly their friendship is pushed outside into the real world, or at least Madeline's small world. Separations, violence, lies, and eagerness lead Madeline to make yet another decision that goes against everything she has ever known to get a glimpse of the real world. She discovers an immense amount of information that will alter everything she knows for the better. Or is it for the worse? Everything leading up to the plot and everything after it are all reasons why I enjoyed this book so much.

One of my most-liked aspects of the novel Everything, Everything was how the pace of the story was not rushed or going too fast. The book consistently was able to introduce characters, ideas, and crucial bits of information at the right time. The author very well symbolized the relationships between the characters, for example; the relationship between Madeline and her mother or the relation between Madeline and Olly. I was fond of the idea to exhibit the email messages between Madeline and Olly because I felt that it represented their connection with one another very nicely. There were very few aspects of the story that I was not keen with and where I would have added something. This is including the lack of resolution at the end of the story. I was quite confused as to what had happened when the story ended and I would have liked to see an epilogue or a better ending where it explains what happens.

In closing, I very much enjoyed reading the novel Everything, Everything and would highly suggest it to readers who enjoy reading realistic fiction stories where the main characters have a disease or sickness. Everything, Everything is a beautifully written book with descriptive details and deep, emotional, and thought provoking characters. A captivating plot will leave you wanting to read more. Set aside a day or two to read this book because once you start reading it, you can't put it down.

This is a book review I wrote about the book Everything, Everything written by Nicola Yoon.

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August 28, 2015 by Karen Jensen, MLS

Book Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

August 28, 2015 by Karen Jensen, MLS Leave a Comment

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Publisher’s Book Description:

This innovative, heartfelt debut novel tells the story of a girl who’s literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family moves in next door, she begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she’s ever known. The narrative unfolds via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations, and more.

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.

Karen’s Thoughts:

This is a beautiful and beautifully written love story. This is also one of the few books that took a dramatic turn that I did not suspect and was stunned by. It was, quite simply, perfection. The characterizations were spot on and compelling, even Maddy who has this rare disease that most of us could in no way relate is in fact completely relateable and has a compelling teen voice. She has all the normal yearnings and desires and self doubt that a typical teenager has. She is trapped inside the seemingly perfect microcosm and yet even she can not escape the trials and tribulation of life, reminding us all that no matter how perfect we try to make our world and how much we try and control our lives and environment, there is a chaos that comes crashing in irregardless; life is, without a doubt, something beyond our control, practically imperfect and yet glorious all the same.

And then there is Olly. Olly is dark, mysterious and tormented. He is broken, yet kind and loving. If there is any flaw, it may be that Olly is an idealized romantic hero, the perfect boyfriend that so many of us want. Though he is, of course, in no way perfect.

The scenes between Maddy and Olly both sizzle and swoon. Many of them take place through email or over instant messages, but they perfectly capture those first few does he like me the way I like him doubts and insecurities that happen in the beginning stages of a relationship. They are gloriously awkward and tantalizingly full of promise.

Maddy also has a long-term care nurse who is devoted to her care and full of wisdom. She plays a crucial part near the end of the story.

I can’t tell you about the twists and turns that this story takes and how what appears to be a simple yet beautiful love story because something more moving and profound, I will just beg you to read it and take this emotionally compelling journey of love and self discovery with me. It is glorious and profound and moving.

EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING by Nicola Yoon comes out September 1st from Delacorte Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 9780553496642

I picked up an ARC at TLA earlier this year which is the source for this review.

Filed under: Book Reviews

About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

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Everything, Everything – Book Review and Summary

Review and full summary of Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, a staple in the sick kids in love genre that will give you all the feels.

Spoiler Free Review

I need to note that there are some discussion points that I simply cannot make in the spoiler free review of this book. I address my opinion about the controversy that some readers have projected onto Everything, Everything but it is impossible to talk about it without discussing spoilers as well. Therefore, this review will simply be about this book being, in my opinion, super cute. You can see the book summary below to learn about the other aspects.

Everything, Everything is at its core a teen romance drama about the thrills and perils of a first love. If that does not sound like a book you would read then this book will not be for you regardless of the other nuance.

It is also a classic sick kids in love book , a genre that has gotten way bigger than it ever should have but I can’t help but return to it over and over again. They’re always tearjerkers. Either because one of them dies and that’s sad or because they miraculously live and that brings joyous tears instead. Win win.

The book is about Madeline, a young woman who has lived her whole life with a severely compromised immune system. As she puts it, she’s allergic to everything. She never gets to leave her home and basically her only human interaction is with her mother, who is also her doctor and her nurse.

She can’t help but become infatuated with the new boy who moves in next door. This relationship is the focus of the book and its honestly adorable.

I picked this book up as a palate cleanser after a different novel left a very bad taste in my mouth. I needed something easy to read quickly that I could trust to just be entertaining and maybe a bit emotional. Teen dramas are great for this. I also really loved the other book I read by author Nicola Yoon, The Sun is Also a Star . It seemed like a safe bet and I was rewarded.

I finished Everything, Everything over the course of a couple of lunch breaks. It’s an extremely quick read that includes some cute little pictures and diagrams drawn by Yoon’s husband. It enhances the innocence of the young and naive Madeline.

The book isn’t necessarily predictable but it is comfortable. I think there is value in having a book that isn’t challenging every once in a while. I enjoyed watching this young romance blossom and rooting for love to conquer all.

It’s nice sometimes to worry about first kisses and the electricity of holding hands with someone you’re attracted to instead of real world adult issues . For the purposes of easy mind numbing escapism Everything, Everything fits the bill.

I do recommend it to those who like these kinds of books. If you’re intrigued by how in the world this book could also be controversial then you’re going to have to read the spoiler full review below and find out.

4/5 flowers 🌺🌺🌺🌺

in order to keep me up to my ears in books please consider using the following affiliate links to purchase these products. it’s at no extra cost to you and would really help me out, thank you and happy reading!

The Everything, Everything book has been adapted into a movie directed by Stella Meghie and starring Amanda Stenberg and Nick Robinson. It seems to be moderately received and not anything to actively seek out, in my opinion. I’m also turned off by movies about teenages where the adult actors look absolutely nothing like teenagers.

What is Everything, Everything about?

The brief summary of Everything, Everything is that Madeline is very sick. She has an extremely compromised immune system and cannot leave her sterile bedroom. Despite the danger she falls in love with the boy next door as they exchange instant messages and gaze out their bedroom windows.

Their love conquers all even as events turn out to be far more complicated than they first appeared. Their star crossed lovers story turns into an escape from abuse, on both sides, and they’re able to find each other in the wreckage.

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Everything, Everything Summary

Before I really get into the plot of Everything, Everything I want to get something out of the way. I read some other reader reviews of this book and was surprised to find that it was controversial. I am not living with a physical disability and I did not find this book offensive. It seems that some individuals who are living with disabilities or chronic illnesses have found this story insensitive.

I do not wish to diminish their feelings but based on their reviews I think the assessment may be unfair. Yes, it would be great to have more differently abled representation in books. I’m sorry that this book didn’t turn out to be what you thought it was but that’s just the way it goes sometimes.

Also, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, also called Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another, is just as real as any immune suppression syndrome or other chronic illness. To say that you’re upset because the chronic illness was “faked” and therefore is insensitive to those with chronic illnesses dismisses the victims of MSBP. In the war to be top Social Justice Warrior everyone loses.

Everything, Everything is a sick kids in love book but wanted an ending where both of the kids live. This was one way to make that story happen. There are others. If you are so desperate to see your story told, you need to tell it yourself.

Now, let’s get into a cute first love story.

Everything, Everything is about Madeline. She is what is sometimes referred to as a “bubble baby.” She has a severely compromised immune system that requires her to live a very sheltered life. She spends her days at home with her doctor mother and her nurse.

She is able to look out of her bedroom window but unable to ever visit the outside. This obviously makes it difficult to make friends. She witnesses the new neighbors moving in and begins to spy on them.

They have a teenage boy about her age named Olly. Their bedroom windows face each other and a flirtation across the way begins. Over time they begin to email and then instant message each other. They talk innocently enough at first but it takes Madeline a while to admit to him why she cannot see him in person. After a brief passing of time they decide that that is not good enough, they must meet for real.

Madeline’s nurse sets up a time for Olly to come over while her mom is at work. There will be no touching but they can at least talk face to face. Admittedly, this is extremely unprofessional behavior for the nurse.

Madeline does not get sick from the visit so they decide to escalate a little. Olly begins coming over more regularly and at one of these meetings they briefly hold hands. This is adorable. But then they have a meeting that their teenage hormones take control of and they kiss. This is definitely starting to get reckless. But teens will be teens and teens always want more.

By this point Madeline and Olly have developed pretty strong feelings for each other but neither of their parents are aware of the situation. One night, Madeline and her mom hear some screaming coming from next door. They witness Olly and his mom getting physically abused by the dad. Without thinking Madeline rushes outside to help him.

The whole situation then comes out into the open. Madeline’s mother justifiably fires the nurse who put her daughter at risk and Madeline is punished for putting herself at risk. Madeline has had her internet privileges revoked and can no longer message Olly.

After not getting sick from her brief period outside of the house she decides it’s time to risk it all for love. She gets a credit card and books a trip for two to Hawaii. Madeline and Olly run away to Hawaii for a vacation together. They exchange the love word and they make love together. Everything seems to be going great, maybe Madeline is stronger than they thought!

That is until she wakes up with a violent fever and heart palpitations. Olly rushes her to the hospital and Madeline’s mother meets them there. Madeline’s heart briefly stops before the doctors revive her and she is able to be sent home.

Madeline decides that love is too risky after all and deletes Olly and all hope from her life. She becomes understandably depressed. Especially when she sees Olly and his mother and sister moving out while the abusive father is at work.

Madeline has gotten settled back into her uneventful life when she receives a startling email from one of the doctors that treated her in Hawaii. The doctors believes that Madeline has never had an immune disorder and should really get a second and third opinion.

Madeline confronts her mother and her mother denies this. But it quickly comes to light that her mother did in fact create the illness. She had a break from reality after her husband and son were killed in a car accident. She couldn’t lose her daughter too so she created this entire reality around Madeline needing to stay safe inside their home.

This is where the MSBP comes in. Madeline’s mother has a diagnosable mental disorder recognized by medical professionals everywhere. So to all the reviews that are saying no mother would ever do this and this is faker than Madeline’s disease, I’m sorry to say you’re wrong.

Madeline is able to confirm with specialists that she does not have a chronic immune disorder. However, living in a sterile environment her whole life did weaken her immune system and does cause her to now be more susceptible to common viruses.

With that in mind she decides to take one more big leap. She leaves home to find Olly in his new home in the state of New York. She surprises him and they have a happy reunion. A truly adorable ending if you ignore the whole mom really needs help thing.

Everything, Everything is a cute love story about two teens who get together despite the odds. It’s light fiction with a fairly happy ending. I enjoyed it.

It appears obvious now that this book may not be for everyone but I encourage you to read it as its own story. Not every book needs to be a social platform. Some books can just be entertaining. That’s okay.

Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

I wanted to like Everything, Everything . I really and truly did. It portrayed likable people being likable among nice illustrations and some clever framing devices like school assignments on kissing. It portrayed a biracial heroine whose race is incidental—her parents were just nice people who met, fell in love, married, and had children, though her father and brother were tragically killed when she was just a baby. While books portraying the struggles of biracial characters are important, sometimes it’s nice to read about a character whose heritage isn’t glossed over, but is also not the main focus of the narrative.

For my credentials, I do not suffer from SCID, like the book’s protagonist Maddy does. SCID stands for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, a genetic defect of the T- and B-lymphocyte systems that leaves the sufferer extremely susceptible to infectious disease and allergens. The most common treatment at this time is a bone marrow transplant, with “bubbles” of filtered air, sterilization procedures, and isolation being common before donors can be matched.

I myself suffer from severe allergies—one anaphylactic airborne allergy, three anaphylactic ingestion allergies, two ingestion allergies which cause swelling of the face and tongue (currently considered “severe,” may upgrade to anaphylactic if exposed again), two mild airborne allergies, and one ingestion allergy of currently unknown severity. So, I do understand having to be very, very careful in new environments, while Maddy avoids that problem by never going past her front door. I have to read ingredient labels carefully, wear a filtration mask out in public, and keep a comprehensive list of medication allergies on my person at all times, as well as two EpiPens and a bottle of liquid Benadryl. I at first felt a lot of sympathy for Maddy, spending most of her time inside in a controlled environment, carefully checking for allergens. And like me, she attends school online (high school vs. graduate school, but all the same). Hurrah , I thought. The disabled heroine has ambitions. She doesn’t just generically like to read, she writes clever little reviews of the books she’s reading. She involves herself in her books. She is interested in architecture. She doesn’t really seem to have a life plan for a from-home career, though, which is what gave me my first inklings that something was off.

Maddy’s world is turned upside-down by the arrival of the handsome boy next door, Olly. She watches him through the window. He notices, and performs charming, adorable pantomime theater for her. They begin to IM. He assumes she’s grounded. She takes a while to tell him about her condition, out of shame—which I’ve never felt, but, then again, I’m a different person. Who am I to say some people don’t feel ashamed of their wonky immune systems? They flirt, they persuade the home nurse to let him inside, they deal with the no touching policy, they break the no touching policy, they elope to Hawaii …

And that’s where the major flaw of this novel comes in. Not only does it trot out the tired old chestnut of “You aren’t living with disability unless you LIVE! Throw caution to the wind, stop caring for your ailment, and accept mortality, or else you’re just existing !”, but in the end, the book is not about disability. Major spoiler alert:

The book is about child abuse. Maddy does not have SCID. Instead, her mother seems to have a bizarre, overprotective form of Munchausen’s by Proxy, which is officially diagnosed as paranoid PTSD. This is contrasted to Olly’s father’s more traditional get-drunk-knock-the-family-around form of abuse, but it’s still what the book is about. Her mother comes across as sweet and loving at the beginning of the book, making time to spend with her teenage daughter, sharing family jokes, doing what she can to make life as happy as possible for a girl whose body keeps her under house arrest—but as soon as the Olly plot really kicks in, she begins showing frayed edges when she fears she might lose her baby girl. This deteriorating mental state seems like another kick in the pants to the respectful, sensitive narrative the author was crafting at the beginning, and made me feel more disappointed than I would have felt in a book that hadn’t started so promisingly.

The eventual happy ending is: Yay, Maddy, that nice young lady, is not in fact disabled, she just has a weakened immune system from her mother’s abuse of keeping her locked in a bubble house for eighteen years in response to her father and brother’s traumatic deaths in a car crash. A few years of gentle exposure to diseases and allergens, and she’ll be right as rain. I nearly threw the book when I read that. The nice young couple doesn’t have to deal with work-arounds like filter masks or gloves or pill schedules or signing up for the marrow waiting list. They just need to be extra careful during flu season, while Mom needs some intensive therapy.

And there is the ableist narrative in all its horrible glory: you can’t have a happy ending if you’re still disabled. Happy endings and true love come to the well-bodied. I suppose it was a nice bone to throw that Olly loved Maddy even when he thought everything could kill her (in which case it’s stunning that they had sex with regular condoms—latex is such a common allergy that you’d think she’d mention specifically getting hypoallergenic ones just in case), but the happy ending is still “Nope, not really disabled, just a victim of a traumatized mother, whose PTSD made her too overprotective to let me out of the house!” So much for earning your happy ending.

I’d give it three stars out of four for the opening, and one star out of four for the closing, averaging two stars in total. It’s still a nice book about nice people, but it’s a deeply problematic narrative. Disability is not just a romantic hurdle to get over, nor is it a guarantee of bad parenting. Characters with disabilities get little enough representation, and when a disability that could conceivably work against the love and sex life of a disabled character happens, it feels rather insulting to not show any work towards those issues that real disabled people might face, instead hand-waving away all their issues for the happy ending. Especially a happy ending that comes at the expense of scapegoating another disability.

About Author

Jennifer J. Johnson is an online student at Southern New Hampshire University, working on a Masters in English and Creative Writing. She primarily exists as a recluse and cat lady-in-training, but leads a full life with the advent of Netflix and Amazon Prime. Her hobbies revolve around science fiction, petting cute animals, finding historical inaccuracies in fiction, and learning to spell all the conditions that parental exposure to Agent Orange are linked to. Jennifer is currently trying to watch every film on the National Film Registry and to write a children's book about living with severe airborne allergies.

62 Comments

YES TO THIS ONE THOUSAND TIMES. I sort of saw “the twist” coming because, you know, I’ve read 100000 books and seen 100000 movies so. (also when they make it all the way to Hawaii and to having “adventures” – nope. Not SCID.) But seeing the twist coming wasn’t the problem (also most teen readers won’t so there’s that) it was everything you mentioned here.

We have SO FEW books about teens with chronic illness that to have one be like BUT NOT REALLY WHEW was a let-down. I mean not every book has to be every thing but it’s still a let-down.

And the “it wasn’t real!” tanked the plot, IMO. Besides taking away an actually chronically ill protagonist who is smart and funny and has ambitions it tanked the believablity of the story in every way. No one notices that her mother, an apparently successful physician because she must have some cash to keep this going at this level, is pulling off this elaborate abuse? Literally no doctor no case worker no ANYONE? A kid with this kind of rare disorder WOULD be on people’s radars so the idea that they are just living there unnoticed or never checked on by anyone? Nope. Because it for SURE abuse and that’s a thing I think the book REALLY winces from. It gets kind of bittersweet and “well who knows if I can ever forgive you!” Forgive her?! Why is that on the victim? Even if it is her mother? She should have her medical license revoked! She tortured you, psychologically and physically for years, and it’s because she has a mental illness (which…no) so how mad should we be? That just really upset me as a reader. And it made me think – if this was a father keeping a daughter locked up and telling her there were demons outside to end the world … well we wouldn’t be having the same conversation.

ANYWAY thank you for this piece – and thank you for also talking about the “when you forget your disability you can really live!” element. Ugh. She was ‘really living’ the whole time – that’s the point and the book gets that so right before the Hawaii jaunt. She has interests, she likes movies and design, she likes to flirt, she longs to connect – she needn’t disregard her disability for all that to be true.

THIS SITE IS THE BEST. Thank you for existing.

Holy CRAP, that has gotta be the exact opposite of how to write a narrative about disability — using one to tear down the other. Entirely a lose-lose situation; glad I didn’t pick this one up.

Excellent review, Jennie! I’m so proud of you. Love the picture!

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Thank you for sharing your honest opinion. I was starting to feel like I was the only one who really enjoyed the beginning and wanted to throw the end into a wood chipper. I still can’t even decide on an honest rating on goodreads because I feel like rather than it being a twist, it was a cop-out. A sick and twisted cop-out.

Thank you! I absolutely hated what the author did with this book, and I’m so glad to find a review that sees it the same way.

I have MCAS (mast cell activation syndrome), so when people ask what I’m allergic to, I just tell them “Everything.” Like you, I have to wear my filtered mask in every store and most crowds, carry Epi-pens and compounded benadryl, and bring safe food and water everywhere I go. I take a ton of antihistamines just so I can leave my apartment and go to work, and my MCAS is relatively mild compared to many people I know.

So I was really looking forward to reading this book, and then it was a huge letdown. I knew she didn’t really have allergies as soon as she got into someone’s car without a mask on, and I was even more convinced when she rode on an airplane (full of people!) and didn’t have a reaction. Even with my mask and meds, I need to chug benadryl to get through a plane ride.

But the worst part for me is that, with autoimmune diseases, people assume all of the time that it’s just “in our heads.” I know so many people in my allergy and MCAS support groups whose own families accuse them of making up their allergies or making up the allergies their children have. This is a life-threatening problem, and it is pervasive in our society, for some reason, and books like this perpetuate the myth.

So disappointing.

If you do happen upon some good autoimmune disease books, I’d love for you to pass them on. I need more for myself and to buy for my libraries.

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Picked this book up because it was the first book ive ever seen that mentions scid. I was diagnosed with scid at 7 months old and thankfully to a successful bone marrow transplant i am no longer have any health problems. Liked the beginning and the quirky way it is written but the ending. The ending made me want to throw this book into the trash. I felt disgusted with how this book ended.

Thank you for this review! As someone with a chronic illness that prevents me from leaving my home most of the time, I went through a very similar emotional journey with this book. First half: joy and pleasure at seeing a smart imaginative YA character with a chronic illness living with creativity and possibility and a burgeoning romance. Second half: frustration that I was listening to it on audiobook and therefore couldn’t set it on fire and throw it out the window when I reached the ending. Another version of the “it’s better to die than to live with a serious medical condition/disability” story. Along with the ever-present “disabled people can’t have mutually fulfilling romantic relationships/noble people with disabilities set the people who love them free” trope.

Oh, NO. I thought this was a totally different sort of book. WTF. It’s now off my TBR list. So sad that it gets rid of her disability rather than showing how a successful, happy life can be lived with one. 🙁

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Oh my gosh, thank you so much for sharing your perspective in such a clear-cut manner. I absolutely think you’re right and you were spot on, when you mentioned how it depicts that a person can only have a happily ever after if they’re not disabled. I didn’t pick up on it when I first read it, but I’m glad I read your review. Geraldine @ Corralling Books

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I was intrigued by the trailer, but something felt off with the mother and so I went looking for information. I figured it was the “I must protect you at all costs” story from the vibes. Now I know to avoid this story. Thank you!

So my bf’s teacher’s son has cp. He has a loving girlfriend and he was the first body building champion in a wheelchair. He’s still deteriorating and he’ll unfortunately pass in a few short years but he’s loved and lived out one of his dreams. That’s a book I’d read.

Jennifer, with your anaphylactic allergies and gastro problems, have you ever been evaluated for mast cell activation syndrome? Our lives are mirror images. I started going anaphylactic to everything–meds, foods, even scents. It would either be textbook throat closing, vomiting, or cardiac problems. A friend of mine had MCAS and knew what was happening. I saw a doc, got the tests, and was positive. I live indoors, mostly in bed, because I faint. I was an English/Lit major. My father was exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam. There’s a group called COVVHA. On their short form, they even ask if you’ve had MCAS or POTS. You probably know so much of this, but I’d love to chat more. Please find me on Facebook. My pic is black and white with a Care About Rare frame for this month. Brooke Swan

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I’d have to say I disagree. While it was nice to have a book about disability and love, it was not the message that Ms. Yoon was trying to push on her readers. It’s just unfortunate that she used disability to get it across. The main message was Life, not unconditional love. It was about taking risk “Life is a gift”. It could be about love too but in a different way than it’s usually written like in “The Little Prince”. It was a great story (and I saw the twist coming too) it just wasn’t the story you wanted it to be.

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I’m glad this review seems to have touched so many people – especially with the movie coming out soon. My allergies have gotten more severe since writing this. I now have 12 official allergens, of which 8 are anaphylactic. I have a new airborne allergy (my allergy to bell peppers went from a severe ingestion allergy to an airborne anaphylactic allergy, at least if they’re being cooked or processed). I have a severe dystonic disorder. But I still finished grad school (with honors!) and I have an EMT-trained acupressurist boyfriend who works as my health advocate. It’s great dating a person who is willing to talk to doctors when you can’t, knows all of your pills and your pill schedule, brings you romantic gifts like ice packs, and takes you on dates to Physical Therapy and doctor’s offices (and sometimes takes me to cleared environments afterwards!).

I wanted to read the story of a nice young couple dealing with one disabled and one able-bodied partner, without the disability being the entire narrative. I’m not very good with romance, but I think I’ll have to write it myself.

Thank you, Jennifer, for your thoughtful review of this book. I, too, suffer from anaphylactic food allergies. This book was recommended to me by someone who had heard of it, but not read it. “It’s a book about people with allergies,” she said. I rushed out to get a copy and started reading it immediately. Finally, I thought. Something for people with allergies, dealing with the issues we face.

And then I got to the twist.

Fortunately, my respect for the public library and the fact that I was reading a piece of their property, kept me from hurling it across the room.

I was heartbroken. This is the representation we get? Finally, a book with a protagonist who has serious life-threatening allergies… only she doesn’t.

And then the really frustrating aftermath: Everyone else seems to love this book. They’re making it into a movie. So the horrible, abelist perspective — your life isn’t really worth living if you can’t live it fully — will get world-wide exposure. I can only hope it will start a conversation about allergy issues and representation of people with allergies and anaphylaxis in literature.

Thank you for raising all of the concerns about the book in your review.

The reason I’m replying directly to your comment, rather than beginning one of my own is this. I want you to write the book you mentioned. I’d love to read a romance about people who are really dealing with issues like these. I am currently writing a middle grade book with a protagonist with life-threatening allergies like my own because I want books that reflect the challenges of these issues out in the world for kids who are experiencing these things to read.

So, please, pretty please, will you write your book, too? I’ll critique for you.

Nothing wrong with the book being about child abuse and mental illness instead of a immune deficiency but apparently it doesn’t handle the mental illness and child abuse very realistically either so we are left with a weird hybrid book that tries to do two things but manages neither well.

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So basically, the book blows up it’s positive story line about disability, ignores the can of worms it opens (mental health, ptsd, severe child abuse), and validates everything through a love/sex relationship that equals happily ever after? Why do we feed teens this drivel? Yuck.

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Pretty much. I wanted so badly to like this book. I really did. It was my first time really reviewing a book, and I plotzed over receiving an official “Advance Reviewer’s Copy”.

A lot of people apparently haven’t realized how problematic it is from the perspective of disability because it does do a pretty good job of crafting a likable interracial heroine, and not treating interracial romance as some alien concept that must result in a star-crossed lovers scenario. And while it was refreshing to see people of different ethnicities fall in love without anyone making a huge flipping deal over it, it just… ugh. So many horrible notes of ableism.

And when I wrote that review, I didn’t really think just how dangerous the “Stop caring for your disability” message is. I was thinking of it from the perspective of a 28-year-old, not a 15-year-old. I can handle the message with an exasperated eye-roll, but apparently some younger disabled people are actually taking this garbage at face value. I saw the trailer for the first time, and wanted to vomit when I heard “I would sacrifice everything for one perfect day”. So you’d actually let yourself die just so that you had a really adventurous day? I do plenty of adventurous things and have many perfect days… within the scope of my disabilities. I’m not going to put myself in harm’s way because nearly dying is “more fun” than doing the fun things I’m physically capable of doing -_-

Thanks for writing this review! I suffer from a few food allergies (ranging in severity), and severe hayfever, but nothing like any of the commenters above have stated. As a teen, I recently read this book and reviewed it on my personal blog before watching the movie. I liked the book, but I never thought of how it could affect a person reading it who actually suffers from some of those things and seeing how the only way for a happy ending was for her to not have the disease at all. I am glad that you chose to shine a light on this part of the book that was skipped over. I did think that it was still interesting because it showed how the mother was so affected by her husband and daughter’s deaths, and also showed how the system failed her in a way by deeming her basically fine to take care of herself and a 6 month old daughter right after losing the rest of her family. But it was a letdown to not see her and Olly have to work through her issues together, instead just getting to live as normal people. I hope that you and/or someone else writes a different book that actually shows a romance story with someone who has real severe allergies.

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Oh my goodness this is amazing. I’m so sick of people making a romantic trope out of chronic/terminal illness and disability especially when it’s done by able-bodied authors who don’t understand what disabled people go through. And then they just, you know, rip representation away at the last second! Thank you so much for this thoughtful criticism.

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YES. You summed up my negative thoughts towards this book so eloquently! I definitely saw the twist coming and I, for one, thought it totally cheapened the story. I didn’t think the author would choose to go the easy route and allow her main character to not actually have SCID and be able to live happily ever after with her one true love. Because of the high praise I had heard about this book, I THOUGHT the author would show Maddie’s development as she has to come to terms with living with her illness and the like. I was extremely disappointed with the end of this book; before that, I was okay with the cutesy love story (even though it felt a lot like insta-love to me). AND YES I was very concerned about the mother imprisoning her daughter for 18 years. At the end, I think Maddie said her mother was attending therapy sessions and they kind of part ways like it’s no big deal but I THOUGHT IT WAS A BIG DEAL and should definitely receive way more attention than just a few therapy sessions 😤 I thought I was the only one who felt this way about this book when I filmed my review because I had only heard people gush about how much I loved this book and they totally just glossed over all the problems I had with the book! I’m so glad I found your blog and read this post. It was very enlightening!

Great review and insights. The best part, though, is when you described in a comment how you work with your condition and what your boyfriend does for you. Compared to the novel, that rang far more authentic and moving.

As someone with both autoimmune disease and CVID, a rare immune system disorder, that is luckily not as severe as SCID but similar in nature, the premise of this movie bothers me a great deal. Does the author have CVID or SCID? Did she spend significant time with people with SCID? I am angry that someone is using this earth-shattering rare disease as part of twisted plot instead of really getting to the heart of those suffering from these rare but all-to-real diseases. People need to be made aware of those of us suffering from CVID and other immune system diseases – but with real accurate portrayals.

I wanted to like this book. I really did, but your review summarizes my thoughts completely. I liked Maddy up until she met Olly and then was just smothered by Teen Romance. I wanted to find out more about Olly honestly and how he escapes his abusive Dad (something that resonated with me more than Maddy’s storyline). Thank you for your honest review!

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Oooohhh!! I was trying to understand why people said it was ableism but I was missing it, the way you have put it I completely understand now. I don’t think I thought about it from this point of view. I know see how when she still believed she was disabled, she thought she was not going to have a happy ending. She thought she would be miserable and alone forever and as soon as she found out oh no she’s fine, she could do everything and be happy. Thank you for writing this!

Well, the movie based on this book is out, The review that I read talked about a disastrous third act reveal. So, I don’t think that they changed anything. Glad that I sought out the details before I saw the film. Thanks Jennifer!

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This was a perfect summation of how I felt about “Everything, Everything”. One of my classmates who is in love with this book recommended it to me, begging me to “GIVE IT A CHANCE!”. With the movie coming out, and all the buzz surrounding it, I decided to. Unlike some other people in the comments, I made a point of not researching the book before I read it. I can’t deal with spoilers. I probably wouldn’t have read it if I had. For the first half-ish of the book, I loved it. While I don’t have any disabilities, I am bi-racial. I found the kind of representation that Maddy showed wonderful. Usually while reading books that have mixed main characters (*cough, cough* I can count how many I’ve found on one hand), the protagonists whole narrative is revolving around that. It was nice to see someone who had that part of their identity, but wasn’t consumed by it. It was a sweet, passionate, funny, and classic teen romance that was a firm reminder of some of the good things in life. 5 Fast Questions, French dinner night, architecture dreams! It showed how someone can live with a disability and also love their life. I began to have my doubts however, when Maddy began to think things like “I’m not really living, I’m just alive”. I’m in 6th grade, and yet have already heard this trope numerous times in both literature and media. What happened to the smart, kind, witty, mc? The arrival of a cute boy next door changes her entire character. While I am all for romance and love, I’m getting pretty sick of the whole “Girl meets boy and wants to give up everything for him because she needs to put him first.” I have never been anything close to “true love” but this always strikes as unhealthy for some reason. Then things begin to spiral downhill and I began to question more and more. How was Maddy able to obtain a credit card without her mother knowing? Where did she find the money in the first place to buy the plane tickets to Hawaii? How plausible is it that in 18 YEARS of her life, nobody noticed that Maddy wasn’t sick? How did people allow her mother to get away with no doctor visits and doing all care for her daughter herself (which, by the way, is a huge no-no in the medical field- you should never be allowed to care for a family member that way, doctor or not.)? And, most of all, could a person with SCID actually survive planes, cliff-diving, strange food, crowded areas, and hotel rooms? Even though she didn’t actually have the disease, I had to question that if she hadn’t been let outside for years, the effects would have been more obvious. The end ruined this book for me by using “deus ex machina” or, “God in the machine”. Playing God. I, for one, agree that this is both lazy writing and damaging to disabled people searching for representation and people like me, who could very easily get the exact wrong message from this book/movie. I will not be watching the movie, as I had previously planned. Thank you for giving me another perspective and seeing that yes, this was bad representation. I hope you do end up writing your book. It is sorely needed.

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Book Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

by Laura | Aug 30, 2021 | Book Review | 0 comments

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon is a swoon-worthy and heartfelt story that will keep readers wanting to come back for more. Maddy, the main character, is allergic to the world so all of her seventeen years of existence she has been confined to living in her house with just her mom and her nurse. She isn’t allowed to step foot out to the real world because if she does, then the consequences will be fatal. She hasn’t experienced much of life but when a boy she finds fascinating moves in next door, Maddy realizes she will fall head over heels for him. This boy is Olly, and he also finds Maddy fascinating.

As the story develops, Maddy and Olly develop a closer relationship. They get to know each other despite Maddy’s fatal condition. They eventually decide to embark on an adventure together which lands Maddy in a terrifying state. This book will take one through a roller coaster of emotions. I would give this book a five out of five-star rating. Genuine lovers of the romance genre will greatly enjoy this book as well as Nicola Yoon’s other romance books. This book is fantastic for those who want to treat themselves to a nice escape from reality.

Availability: Electronically and in the Library

Rating: 5/5 stars

reviewed by: Luna (15)

Book Review: Everything Everything

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon was full of emotion, adventure, and romance! Maddy is a girl who is allergic to practically everything. She has never left her house in the length of seventeen years, and her books get delivered to her in airtight bags. It all changes when Olly, her new neighbor, catches her attention, and she falls in love with a person she can't even breathe the same air as. I absolutely fell in love with this book! Though there was not thrilling adventure, I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat! I mainly chose this book because Maddy's medical condition was intriguing to me, but the cover is also stunning! Everything Everything caught me off guard many times with its unpredictable turns and its heartwarming ending. Overall, this was one of my favorite books this year, with a rating of 5/5 stars!

Grade: 7 Age: 13

Book Review: Everything, Everything (Spoiler Free) – Favbookshelf

Everything, Everything is surely a very heart-warming and emotional book. It depicts the naivete and passion embodied by young love with fierce yet serene commentary. So, here is a review of the book Everything, Everything.

About Everything, Everything:

Title : Everything, Everything

Author : Nicola Yoon

Genre : Young Adult, Romance

Publisher : Delacorte Books

Type : Standalone

Pages : 310

Goodreads rating : 4/5

Young teen Madeline Whittier suffers from a rare condition called SCID (Severe Combined Immuno-Deficiency), forcing her to live isolated entirely, confined to her room. However, when teen boy Olly moves into the house next door, Maddy’s world is turned upside-down. They start talking through their bedroom windows, and soon their friendship blossoms into something more. Maddy yearns to meet Olly, hold him, and touch him, but her mom stands in the way, worried for her daughter’s health. Will Maddy listen to her mom and give up on her first love? Or will she take the leap of faith and choose to be with Olly? Read the book to find out.

Book Review of Everything, Everything

Doesn’t reading about young, flawed love certainly leave us with a warm feeling in our stomachs and a smile on our faces? Well, this book does exactly that. We are introduced to teens Madeline Whittier and Olly, along with their dysfunctional families, and the novel chiefly traces their love story.

Let’s start with the cover first. The cover features the book title in bold capital letters balanced against a primarily white background. The typography stands out clearly, and the author’s name at the bottom also comes across prominently. Looking solely at the cover, it isn’t easy to make assumptions about the kind of book encased within, but what stands out is the simplicity.

The story moves at a consistently quick pace. However, the narrative seems coherent and cohesive and well thought-out. The plot is character-driven and focuses on emotions more than facts and logic, which was uniquely satisfying for me, an avid reader of mystery/thriller books.

The book is not a cliché girl-next-door romance novel at all. When Maddy’s heart suddenly stops while on a trip with Olly, Nicola Yoon takes the story towards a slightly darker tone, exploring how life is seldom like a bed of roses. It shows readers how often we aren’t as well prepared to handle life’s challenges as we might think we are.

“Everything’s a risk. Not doing anything is a risk. It’s up to you.” Nicola Yoon, Everything, Everything

Nicola Yoon has especially knocked it out of the park by developing the characters for her debut novel. Rather than only focusing on Maddy and Olly, she has also given thought to other members of their families. The characters’ emotions come across as genuine and authentic, which evidently improves their credibility. The writing is beautifully descriptive and moves smoothly from one chapter to the next, holding readers’ attention.

Especially, Maddy’s character is the one that stands out above all else. Her longing to have a ‘normal’ teenage life, to have peers and friends, to go out into the world, is highly relatable, especially after readers have gone through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Secondly, her perseverance is commendable. While her decision to meet Olly might seem childish to some, despite being aware of the risks she was exposing herself to, the book’s essence lies in realizing that young love is far from perfect. It is desperate, illogical, and even irrational at times. Yet, it always finds a way, regardless of any roadblocks or hurdles in its path. To know more, you must read Everything, Everything.

“Just because you can’t experience everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experience anything.” Nicola Yoon, Everything, Everything

The book has enough twists and turns to make it enjoyable and keep readers hooked from the first page to the last.

Rating : 4/5

Recommendation : What are you waiting for? Read it!

I loved this book.

Buy Everything, Everything Now:

About the author.

Nicola Yoon is a Jamaican-American author especially best known for her debut novel Everything, Everything , which was adapted into a movie with the same name. She lives in Los Angeles evidently.

Below is the link to buy Everything, Everything :

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Everything Everything Book Review

Posted April 27, 2017 by Jordann @thebookbloglife in 2 star , book reviews , Uncategorized / 3 Comments

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.

First thing I have to say about this book is that I picked it up because of the hype of the film, and that probably wasn’t the best idea in hindsight. I should have looked at the book in more detail and I might have saved myself a little of the disappointment. But what’s done is done.

The one thing about this book is it’s a trope through and through. Which isn’t always a bad thing, but I will say the characters in this book were dimensionless and unbelievably shallow. I think the thing that annoyed me the most was how underdeveloped the themes were and how ridiculous the outcome was on all of them. I struggled especially with the domestic abuse storyline, the idea that they live like that only to discover that things had to change when a random girl comes into their lives. It made my stomach turn a little bit. Plus mental illness was handled badly in my opinion and I struggled with how it was portrayed and almost glanced over. Probably my least favourite part of the book.

Out of all the controversial parts of this book the characters had some redeeming factors and I enjoyed the development of the relationship over IM. It was cutesy and it definitely made me smile more than the other parts of the book. I suppose as part of the generation that grew up with the MSN craze it was nice to see it make a reemergence.

My favourite character in Everything Everything had to be Carla, she had to be the only one in the book who seemed to have any resemblance of a normal life! It was ridiculous at times and Carla was a breath of fresh air. I didn’t always agree with her choices but she was the most believable character in the entire and seeing as she was a secondary character that says something about the rest of the book doesn’t it?

Least favourite character in Everything Everything had to be Ollie, he was so one dimensional he almost disappeared. There was a lot of insta-love and gooeyness that I just couldn’t stand. Maybe it’s because I’m a cynical one and can’t believe that someone that perfectly matched to Maddie just happened to move in next door.

Recommendation wise Everything Everything is not a book I would recommend the depth in which serious issues are discussed is extremely shallow and the idea of a situation changing based on one person never sits well with me.

Did you get swept up in the hype for this book? What was your honest opinion? Let me know in the comments!

Book Review: When Everything Was Everything

Some books are written for the sheer joy of a story a child would pick up and read, with or without an adult. Saymoukda Vongsay’s children’s book, When Everything Was Everything, isn’t one of those.

It’s so much more than that.

When Everything Was Everything is a spinner of memories. It’s an emotional unraveling I get to experience while holding my two children in my lap and explaining, line by line and word by word, the humanity of linking past with present, children with parents, heritage with intimate culture. That intimacy is felt in the first wash of color across the page: a nostalgic green-yellow as the backdrop to descriptions about tart fruit, chili sauce, and Now And Later candies. Each page that follows is painted in one or two colors; each page that follows is illustrated in beautiful and muted tones. It creates a reading experience that is slow, careful, and quiet. The hushed tones of each scene make my children whisper as we move through the book.

The text itself moves like ribbons of mixtapes at the bottom of the pages: the words cleverly follow each ribbon path, mimicking the playing of a tape as it yields the words to a song. Words are color synced with each illustration, either by subject or by direct description: No. 2 pencils and Sun-Maid raisins bring forth smooth, bright hues of gold; a blue ox “as big as a house that lived in a magical place” paints everything in blue. Page after page, these scenes, synchronized by color, beautifully illustrate and reproduce the emotions that anchor memory.

And, like a mixtape of memories, the book offers a sequence of vignettes meant to garner an overall emotional response, a mixtape motif that captures moments and a message in time. I’m reminded of a time when mixtapes were exchanged between friends and lovers: I made this mix for you. The list captures how I feel. People tried to say things with their list of songs. A mixtape could be a mishmash, but often it wasn’t. Vongsay’s mixtape also says something: it is a precisely detailed trek through a girl’s past, splicing Laotian culture with the American 80s, and refugee identity with the strange and mundane and comfortable. We feel the familiar through the unfamiliar: “haggling with Hmong grandmothers at the Farmers Market” is another comforting microcosm of the familiar in a world that is still strange to her, and that she is a stranger in. One gets the sense of holding onto these miniature worlds as a process of acclimation, as a point of rebellion, and as a central part of her refugee identity.

As a refugee, it’s the affliction of being displaced.

The displacement felt in these moments is like a gut punch, and I can feel my children feeling it, through my feeling it. They watch me as I read to them. I, too, am a refugee, I tell them. What a thing it is to be removed from a land, to flee from it, to begin again. As we read together, I remember food stamps. I remember free cheese and rice. I remember bowl haircuts that made me feel like I didn’t belong. In dim lavender illustrations, the narrator explains that her family had “itchy feet,” and moved from place to place. The secondary illustration– the one that moves across the minds of readers as they read—is of the difficulty of anchoring, of growing roots in a land you don’t yet belong to. The itchy feet is about being lost, about being a ghost. One doesn’t have to be a refugee to understand that, about not belonging. One doesn’t have to be a refugee to understand that .

And one doesn’t have to be an adult to understand that. Children understand the loneliness that comes with moving. They understand the isolation of not sharing a language. They understand the joy and strength of family when the rest of the world doesn’t understand you, verbally and culturally, and they can see it illustrated in the moving van—Pahw’s Isuzu—a microcosmic home in which a family can eat, sing, and buy lottery tickets (hopes and dreams) together. My children asked questions about if the narrator’s life was hard, and how her life might change if her family won the lottery. In this book, every page is a memory, every scene is an avenue open for questions and conversations between parents and children.

When Everything is Everything is a book that is to be surgically opened, investigated, and followed in many directions. It’s a labyrinth of thought, a time machine, and a cultural dreamscape meant to be shared and taught and remembered. Does this sound more like a discussion in a lecture hall at the local university than a child’s bedtime story? Perhaps. But perhaps there isn’t much difference between a college lecture and a conversation with children about books (or anything else). And perhaps Vongsay recognizes that.

At some point, my older son put one of my mixtapes into the tape player and pressed “play.” The garbled voice of Tori Amos attempting to sing “China” created a weird fusion with some ancient version of “Túp Lều Lý Tưởng” until the ribbon ran itself into snarls in the machine. The next line in the book we read was “I wish I could remember the song he used to sing.”

The wish to remember is the soul of the mixtape. At the end of the book, when the voice of the ancestors rise in unison with the sound of familiar Thai singers—a common phenomenon when people sing old songs from their history and heritage—it’s literally the sound of the past merging with the culture our children inherits. It’s a love letter carried from past to present. It’s Everything. And, back, then, when we were Southeast Asian refugee children doing our best to acclimate our strangeness to the strangeness of an unfamiliar world, everything mattered. Every detail of our memories captured the song list of a message in a mixtape we want our children to receive. In other words, everything was everything.

When Everything Was Everything Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay and Cori Nakamura Lin Full Circle Publishing $18.95 ISBN: 9781634891592

Contributor Bio

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Tran is a Kundiman fiction fellow, a Lambda fiction fellow, and the recipient of the Jeanne Cordova scholarship for Lambda fellows in 2017. She holds a B.A. from Rollins College, an M.Ed. from the University of California, San Diego, and an MFA in fiction from San Diego State University. Her book reviews, fiction, poetry, and essays have most recently appeared in Brickroad, Vien Dong, Little Saigon, Tayo Literary Magazine, and the forthcoming Foglifter. She is a high school and middle school English teacher, and a mother of two magical little boys. She lives on the shores of southern California, spending most of her days near the ocean she can’t breathe without.

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Artwork in headers by Trang T. Lê. DVAN is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All donations are tax deductible.

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Review: ‘The Crow’ does everything wrong, even the things it does right

In an interview with Esquire , Bill Skarsgård says the 2024 rendition of The Crow is not a remake of the Brandon Lee-led 1994 film, but a brand new adaptation of James O’Barr’s famed comic book series.

That’s an important distinction, since The Crow being chiefly interested in the source material is very different from trying to modernize the much-lauded 1994 film. But, then again, it’s not an important distinction at all, because this movie sucks either way.

It would have been bad enough if The Crow simply went through the motions – asinine plotting, milquetoast characterization, a flat Skarsgård – and called it a day, but it doubles down on its dramatic and narrative mediocrity by showing off what it’s capable of bringing to this IP, and then going out of its way to withhold those things from us.

It’s a foul, foul attempt from a studio to franchise an IP that they’re clueless about, and it just might earn Zach Baylin (who co-wrote the film with William Schneider) a Razzie nomination to go with his Oscar nomination for his King Richard screenplay.

The Crow stars Skarsgård as Eric Draven, a patient at an institution for troubled youth who draws and writes dark and disturbing images and words. He meets Shelly (FKA Twigs), a musician who fell in with a bad crowd and is currently being hunted by Vincent Roeg (portrayed by an unremarkable Danny Huston), a crime lord who’s possessed by the devil.

Eric and Shelly run away together and fall in love, but when Shelly’s past catches up to her and winds up getting both her and Eric killed, Eric is brought back to life as The Crow, an immortal vigilante tasked with righting the wrongs inflicted upon him and Shelly. Armed with an unquenchable bloodlust and an even greater love for his fallen life partner, Eric sets off to put their murderers in the ground.

Bill Skarsgard as Eric Draven in The Crow

It would be far too easy to root all of this criticism for The Crow in the fact that this movie didn’t need to exist, since the 1994 film is more-or-less uneclipsable as a Crow adaptation. That being said, who’s to say that there could never have been a world where someone came up with another fantastic interpretation of O’Barr’s comic book, and turned it into a great movie?

A hypothetical ideal adaptation of The Crow wouldn’t have butchered the character of Eric Draven this badly. The protagonist doesn’t have an arc – at no point can we get a read on Eric’s emotional journey, because there is no journey. Instead, he just reacts to everything in a way that makes it more convenient for the next assembly line-coded plot beat to manifest. One might characterize Eric as a personified surplus of jarring tonal shifts, but there’s not even any tonal starting point from which to shift from.

Furthermore, Skarsgård is uncharacteristically hard to watch here. It might be the case that his dialogue was impossible to sell (a fate he shares with his castmates), but there’s an anticharisma that radiates off him at all times, as though he’s the conduit for all the joylessness native to this entire production. His performance is a blip on the radar in comparison to the rest of the film’s failings, however, and the world is bound to forget all about this once he rolls up as Count Orlok in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu .

Perhaps the greatest of these aforementioned failings is all the dead weight it shoves into our face in place of any actual story. The Crow spends far too much time unsuccessfully trying to sell us on the idea that Eric and Shelly love each other, which is a problem that arises by giving us an origin story for Eric and Shelly’s relationship.

In other The Crow stories, the fact of Eric and Shelly’s inseparability is established from the get-go. This has always been a foundational building block for the character, but The Crow rips that away and spends way too much time catching us up on the nuances of Eric’s motive, and the emotion it’s trying to instill doesn’t even land. For further context, a Batman film where most of the runtime is spent on the night that Thomas and Martha Wayne got shot so that we understand just how traumatized Bruce is, would face a similar problem.

Is it possible to create a great narrative even with this relationship origin story? Maybe, yes, but the fact remains that if you remove elements from a character that were key to making their stories work in the past, you need to replace it with something else. The Crow doesn’t do that.

But here’s the thing: it could have. The film emphasizes that Eric can’t die so long as his love stays pure, but he’s still capable of feeling pain. Why not rejigger the magic system a bit and make it so that Eric can never die, but he only feels pain if his love remains pure? That opens the door for a theme revolving around the psychology of revenge, and makes for a fascinating tension for Eric to grapple with as a character; the scope of his invulnerability would become inversely connected to the motive that allows us audiences to cheer for him.

In other words, if he got to a point where he could no longer feel pain, that would be bad news for both Eric and his enemies, and the stakes could then be scrambled in an interesting way. Why not try something like that instead of using Eric’s immortality logistics as a throwaway line that does nothing but build a world that has no story in it for us to be interested in?

The what-could-have-been sins don’t end there, either. The Crow bafflingly spends most of its runtime focusing on Eric’s brooding and uneventfully piecing together the locations of his targets, all while Vincent churns out some useless dramatic tension elsewhere. In other words, The Crow does way less killing than one would expect, and that’s a shame, because when Eric finally gets around to really unleashing his gory mayhem upon Vincent’s goons, there’s a hearty handful of genuinely great kills involved. The Crow ‘s murder choreography is the one thing it has going for it, and it could not have been utilized less. Again, it wouldn’t be necessarily impossible to make a more cerebral, contemplative Crow story, but you actually have to bring something to the table to make up for the absence of a tried-and-true staple for this character. And The Crow , again, doesn’t do that.

In closing, some might say that The Crow squanders the integrity of the 1994 film, but they would be wise not to dignify The Crow with such a statement. Brandon Lee’s swansong is one of the great miracles of cinema. Despite the actor’s tragic demise on set, his collaborators pulled it together and managed to birth a darkly gorgeous comic book film that remains one of the very best of the genre to this day (due largely in part to Lee’s performance, no less).

The fact that it happens to share a title with this abysmal excuse for an adaptation is nothing but trivia, and The Crow will no doubt go down in history as one of the very worst of the comic book adaptations, assuming history remembers it at all.

John Cho, Isaac Bae, Katherine Waterston, and Lukita Maxwell in AfrAId (2024)

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Dungeons & Dragons Rules Expansion Gift Set (D&D Books)-: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything + Xanathar's Guide to Everything + Monsters of the Multiverse + DM Screen

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Dungeons & Dragons Rules Expansion Gift Set (D&D Books)-: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything + Xanathar's Guide to Everything + Monsters of the Multiverse + DM Screen Hardcover – January 25, 2022

Includes fifth edition’s best-selling rules expansions, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Monsters of the Multiverse, and a Dungeon Master’s screen, all together for the first time in a beautiful slip case
Includes the debut of Monsters of the Multiverse, a comprehensive resource for players and Dungeon Masters alike, containing over 30 updated player character races and a massive bestiary with over 250 redesigned monsters and stat blocks, all for use in any D&D world
All three books and the DM screen feature special foil covers, available only with this release
Perfect set for Players and Dungeon Masters looking to expand their game with additional rules and character options
Language English
Publisher Wizards of the Coast
Publication date January 25, 2022
Reading age 14 years and up
Dimensions 8.7 x 2.5 x 11.7 inches
ISBN-10 0786967374
ISBN-13 978-0786967377
See all details

From the Publisher

Expanded Rules. Expanded Foes. Expanded Adventure!

Customize your character. Learn new spells. Create a rich world full of curious creatures, then fill it with puzzles and creative traps.

With pages full of subclasses, monsters, spells, magic items, and more— the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Expansion Gift Set opens up a multiverse of options and content for both players and Dungeon Masters.

Perfectly complementing the core rulebooks, get three of D&D’s major rules expansion books, including updated versions of the best-selling Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, plus the debut of Monsters of the Multiverse, all in one place!

The included Dungeon Master’s Screen and all three book covers are embellished with gorgeous foil, found only in this special gift edition—the perfect treasure for any D&D fan.

Monsters of the Multiverse

Face the Denizens of the Cosmos

The ultimate Monster Manual companion, this book compiles and updates monsters and playable races from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes , Volo’s Guide to Monsters , and more.

Sparkling with the musings of the wizard Mordenkainen, in its pages you’ll find creatures and non-player characters that hail from every corner of the multiverse—whether they be friend or foe.

An Expanded Bestiary. Compiles and updates over 250 monsters and NPCs that originally appeared in Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes , each represented by a newly-designed stat block and story text.

Updated Monster Stat Blocks . Creature stat blocks have been reorganized to be easier for Dungeon Masters to use, and some creatures have been updated—doing more damage and having greater resilience.

Additional Lore & Art. Book contains colorful art of monsters that were previously unillustrated, and expands upon monster lore—with details that add depth to your creatures, no matter where you choose to unleash them.

Over 30 Playable Races. Presents over 30 race options for player characters that don’t appear in the Player’s Handbook —all updated and gathered together in one place for the first time.

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything

What Wonderful Witchery is This?

The wizard Tasha, whose great works include the spell Tasha’s hideous laughter , has gathered bits and bobs of precious lore during her illustrious career as an adventurer.

Tasha has never been shy about sharing her keen insights, and this book is sprinkled with the archmage’s musings on everything from her wizardly rivals to the nature of the multiverse.

The Artificer Class + More Subclasses. Includes more subclasses for every class in the Player's Handbook . You'll also find the artificer class—a master of magical invention—with one added artificer subclass: the Armorer.

More Character Options & Customization. Create custom character origins and racial traits using straightforward rules, and choose from more fighting styles, feats, expanded class spells lists, class feature choices, and more.

Magic Tattoos, Spells & Artifacts. Learn about magic tattoos that imbue their bearers with wondrous abilities, and discover more spells, artifacts, and magic items for your campaign. Introduces Group Patrons. Unite your party with a collective purpose—whether you’re part of a criminal syndicate or working for an ancient dragon, each group patron option comes with its own perks and types of assignments DM Tools & Rules Options. Try out rules for sidekicks, supernatural environments, natural hazards, parleying with monsters, and gain guidance on running a session zero. Puzzles. Ready to be dropped into any D&D adventure, puzzles of varied difficulty await your adventurers, complete with traps and guidance on using the puzzles in a campaign.

Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Beauty and Guile are in the Eyes of the Beholder

The beholder Xanathar, Waterdeep’s most infamous crime lord, is known to hoard information on friend and foe alike. He catalogs lore about adventurers and ponders methods to thwart them. His twisted mind imagines that he can eventually record everything.

Amidst all this material, the Xanathar also offers bizarre observations about whatever his eyestalks happen to glimpse. Pray they don’t come to rest on you!

Over 25 Added Subclasses. Introduces over twenty-five subclasses, including the Cavalier for the fighter, the Circle of Dreams for the druid, and the Horizon Walker for the ranger.

Racial Feats. Contains a collection of racial feats for players who want to further explore their character’s background—whether it’s Bountiful Luck for halflings or Infernal Constitution for a tiefling.

More Spells. Adds spells for both characters and monsters, including toll the dead , charm monster , storm sphere , and many more.

DM Tools & Rules Options. Includes a variety of tools providing Dungeon Masters with fresh ways to use traps, magic items, downtime activities, and more—all designed to enhance a D&D campaign and push it in new directions.

Random Encounter Tables. Includes random encounter tables for characters of all levels in every environment category, from the arctic to the Underdark.

Playing Dungeons & Dragons

Become an Adventurer

Adventurers come in all shapes and sizes. Find one that’s fun for you.

An elvish cleric, driven from society for trespassing on tradition. A dwarven paladin, atoning for an ignominious past. The Player’s Handbook provides the skeleton for your characters. Flesh them out however you choose.

Join the Party

D&D brings people together and forges new friendships. Silly moments spawn inside jokes; moving battles leave treasured memories—whether in the heat of battle, embroiled in social intrigue, or solving clever puzzles, your party has your back.

Choose Your Own Path

The woods are growing dark. Behind a mass of ivy, you see the stones of a crumbling castle. What do you do?

In D&D, your options are limitless. Because the Dungeon Master, as narrator of your tale, can improvise in reaction to any choice you make, what happens next is entirely flexible. Do you dare go on?

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wizards of the Coast (January 25, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0786967374
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0786967377
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 14 years and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.7 x 2.5 x 11.7 inches
#33 in Dungeons & Dragons Game
#374 in Dragons & Mythical Creatures Fantasy (Books)
#7,378 in Genre Literature & Fiction

About the author

Dungeons & dragons.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 89% 7% 3% 1% 1% 89%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 89% 7% 3% 1% 1% 7%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 89% 7% 3% 1% 1% 3%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 89% 7% 3% 1% 1% 1%
5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 89% 7% 3% 1% 1% 1%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Customers say

Customers find the book covers amazing and the set of books nice. They also appreciate the excellent additional content that adds so much to their game. Readers describe the manual as a one-stop shop and convenient. However, some customers feel the books are clearly thinner.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book covers absolutely amazing and wonderful. They also appreciate the holo foil cover rather than the usual matte finish.

" These books are beautiful ! The foil covers make the light dance around them in a nimbus of ethereal fire!..." Read more

"... Looks amazing on my shelf and will come in handy later in our campaign." Read more

"...A disappointing find given that the box set and foil covers overall are beautiful ...." Read more

"... Glossy covers and a nice slipcase. The additional information for the core game is outstanding...." Read more

Customers find the book collection nice, with a lot of reference material. They also say the books are well done and the foil cover looks great. Overall, customers describe the bundle as excellent.

"These books add a lot to the game and are an excellent addition to anyone’s collection " Read more

"...4 stars for the help and support to get this corrected, quality of the replacement book set and fairly painless return and delivery process." Read more

"...That being said, the quality of the books are great , and what I would expect...." Read more

"...I already have the other 2 books and can say they are well done and the foil cover looks great, as well as the DM screen it comes with...." Read more

Customers find the book has excellent additional content for use by DMs and players alike. They say it adds tons of subclasses and options that expand the game.

"...It’s a treasure trove of stuff to use in your games. It’s almost vital to add this collection to your own tools to use...." Read more

"...screen is my first one, but I have found it to be a generally helpful resource for a new DM , providing conditions , pricing for various in game..." Read more

"...rules like me, I would recommend this set as a great way to expand your collection ." Read more

"Nice set of books with a lot of reference material ...." Read more

Customers find the books add so much to their games, making them fun to campaign with. They also appreciate the variety of game mechanics in the books.

"These books add a lot to the game and are an excellent addition to anyone’s collection" Read more

"...Glossy covers and a nice slipcase. The additional information for the core game is outstanding ...." Read more

"...has made my games so much smoother and the set of monsters gives a fun spin on lots of combat...." Read more

"...protective wrapping, the quality was amazing, and it was really fun to campaign with !" Read more

Customers find the manual very convenient and a one-stop shop.

"...appreciated the great quality, subtly holographic cover art, and convenience of having all three books collected in the same sturdy sleeve...." Read more

"...list of enemies makes this monster manual a one stop shop and very convenient ...." Read more

" Relatively easy to understand with help from experienced players" Read more

Customers find the book to be thin.

"...Things like having thinner covers , lower quality paper, or blurry/low res art. I have not experienced that with my set at all...." Read more

"...The pages feel weird and thin . Its a decidedly cheap feeling, and gives the impression that it could tare...." Read more

"...All of the 6 core books seem to refer to one another, and none of them are terribly thick ...." Read more

"...Almost like fax paper. They were clearly thinner . I put both copies of XGtE next to each other and it was immediately noticeable...." Read more

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Misprinted books in the set: 1) Xanathar's Guide to Everything; and 2) "Monnsters" of the Multiverse

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Everything We Know About Nightbitch (So Far)

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2024 has been quite a busy year for horror fans, and it's not over yet. An adaptation of the 2021 novel Nightbitch by new author Rachel Yoder, a film of the same name has been generating a good share of buzz among the literary and cinematic communities. Directed by the acclaimed screenwriter, actress, and director Marielle Heller, this upcoming film promises to be eccentric, provocative, and inventive. As the film gears up for its release, it is gathering audience anticipation for its innovative storytelling, thought-provoking and socially relevant themes, and genre-bending style . The premiere of Nightbitch is poised to resonate with audiences who appreciate films that push boundaries and who want to engage with personal themes in unconventional and offbeat ways. The trailer and further details about the film’s distribution are eagerly awaited, as it promises to be a significant addition to the genre of surreal film.

Nightbitch is positioned at the unique intersection of horror and comedy, which ensures that this feminist narrative will be darkly engaging and offbeat. The popular subgenre of feminist horror tackles themes of gender inequality, bodily autonomy, and the struggles of marginalized and underrepresented women. Through the creative employment of horror's capacity to provoke and unsettle audiences in order to explore real-world anxieties and injustices, feminist horror pieces explore the resilience and agency of female protagonists while critiquing societal norms and gender stereotypes. Meanwhile, dark comedy infuses the genre with a refreshing levity, using satire and parody to both entertain and subvert conventional tropes. This fusion allows writers like Rachel Yoder to address serious themes while engaging audiences through humor, making the experience more multifaceted and engaging. Together, these genres offer a nuanced perspective on fear and empowerment, reshaping how horror can be understood and enjoyed in contemporary culture.

Nightbitch Is Adapted From a Novel

This is a photo of the cover of Nightbitch.

Nightbitch received literary acclaim, being named best book of the year by Esquire and Vulture and recognized as a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction and VCU Cabell First Novelist Award.
The stylistic layout of the book is experimental itself; there are no segmented chapters, the dialogue is not distinguished by quotation marks, and the characters are not given names.
There is a gratuitous amount of animal violence that lends this book a shock value on par with the new wave of feminist horror fiction seen in books like A Certain Hunger .

Split Images of Wicked, Ripley, and Watchers

10 Most Anticipated Book Adaptations Releasing in 2024

2024 has already seen multiple high-profile adaptations of famous novels, and several more are planned for the rest of the year.

Nightbitch is an adaptation of a 2021 novel of the same name by author Rachel Yoder. Narrated in a fable-like fashion, the novel garnered attention for its unique blend of dark humor, horror themes, and psychological depth . Yoder explores themes of identity, motherhood, and self-discovery through the lens of a woman who begins to suspect she is turning into a dog. The story follows a protagonist, recognized only as "the mother" and "Nightbitch," who is a stay-at-home mother with a distant husband struggling with the banality of her life and the demands of domesticity. Her discontent is exacerbated by the isolation she feels, which leads to the surreal belief that she is undergoing a physical transformation into a canine. It's a fun and unique take on the classic werewolf tale .

The title term of "Nightbitch" is immediately introduced in the novel in the opening sentence: "when she had referred to herself as Nightbitch, she meant it as a good-natured self-deprecating joke." She playfully called herself this before her suspected transformations began happening, but once they did, she knew exactly how to label it. The first night she "turned," her husband greeted her the next morning by pointing out, "You were kind of...a bitch last night." "Night bitch," she said, without pause. "I am Nightbitch." She reflected on the night before and realized that "she wanted to think she had become another person altogether the night before, but she knew the horrible truth, that Nightbitch had always been there, not even that far below the surface." This premise of something lurking below the surface offers a rich ground for exploration, tapping into the societal expectations of women as they become mothers and the personal inner battles they face.

She wanted to think she had become another person altogether the night before, but she knew the horrible truth, that Nightbitch had always been there, not even that far below the surface.

Magical Realism Meets Horror-Comedy With a Feminist Edge

Director Marielle Heller, in an interview with Vanity Fair , talked about Nightbitch and its eccentricity, saying that, "It's about motherhood and rage...you either get that or you don't".
In a nod to its feminist undertones, Nightbitch has become known in some fan circles as a comedy for women and a horror for men.
Some well-known films that are billed as magical realism include Edward Scissorhands (1990), Ruby Sparks (2012), and Pan's Labyrinth (2006).

A unique subgenre of fantasy, magical realism in film seamlessly blends the ordinary with the extraordinary by crafting stories where magical elements are interwoven within realistic settings and everyday experiences. Reminiscent in its tone and style of a classic fable or mythical tale, Nightbitch is a unique story that fits the characteristics of magical realism. It also touches some other very niche genres. It can easily fit into the fields of satire, neo-horror, fantasy, and domestic fiction — all with an overlay of feminist horror tropes. In her novel, Yoder deftly weaves all of these components together to create a rich embroidery of this fresh and snappy horror comedy that will surely prove to be an entertaining film adaptation.

Given its unique premise and fantastical style, the novel and the film, in pre-screenings, have both been received with a degree of cautious anticipation . Nightbitch is especially notable for its thematic exploration of motherhood and identity, which aligns with a broader trend in contemporary cinema to delve into complex and underrepresented aspects of women’s lives. The film's exploration of these themes through a fantastical and experimental lens offers a fresh perspective on the challenges and inner transformations faced by modern women.

Amy Adams Will Star in Nightbitch

Adams got her start in the acting world by performing in dinner theaters in her childhood hometown, which helped her overcome her stage fright at a young age.
Although she has received six Academy Award nominations over her successful career in film, she has yet to win one; fans of Adams often consider these "Oscar snubs."
She loved the novel Nightbitch , and soon after it was published she began the process of obtaining the rights to the book with her own production company.

The DCEU Is Over, but Amy Adams' Lois Lane Is Still the Best Part of It

Though the DC Extended Universe had several controversial movies and casting choices, Amy Adams' take on Lois Lane was always a high point.

Six-time Oscar nominee and avid dog lover Amy Adams will take on the role of the mother in the upcoming Nightbitch film, and her renowned versatility on the stage and screen makes her a delightfully ideal fit for this role. Although she excels across all genres, Adams has carved out a remarkable niche in the realms of psychologically impactful and dramatic cinema, such as science fiction, fantasy, and horror . Adams flexes her talent in surreal films that allow her to portray incredibly intricate and emotionally moving characters , like her role in the Tim Burton-directed biopic Big Eyes (2014). She plays the role of real-life artist Margaret Keane, whose domineering husband takes credit for all of her artwork and attains enormous acclaim and success in doing so. Two years later, Adams made significant inroads into experimental cinema and science fiction with her role in Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 film Arrival , where her portrayal as a linguist recruited to communicate with extraterrestrial beings is a masterclass in emotional nuance and intellectual rigor.

Another standout role by Adams is her hauntingly compelling performance in the HBO thriller miniseries Sharp Objects (2018). She plays the part of Camille Preaker, a troubled journalist who is investigating a series of chilling murders in her small hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri. Adams delivers a profound level of emotional intensity and vulnerability that allows her to command the screen, capturing Camille's complex inner turmoil and psychological scars that will surely inform her performance as the mother and Nightbitch. Sharp Objects is a fantastic show to watch in anticipation of the December 6th release of Nightbitch , addressing similar themes of identity and feminist issues, with Adams as its star.

Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago

Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact

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Fact-checking warnings from Democrats about Project 2025 and Donald Trump

This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact .

Project 2025 has a starring role in this week’s Democratic National Convention.

And it was front and center on Night 1.

WATCH: Hauling large copy of Project 2025, Michigan state Sen. McMorrow speaks at 2024 DNC

“This is Project 2025,” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said as she laid a hardbound copy of the 900-page document on the lectern. “Over the next four nights, you are going to hear a lot about what is in this 900-page document. Why? Because this is the Republican blueprint for a second Trump term.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has warned Americans about “Trump’s Project 2025” agenda — even though former President Donald Trump doesn’t claim the conservative presidential transition document.

“Donald Trump wants to take our country backward,” Harris said July 23 in Milwaukee. “He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. Like, we know we got to take this seriously, and can you believe they put that thing in writing?”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, has joined in on the talking point.

“Don’t believe (Trump) when he’s playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do,” Walz said Aug. 9 in Glendale, Arizona.

Trump’s campaign has worked to build distance from the project, which the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, led with contributions from dozens of conservative groups.

Much of the plan calls for extensive executive-branch overhauls and draws on both long-standing conservative principles, such as tax cuts, and more recent culture war issues. It lays out recommendations for disbanding the Commerce and Education departments, eliminating certain climate protections and consolidating more power to the president.

Project 2025 offers a sweeping vision for a Republican-led executive branch, and some of its policies mirror Trump’s 2024 agenda, But Harris and her presidential campaign have at times gone too far in describing what the project calls for and how closely the plans overlap with Trump’s campaign.

PolitiFact researched Harris’ warnings about how the plan would affect reproductive rights, federal entitlement programs and education, just as we did for President Joe Biden’s Project 2025 rhetoric. Here’s what the project does and doesn’t call for, and how it squares with Trump’s positions.

Are Trump and Project 2025 connected?

To distance himself from Project 2025 amid the Democratic attacks, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he “knows nothing” about it and has “no idea” who is in charge of it. (CNN identified at least 140 former advisers from the Trump administration who have been involved.)

The Heritage Foundation sought contributions from more than 100 conservative organizations for its policy vision for the next Republican presidency, which was published in 2023.

Project 2025 is now winding down some of its policy operations, and director Paul Dans, a former Trump administration official, is stepping down, The Washington Post reported July 30. Trump campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita denounced the document.

WATCH: A look at the Project 2025 plan to reshape government and Trump’s links to its authors

However, Project 2025 contributors include a number of high-ranking officials from Trump’s first administration, including former White House adviser Peter Navarro and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

A recently released recording of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author and the former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, showed Vought saying Trump’s “very supportive of what we do.” He said Trump was only distancing himself because Democrats were making a bogeyman out of the document.

Project 2025 wouldn’t ban abortion outright, but would curtail access

The Harris campaign shared a graphic on X that claimed “Trump’s Project 2025 plan for workers” would “go after birth control and ban abortion nationwide.”

The plan doesn’t call to ban abortion nationwide, though its recommendations could curtail some contraceptives and limit abortion access.

What’s known about Trump’s abortion agenda neither lines up with Harris’ description nor Project 2025’s wish list.

Project 2025 says the Department of Health and Human Services Department should “return to being known as the Department of Life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care.”

It recommends that the Food and Drug Administration reverse its 2000 approval of mifepristone, the first pill taken in a two-drug regimen for a medication abortion. Medication is the most common form of abortion in the U.S. — accounting for around 63 percent in 2023.

If mifepristone were to remain approved, Project 2025 recommends new rules, such as cutting its use from 10 weeks into pregnancy to seven. It would have to be provided to patients in person — part of the group’s efforts to limit access to the drug by mail. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a legal challenge to mifepristone’s FDA approval over procedural grounds.

WATCH: Trump’s plans for health care and reproductive rights if he returns to White House The manual also calls for the Justice Department to enforce the 1873 Comstock Act on mifepristone, which bans the mailing of “obscene” materials. Abortion access supporters fear that a strict interpretation of the law could go further to ban mailing the materials used in procedural abortions, such as surgical instruments and equipment.

The plan proposes withholding federal money from states that don’t report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention how many abortions take place within their borders. The plan also would prohibit abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid funds. It also calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the training of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses, omits abortion training.

The document says some forms of emergency contraception — particularly Ella, a pill that can be taken within five days of unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy — should be excluded from no-cost coverage. The Affordable Care Act requires most private health insurers to cover recommended preventive services, which involves a range of birth control methods, including emergency contraception.

Trump has recently said states should decide abortion regulations and that he wouldn’t block access to contraceptives. Trump said during his June 27 debate with Biden that he wouldn’t ban mifepristone after the Supreme Court “approved” it. But the court rejected the lawsuit based on standing, not the case’s merits. He has not weighed in on the Comstock Act or said whether he supports it being used to block abortion medication, or other kinds of abortions.

Project 2025 doesn’t call for cutting Social Security, but proposes some changes to Medicare

“When you read (Project 2025),” Harris told a crowd July 23 in Wisconsin, “you will see, Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.”

The Project 2025 document does not call for Social Security cuts. None of its 10 references to Social Security addresses plans for cutting the program.

Harris also misleads about Trump’s Social Security views.

In his earlier campaigns and before he was a politician, Trump said about a half-dozen times that he’s open to major overhauls of Social Security, including cuts and privatization. More recently, in a March 2024 CNBC interview, Trump said of entitlement programs such as Social Security, “There’s a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” However, he quickly walked that statement back, and his CNBC comment stands at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the 2024 presidential campaign.

Trump’s campaign website says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security. We rated Harris’ claim that Trump intends to cut Social Security Mostly False.

Project 2025 does propose changes to Medicare, including making Medicare Advantage, the private insurance offering in Medicare, the “default” enrollment option. Unlike Original Medicare, Medicare Advantage plans have provider networks and can also require prior authorization, meaning that the plan can approve or deny certain services. Original Medicare plans don’t have prior authorization requirements.

The manual also calls for repealing health policies enacted under Biden, such as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law enabled Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for the first time in history, and recently resulted in an agreement with drug companies to lower the prices of 10 expensive prescriptions for Medicare enrollees.

Trump, however, has said repeatedly during the 2024 presidential campaign that he will not cut Medicare.

Project 2025 would eliminate the Education Department, which Trump supports

The Harris campaign said Project 2025 would “eliminate the U.S. Department of Education” — and that’s accurate. Project 2025 says federal education policy “should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” The plan scales back the federal government’s role in education policy and devolves the functions that remain to other agencies.

Aside from eliminating the department, the project also proposes scrapping the Biden administration’s Title IX revision, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It also would let states opt out of federal education programs and calls for passing a federal parents’ bill of rights similar to ones passed in some Republican-led state legislatures.

Republicans, including Trump, have pledged to close the department, which gained its status in 1979 within Democratic President Jimmy Carter’s presidential Cabinet.

In one of his Agenda 47 policy videos, Trump promised to close the department and “to send all education work and needs back to the states.” Eliminating the department would have to go through Congress.

What Project 2025, Trump would do on overtime pay

In the graphic, the Harris campaign says Project 2025 allows “employers to stop paying workers for overtime work.”

The plan doesn’t call for banning overtime wages. It recommends changes to some Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, regulations and to overtime rules. Some changes, if enacted, could result in some people losing overtime protections, experts told us.

The document proposes that the Labor Department maintain an overtime threshold “that does not punish businesses in lower-cost regions (e.g., the southeast United States).” This threshold is the amount of money executive, administrative or professional employees need to make for an employer to exempt them from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In 2019, the Trump’s administration finalized a rule that expanded overtime pay eligibility to most salaried workers earning less than about $35,568, which it said made about 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime pay. The Trump-era threshold is high enough to cover most line workers in lower-cost regions, Project 2025 said.

The Biden administration raised that threshold to $43,888 beginning July 1, and that will rise to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. That would grant overtime eligibility to about 4 million workers, the Labor Department said.

It’s unclear how many workers Project 2025’s proposal to return to the Trump-era overtime threshold in some parts of the country would affect, but experts said some would presumably lose the right to overtime wages.

Other overtime proposals in Project 2025’s plan include allowing some workers to choose to accumulate paid time off instead of overtime pay, or to work more hours in one week and fewer in the next, rather than receive overtime.

Trump’s past with overtime pay is complicated. In 2016, the Obama administration said it would raise the overtime to salaried workers earning less than $47,476 a year, about double the exemption level set in 2004 of $23,660 a year.

But when a judge blocked the Obama rule, the Trump administration didn’t challenge the court ruling. Instead it set its own overtime threshold, which raised the amount, but by less than Obama.

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Blog The Education Hub

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/08/20/gcse-results-day-2024-number-grading-system/

GCSE results day 2024: Everything you need to know including the number grading system

Thousands of students across the country will soon be finding out their GCSE results and thinking about the next steps in their education.

Here we explain everything you need to know about the big day, from when results day is, to the current 9-1 grading scale, to what your options are if your results aren’t what you’re expecting.

When is GCSE results day 2024?

GCSE results day will be taking place on Thursday the 22 August.

The results will be made available to schools on Wednesday and available to pick up from your school by 8am on Thursday morning.

Schools will issue their own instructions on how and when to collect your results.

When did we change to a number grading scale?

The shift to the numerical grading system was introduced in England in 2017 firstly in English language, English literature, and maths.

By 2020 all subjects were shifted to number grades. This means anyone with GCSE results from 2017-2020 will have a combination of both letters and numbers.

The numerical grading system was to signal more challenging GCSEs and to better differentiate between students’ abilities - particularly at higher grades between the A *-C grades. There only used to be 4 grades between A* and C, now with the numerical grading scale there are 6.

What do the number grades mean?

The grades are ranked from 1, the lowest, to 9, the highest.

The grades don’t exactly translate, but the two grading scales meet at three points as illustrated below.

The bottom of grade 7 is aligned with the bottom of grade A, while the bottom of grade 4 is aligned to the bottom of grade C.

Meanwhile, the bottom of grade 1 is aligned to the bottom of grade G.

What to do if your results weren’t what you were expecting?

If your results weren’t what you were expecting, firstly don’t panic. You have options.

First things first, speak to your school or college – they could be flexible on entry requirements if you’ve just missed your grades.

They’ll also be able to give you the best tailored advice on whether re-sitting while studying for your next qualifications is a possibility.

If you’re really unhappy with your results you can enter to resit all GCSE subjects in summer 2025. You can also take autumn exams in GCSE English language and maths.

Speak to your sixth form or college to decide when it’s the best time for you to resit a GCSE exam.

Look for other courses with different grade requirements

Entry requirements vary depending on the college and course. Ask your school for advice, and call your college or another one in your area to see if there’s a space on a course you’re interested in.

Consider an apprenticeship

Apprenticeships combine a practical training job with study too. They’re open to you if you’re 16 or over, living in England, and not in full time education.

As an apprentice you’ll be a paid employee, have the opportunity to work alongside experienced staff, gain job-specific skills, and get time set aside for training and study related to your role.

You can find out more about how to apply here .

Talk to a National Careers Service (NCS) adviser

The National Career Service is a free resource that can help you with your career planning. Give them a call to discuss potential routes into higher education, further education, or the workplace.

Whatever your results, if you want to find out more about all your education and training options, as well as get practical advice about your exam results, visit the  National Careers Service page  and Skills for Careers to explore your study and work choices.

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Book Review: Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
Book Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Book Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
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Book Review: Everything, Everything (Spoiler Free)
BOOK REVIEW: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

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The Book of Everything by Belvoir and Theatre of Image
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'Everything, Everything,' by Nicola Yoon
EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING. By Nicola Yoon. Illustrated by David Yoon. 310 pp. Delacorte Press. $18.99. (Young adult; ages 12 and up) Whitney Joiner is a senior editor at Marie Claire magazine and a ...
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Nicola Yoon is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star. She is a National Book Award finalist, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book recipient and a Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner.
Everything, Everything Book Review
Engaging journey of sick teen risking it all to truly live. Read Common Sense Media's Everything, Everything review, age rating, and parents guide.
EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING
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 ...
Everything, Everything, by Nicola Yoon
Nicola Yoon's debut novel, Everything, Everything, is a must-read, inviting a broad spectrum of audiences, from preteens to the older generations. This trendy-styled book illustrates the life of eighteen year-old Madeline Whittier through plain text as well as with pictures, instant messages, journal entries, and emails. Through Madeline's innovative narrative, the reader is immersed into ...
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Book Review Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon has been reviewed by Focus on the Family's marriage and parenting magazine.
Book Review: "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon Publisher: Delacorte BFYR Published: September 2015 Genre: young adult, contemporary ISBN: 9780553496642 Goodreads: 4.03 Rating: ★★★.5 My disease is as rare as…
Book Review: Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
Spoiler-Free Summary of Everything Everything Madeline (Maddy) is one of those unique book characters you'll remember forever, in large part due to her unusual circumstances. She is 100% home-bound because of a medical condition that prevents her from being able to be exposed to anything outside her air-filtered home.
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Their complicated romance begins over IM and grows through a wunderkammer of vignettes, illustrations, charts, and more.Everything, Everything is about the thrill and heartbreak that happens when we break out of our shell to do crazy, sometimes death-defying things for love. "Gorgeous and lyrical." —New York Times, Sunday Book Review.
Everything, Everything (novel)
Everything, Everything. (novel) Everything, Everything is the debut young adult novel by Jamaican-American author Nicola Yoon, [ 1] first published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers in 2015. [ 2] The novel centers on 18-year-old Madeline Whittier, who is being treated for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), also known as "bubble baby ...
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
The book Everything, Everything, written by Nicola Yoon, is a realistic fiction novel focused around how Madeline Whittier lives her life with SCID, severe combined immunodeficiency.
Book Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
It is glorious and profound and moving. EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING by Nicola Yoon comes out September 1st from Delacorte Books for Young Readers. ISBN: 9780553496642 I picked up an ARC at TLA earlier this year which is the source for this review.
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Review and summary of Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon where love is all that matters even if it seems temporary at first.
Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Everything, Everything. by Nicola Yoon. I wanted to like Everything, Everything. I really and truly did. It portrayed likable people being likable among nice illustrations and some clever framing devices like school assignments on kissing. It portrayed a biracial heroine whose race is incidental—her parents were just nice people who met, fell ...
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
It seems completely appropriate to begin a review of debut author Nicola Yoon'sÂ Everything, Everything Â with a quote from her main character Madeline Whittier's favorite book,Â The Little Prince .Â Everything, Everything is the kind of book that you feel with the heart. It is the kind of book that will worm its way into your soul and ...
Book Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon is a swoon-worthy and heartfelt story that will keep readers wanting to come back for more.
Book Review: Everything Everything
Everything Everything caught me off guard many times with its unpredictable turns and its heartwarming ending. Overall, this was one of my favorite books this year, with a rating of 5/5 stars!
Book review: 'Everything, Everything' puts life in perspective
Book review: 'Everything, Everything' puts life in perspective. Holly Viers. May 17, 2019 Updated Jul 6, 2020. Book Notes. Abhi Sharma. As someone who's read countless novels over the years, I ...
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In this article, we bring you spoiler free review abut a book called Everything, Everything by author Nicola Yoon.
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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 ...
Everything Everything Book Review
Everything Everything is a problematic book to say the least. I struggled to see where the hype had come from and was extremely disappointed!
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As a journalist reporting from conflict zones, Clive Myrie's Everything Is Everything is a memoir of love, hope, and resilience.
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Some books are written for the sheer joy of a story a child would pick up and read, with or without an adult. Saymoukda Vongsay's children's book, When Everything Was Everything, isn't one of those.
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"Tell Me Everything" proves to be an apt title for this bighearted novel about the importance of hearing the stories — sad, wistful, heartbreaking — of ordinary people. Oh, and there's a… "Tell Me Everything" by Elizabeth Strout. Photo: Random House Set in Maine, Elizabeth Strout ...
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Everything We Know About Nightbitch (So Far)
Nightbitch is an adaptation of a 2021 novel of the same name by author Rachel Yoder. Narrated in a fable-like fashion, the novel garnered attention for its unique blend of dark humor, horror themes, and psychological depth.Yoder explores themes of identity, motherhood, and self-discovery through the lens of a woman who begins to suspect she is turning into a dog.
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Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has warned Americans about "Trump's Project 2025" agenda — even though former President Donald Trump doesn't claim the ...
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Thousands of students across the country will soon be finding out their GCSE results and thinking about the next steps in their education.. Here we explain everything you need to know about the big day, from when results day is, to the current 9-1 grading scale, to what your options are if your results aren't what you're expecting.
Illinois alcohol laws: All the rules and restrictions as of 2024
Gov. JB Pritzker unofficially named Jeppson's Malört as the drink of the Democratic National Convention. There are, however, plenty of official standards when it comes to alcohol use in Illinois.