Everything, Everything is a book released by Nicola Yoon in 2015.
The book follows the story of a young woman named Madeline Whittier with SCID. SCID, severe combined immune deficiency, is a fatal disorder in which infants fail to develop a normal immune system. If undetected and untreated, SCID typically leads to death before the baby’s 1st birthday. In Madeline’s situation, she cannot go outside of her house, cannot have anyone come in contact with her unless they’ve been extensively cleaned just before walking in, and cannot have anything that is not fresh and sanitized. This significantly strains her social life, causing her to have no friends. So when the cute boy moves next door to her, she sees an opportunity to form her first friend, and maybe turn it into something more.
The way I got possession of this book was out of the ordinary, but I’m so glad it happened. I was on vacation a few hours away from my home in Florida, and my older brother decided to stay home. When we got back, he had clearly had friends over, and one of the girls left this book there. She never came back to get it, so I kept it. That whole summer, even when we went to the beach, you could see me with this book in my hands. Sand or storm, driving or flying, I was reading this book. I’ve read the book over 7 times now. And it gets better each time.
*Spoilers Ahead*
My favorite part of the book is when Madeline finds out her mother is lying about her disease. Later in the novel, Madeline finds past medical records stating specialists found little to no signs of her having SCID. When her mom walks in, Madeline confronts her and her mother admits she did this because of her brother and dad’s death. She didn’t want to lose Madeline too.
That part is my favorite because, throughout the whole book, you believe Madeline is sick. When she breaks out and goes to Hawaii with her boyfriend, you wonder why she doesn’t die, and when she gets hospitalized in Hawaii, you wonder how she’s not halfway into the grave. When she’s on her way back to her home state, you still can’t wrap your head around how the book hasn’t ended yet. That is, until she gets her bloodwork done, and her worst fear is confirmed. She’s not sick, and she never has been.
Everything, Everything is to me, the best book ever. And I’ll always stand by that. Maybe not objectively the deepest, but it means the world to me. I can read this book a million times and never get bored of it.
I think I’ll go and read it again right now!
