Book Review: Everything, Everything

Hello everyone! Today's post is another book review and this one was actually hard for me to rate. In the end, though, I rated it 3/5 stars and my review will tell you why.

Summary: 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.

Review: I finished this book a couple of weeks ago but I was having trouble trying to figure out how I felt about this book which is why this review is so late. I have decided that I did like this book but I didn't love it like everyone else did.

The characters in this book were amazing. The main character, Maddy, sometimes got on my nerves but it was only because of her inexperience to the world aggravated me. However, her inexperience was very authentic to how she lived her life so I couldn't be mad at that. Olly was also a good character. He had quirks that seemed real to me and I loved how he was so confident that sometimes it made him sound full of himself. Those parts when they were messaging on the computers made me smile because of his responses. Because I liked the characters and their interactions, this category gets a full star.

The diversity in the characters was amazing. Maddy is Japanese and Black, her mom is Japanese and I think her nurse, Carla, is Hispanic. Olly and I think everyone else is white but there is one guy that says he's gay but he only appears for a page. There is also representation of mental illness but there is a problem with that. I can't say anymore than that without spoiling stuff but just know that it's not good representation. Because of the bad representation of this, I only gave half a star for the diversity instead of the full star.

The plot in this story was more character driven and it really surprised me when I still enjoyed the story. The gist of the plot is a boy moves next door and this girl falls in love with him. But the characters make this such a cute read that it's not as cliche as it sounds. I basically got all of the feels I had for Jenny Han's To All the Boy's I've Loved Before because you just can't help but to read what the main characters are going to do next. I think that the plot of this story deserves a full star.

Majority of this book takes place in her house so there's not much to say when it comes to the setting of this book. In the beginning you are told that everything is white in her room and then she describes the other places in her house but that's about it. But even without Maddy going anywhere, the author does make the world around Maddy authentic. For example, the air vents to circulate the air for her breathing and the vacuum thing (I forgot what it's called) that people have to go through to come in contact with her. Both of those add a nice touch to making the setting in this book feel realistic. Because the setting in this book is authentic, I decided to give this book a full star for it.

In the very beginning, I didn't like the romance because of the insta-love. She literally looked at him through the window and next thing you know, she's in love with him. I understand that she wants to experience things and all of that other crap but no one experiences love at first sight unless they are in love with what they see and not the person. Another thing I didn't like is the love interest and it's only because of my own bias. Olly is great and I do love him. However, he's another white boy who loves a woman of color. I know I'm not the only person tired of the white boy always being the love interest or vice versa. Just once, I want to see a book with any person of color who doesn't fall for a white love interest. Why can't a Latin person love a Black person? Why can't Black people love each other? I don't know why this bothers me but it does. A lot. Mostly because of the insta-love in this story, I'm docking half a star.

So after all of that, my rating comes down to 3/5 stars. It's still a good book for people to read and if anyone hasn't read it yet, they definitely should because the writing is good. The story just wasn't one for my faves. However, I'm still going to go to the movies to watch this film that comes out in May! Mostly because I love Amandla Stenberg but also because I like going to the movies. If you have read this book, comment below what you thought of it! Thanks for reading!