Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I am going to be doing another book review, this one a spoiler review of Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon.
This is a book I read pretty recently, so let's discuss it. There will be spoilers for this book. If you haven't read it and wish to, I'd recommend not reading this review. This review will spoil a lot.
With that aside, let's get into the review!
"As it stands, my only issue is that I would gladly trade this body for one that works properly."
I don't know how many times I've thought this. Not recently, but last year and in past years where I was dealing with more autoimmune issues. On the other hand, the few sentences before talk about body-image issues that Madeline doesn't have, seemingly because she didn't grow up around people. I have a slight problem with this. How is Maddy so ignorant about the world around her?
I know that her mother is overprotective, but she has a laptop, the internet, and also at the beginning of the novel talks about how she can't do 'normal teenager things,' like going to prom, getting a learner's permit, having a first kiss, having a first heartbreak, and having a first fender bender. She knows about how most 18-year-olds move out of the house and she knows about empty nest syndrome. I find it hard to believe that Maddy wouldn't ever have had body-image issues.
I didn't grow up around anybody except my family. I saw children every now and again, but not often and I didn't typically speak to them. I wasn't around many people when I was little. I've been homeschooled since I was six. Like Maddy, I didn't grow up having any friends except those who were my immediate family. Like Maddy, I was taught at home, though I don't, and have never, done online school. Like Maddy, I have the internet.
A lot of times girls feel self-conscious about their bodies after hormonal changes. Sometimes I feel self-conscious even when I'm around my family. I don't like how I look with braids, especially singular ones. I find it hard to believe that Maddy didn't seem to know about the body stereotypes of America. If she knew about them, they just didn't affect her. I don't understand this. I don't understand how she just seemed 100% okay with her appearance for her entire life.
Also, did Maddy never look up SCID on the internet? She wouldn't have to look it up because she didn't trust her mother either. She could just look it up because she's curious. I don't know how many times I've looked up JIA and autoimmune disease because I wanted to learn more about it. Maddy reads a lot, as she stated in the very first sentence. She obviously likes learning information.
If she looked up SCID I'm sure she would've found out sooner that she wasn't actually sick. Children with SCID are usually treated with a stem cell transplant within their first two years because their chances of survival are low. Without this transplant, most children die. A lot of children with SCID also take longer for their bodies to develop and a lot of them have difficulties gaining weight. I found all this out with less than half an hour's worth of research.
No one's reaction except for Olly's were realistic, and even then he was somewhat inconsistent during some parts.
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Let's discuss that plot twist toward the end of the book. I knew about this twist going into it, but I held in all judgment because I don't usually judge books without reading them first. So I read this book and was just as disappointed and annoyed as I thought I would be.
Here's the plot twist: Maddy was never sick. Instead, her mother is mentally ill. She never recovered after the deaths of Maddy's brother and father, so her mind deluded her, making her believe that her daughter had SCID. She was afraid of losing her daughter.
So, in all actuality, this book is about child abuse. It's not about a girl with a severe chronic illness. It's not about a girl with a disability. It's a story about a healthy, non-disabled girl who has grown up sheltered and with an overprotective mom. That's it.
It's fine if someone wants to write a book about child abuse. In fact, that's something I'm currently covering in a YA fantasy novel I'm writing. The main story here is that Maddy's mom has Munchausen's Syndrome by proxy. I would've had no problem with this if it was handled properly. I will include links to what Munchausen's Syndrome by proxy is at the end of this post. I could explain it, but I feel like I won't do a well enough job of it.
Supposedly, Nicola Yoon was inspired to write this book after the birth of her biracial daughter, Laura. Being a first-time mom, she had been overprotective of her daughter and wanted to protect her from danger. So, essentially, this story was about the mom. It was partially about the daughter, but the plot twist is really about the mom, not Maddy.
I feel like this book could've been pulled off. If the story of an overprotective mother is what Nicola Yoon was inspired to write, then this book would've been suited better as a 3rd-person adult fiction novel from the perspective of the mother, not Maddy.
Either that or Maddy could've found out that she wasn't sick a lot sooner (without a love interest making her risk everything) and tried to convince her mother that she is healthy.
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It may seem like I'm overreacting about this. I will explain why I am not. This book, while having an adorable romance, is problematic when it comes to the topic of chronic illness and disability. Maddy lives a perfect life and seemingly has little to no mental health issues, which is great, though she never seems to struggle, which feels unrealistic. Chances are someone will have mental health struggles, particularly if they have a chronic illness. She lives her life and always finds something new to do. She seems happy, and she's never bored.
Then, once Olly moves in, she suddenly changes. After her trip to Hawaii with Olly, she shuts him out of her life as if he never existed because she can't envision a life where she has SCID and can be with Olly. She starts talking about how she hasn't actually been living. I have a problem with this on so many levels. It'd be one thing if Olly told Maddy that he couldn't be with a girl who was sick, but he doesn't.
Problem #1: Just because you've lived the majority of your life inside, doesn't mean you aren't living. I got out of the house plenty of times as a kid, however, because I was homeschooled at a certain point, I was inside my house more than most children. Just because you've never experienced romantic love or gone outside, doesn't mean you aren't living. My life, despite me spending 75% of it inside my own house, has been incredible, and I wouldn't change it.
She shuts out the guy who saved her life in Hawaii. She shuts out the guy who still continues to send her emails and messages, basically showing that he wants to be with her whether she's sick or not. He loves her, and her having SCID won't stop him. But it stops Maddy.
Also, I cannot count how many times Maddy was reckless once she and Olly went to Hawaii. For one, the girl decides to leave her house and go to Hawaii even though she might die. She's willing to die for one chance at freedom. Why? Does she not realize that if she dies, Olly will be heartbroken? He numerously tells her to not die, and she just goes and puts her life at risk so she can feel the ocean. This isn't romantic, and this isn't inspiring. It's just...sad, insulting, and reckless.
The girl could literally die if exposed to outside air and yet she steps outside with nary a thought. I know that anything could literally kill her. I get that, but the least she could do is wear a medical mask. It's never mentioned that there are face masks in her house, but her mother is a doctor. You'd assume she has some.
Sure, the face mask might kill her because it's made of a foreign material that she's potentially allergic to, but the air could kill her as well. Then, while in Hawaii, she eats a bunch of food at a restaurant, gets into the ocean, and does a bunch of other realistic things. Never mind that she 'has allergies.'
The girl isn't the least bit nervous. How is it that she's so calm and collected while she's outside near things that could kill her? She should at least be more cautious and apprehensive. I had not been out in public for over 400 days, which is just over a year. I went out of town this June for a business trip. I was incredibly anxious. I was very cautious. I wore a mask, had hand sanitizers, plus numerous other things, and I was still anxious.
I'm not considered high-risk by most people, but I still have autoimmune disease. My body could react horribly if I got COVID-19, so I took precautions. I still do. And honestly, it's insulting that Maddy could go out and be so reckless, especially when she still thinks she has SCID. If this was after she found out, that'd be one thing, but she assumed she still had SCID. This is problematic on so many levels. SCID is a more severe disease than JIA, and the fact that I am more cautious than this girl is saddening, reckless, and a downright insult.
Then, the plot twist. The core part of the story was about a girl who loved a boy but the main thing keeping the two of them apart was the fact that Maddy had SCID and couldn't go outside or be around people who weren't decontaminated.
Once SCID is taken away, it's a normal YA romance book, with a normal non-disabled protagonist. That's all it is. This book was masqueraded around as a sick-lit novel. It was supposed to be in the same vein as The Fault in Our Stars, Midnight Sun (not the book by Stephenie Meyer), and Five Feet Apart (which was a movie first). But what those books have, this book lacks.
Those books are about main characters who have real life-threatening conditions. The Fault in Our Stars is a book with two teenagers who have cancer that fall in love. Midnight Sun is about a girl with Xeroderma Pigmentosum and can't go out in the sun because of it who also falls in love. Five Feet Apart is about two teens who have cystic fibrosis who meet in the same hospital and fall in love, even though they have to stay six feet apart from each other or risk getting sick.
Everything, Everything is a story where a girl is thought to have SCID, but who really has nothing and finds out her mother was mentally ill and lying to her for fifteen years. Everything, Everything is about unintentional child abuse, not a chronic illness. It's not a sick-lit book, nor should it ever be considered one. It's labeled under disability rep books. It shouldn't be.
Great review!
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