Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: September 1, 2015
Genre: YA, Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 310
Source: Purchased
Find on Goodreads
Goodreads Description
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.
My Thoughts
I'm going to start this review off by saying it's going to be really hard to talk about this book without going into the details because this book is all about those details. Madeline Whittier has a rare disease, Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease (SCID), and hasn't ever left her house because of it. She live a routine life, online classes scheduled health check ins every 2 hours, and a lot of reading. The only two people in her life are her mother and her nurse Carla. Madeline is content with her life until a new family moves in next door.
Olly becomes Maddy's way to explore the outside world. He becomes her first friend friends besides her mom and nurse. Soon,seeing the world through Olly isn't enough. As expected, Maddy wants more and becomes willing to push her previous boundaries to get what she wants. It doesn't help that she has another influence encouraging her to truly live her life.
The format makes this book easy and fun to read. If I hadn't gotten sick as I was starting I could have finished this book in 2 or 3 days. There are parts that are told in a traditional novel format but there are other formats incorporated that give the book more life. Some things included are different types of pictures, charts, and schedules. These things add something special to the story so I don't want to talk about anything too specific.
I ended up really enjoying the story but not loving it as much as a lot of others seemed to. I thought it was really cute but for a while I thought that's all it would be. I'm glad to say I was wrong. Even though she is a little older than characters normally are in YA, Maddy is still naive because she hasn't been able to experience the world, she still has her rebellious moments and that's when everything gets interesting.
About 75-80% through the book I guessed the climax so that was a bit of a let down but it was still exciting when everything fell into place. I wasn't happy with the way this ended. I get that Maddy's emotion's would be all over the place and I think she has a right to feel the way she did but I don't like how she expressed those feelings. I guess because I didn't see any signs of a change on Maddy's end I just wasn't satisfied.
I think this book does an interesting job of showing the love between a family. There is also some insight on different types of families and what it is to have a healthy relationship with your family. I believe this is a realistic contemporary that people should read, especially fans of the genres. I will definitely be reading more from Nicola Yoon in the future.
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