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I've chosen Everything, Everything for this challenge and I really hope it doesn't suck, lol.

Here's the blurb:

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.

Who else is reading it? What did you think? Did you love it? Hate it?

I'm not reading this for January (I read it a few months ago) but really loved the main character's voice and the author's writing style. I liked it a lot!

This is the movie Amandla Stenberg is going to be in, right?? I read it a while ago and I really enjoyed it. It was a tad predictable but compared to a lot of YA that's out there, it was pretty good.

I finished it a couple of days ago. I liked it, but despite my high rating, I was also kind of in the middle about it (not really loving it or hating it).

I didn't know this was going to be made into a movie! I might watch it.

I just finished it and I didn't hate it! However, like sraxe, I didn't love it either. The story is ok, not life changing or anything but I did appreciate how easy it was to read. My favorite parts were the drawings and Madeline's mini reviews. I kinda want to see it on the big screen now.

I read this last month and I liked it for the most part. The mother was incredibly selfish and I probably would have done the same thing Madeline had done. The twist was spoiled for me before I read it so it definitely took away some of the intensity for me. I was really reminded of Bubble Boy while reading it. I still thought it was entertaining though.

Juliana wrote: "I read this last month and I liked it for the most part. The mother was incredibly selfish and I probably would have done the same thing Madeline had done. The twist was spoiled for me before I rea..."

See, I was on the fence about the mother. What she did was selfish, but since I've never been in a position like that (suffering a break down and dealing with the aftereffects), I wasn't sure if she could be completely blamed for her actions. I was also in the middle about forgiveness from Maddy. Yeah, her mother was suffering too, but Maddy also suffered 18 years of abuse basically, being locked away essentially.

And I was also spoiled on the twist, which was why I rounded my rating up to a four instead of down to a three. Because I knew what was going to happen, I have no idea how I would've felt going in blind, so I didn't think it was fair to penalize the book for that.

What I hated most about the book was the overall lack of closure on pretty much everything. I haven't read YA in a while, and certainly not back to back, so I don't know if that's the basic MO of YA books, but I hated how there weren't answers or a sense of closure to anything by the end.

Juliana-- I wonder the same. Since I had a suspicion all throughout, I wonder how it would've been if I had gone in without having these doubts, lol.

sraxe-- I agree with you on the lack of closure. It felt too up in the air. Like what is Maddy going to do? Is she going to go to school? Is she moving to NY? With what money? Will her mother actually support her? So many questions.

Nicole wrote: "sraxe-- I agree with you on the lack of closure. It felt too up in the air. Like what is Maddy going to do? Is she going to go to school? Is she moving to NY? With what money? Will her mother actually support her? So many questions."

Yeah, that's exactly how I felt in the end. So many questions! I didn't expect things to be tied up completely by the end, but everything was left open, even what happened with/going to happen with Olly and his family and alcoholism and what not. It was brought up throughout the entire book, but then we don't even know what happens other than them just leaving him. For how much it was brought up, I expected more closure on that front.

And since you mention money, that's something I mentioned in my review: Now that it's revealed that she's not actually sick, though she essentially is sick with her compromised immune system, how in the heck is she going to survive in the world? Is she going to be suffering medical emergencies every week? How will she be paying for all of that? I certainly don't think the money they got from her father and brother's deaths will hold out for that. Even though her mom is a doctor (I'm assuming? Not much info there that I recall), is she really making bank? Because I'm sure it's damn costly, maybe even more than her mom makes, to pay for near-death weekly medical emergencies.

I liked this book even though the plot twist was a cop out. But I read it in one sitting because the writing style was fun and the love story was very cute. Obviously almost nothing about this book was realistic (how can we expect a middle aged adult to realistically capture the voices of modern teens? Every generation is so different) but it was emotional and sweet.

It was a cute book, but honestly I found myself questioning a lot of the stuff in it.

(view spoiler)[ I too had been spoiled before I started reading it, but I think the book hints at Pauline when Zachariah not so subtly says that everyone's parents have something wrong about them. Also, how on earth would Nurse Carla not know if Maddie had the condition if she had been checking her stats and record for a decade or so? It'd be weird to go to work straightaway and never ask questions about her condition in the beginning; to just accept it as a fact.

Most importantly, how did Maddy apply and get herself a credit card with no source of income? I can't recall if they specify if it's connected to her mom's bank account but omg, throughout the Hawaii trip I kept thinking that she loved to splurge on stupid things carelessly (and before that, when she bought multiple plain t-shirts for $30 something lmao. I was like 'What kinda American Apparel realness?') (hide spoiler)]

That being said, I enjoyed the way it was written because it actually immerses the reader into Maddie's world, despite being a limited POV. I'm curious to see how they're going to adapt Maddie's inner thoughts/drawings on the big screen.