EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING by Nicola Yoon

Imagine being eighteen years old and spending the last seventeen years of your life stuck in your own house.
This is what the author, Nicola Yoon, envisioned in her first beautifully written novel. While I was reading the book, I felt the main character’s pain growing up in complete isolation from the outside world. From a standpoint, you mostly get to follow the experience of a girl who is homeschooled for eighteen years because of a rare disease.

“Another year of missing all the normal teenagers things- learner’s permit, first kiss, prom, first heartbreak, first fender bender. This is a little harder than the previous year. Maybe it’s because I’m eighteen now. Technically, I’m an adult. I should be leaving home, going off to college.”

Even though the girl grew up being over-sheltered, LOVE still finds its way to her heart, and she manages to get her First Kiss.

“Twenty-four hours later, kissing is all I think about.

At some point it occurs to me that I don’t know anything about kissing. Of course, I’ve read about it. I’ve seen enough kissing in movies to get the idea.

His breath is warm and then his lips are brushing butterfly-soft against mine. My eyes close on their own. The romantic comedies are right about this part. You have to close your eyes.

He squeezes my hand and my lips part and we’re tasting each other. He tastes like salted caramel and sunshine. Or what I think salted caramel and sunshine taste like.

He tastes like nothing I’ve ever experienced, like hope and possibility and the future.“

I liked the story, especially the surprise ending.
I also enjoyed the configuration of the pages that were full of sketches, drawings, e-mails, and chats.
And for me, the passage describing the girl’s first kiss was the most beautiful I have ever read.

Kindle, 2016