If I were to summarize ‘Everything, Everything’, Nicola Yoon’s debut novel in only two words, these would certainly be ‘opposites attract’.

The fact that it is a debut novel can be easily traced by an avid reader, due to the fact that the sources of inspiration are there for the eye to see. Nicola Yoon certainly enjoyed reading ‘The Fault in our stars’ by John Green and ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ by Jonathan Safran Foer. The former influenced Yoon as far as content in concerned, while the latter gave shape to her novel and inspired the writing technique.

This is not to say that  ‘Everything, Everything’ is a mere copy of the above-mentioned novels, a type of plagiarism or anything of that sort. Far from that. It is just similar in some aspects, not lacking, however, original elements.

Just like ‘The fault in our stars’,  ‘Everything, Everything’ centres around an incurable disease. John Green’s characters suffer from cancer, Nicola Yoon’s Madeline suffers from ‘bubble baby disease’, a rare condition which makes her allergic to everything and virtually makes her a prisoner of her own life. All she does is read and reread, take medication, do daily medical tests, assisted by her personal nurse and deal with home-schooling. Until…

Until Olly comes up. He’s the exact opposite. A fan of parkour, always on the move, on the rooftop, always mastering his body to perfection and almost always… outside.

The bubble baby disease gives way to a computer-mediated love story. All the discussions between the ‘ghost girl’ and the guy who always wears black clothes take place on Skype. But Maddy and Olly are 18. They need to see each other, touch, sit next to each other. They need more than Skype could ever offer.

So Madeline asks Carla, her personal nurse, to allow Olly to come inside her house. Under the tagline ‘love can’t kill you’, the two become close, get to see each other and finally even kiss. You will have read about 200 pages up to the kissing point, so forget about the post-modern ‘my place or your place?’ kind of story. This is what makes  ‘Everything, Everything’ be special. It’s not written to describe a regular pattern. It’s written for the ones who love to take risks. Because Maddy risks her health and her life to be with Olly. And Olly never gives up on her.

From the point of view of shape and writing technique,  ‘Everything, Everything’ comes very close to ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’. Both novels have drawings in it, pages with a single line written on it, or even pages left intentionally blank. But everything makes sense. You will not need a word when you see the drawings, nor will you need a paragraph instead of a single phrase. Nicola Yoon deserves congratulations on this aspect.

The end of the novel is quite unexpected and it only leaves you two options: you either love it, or you don’t…

It’s up to you to decide. Live life in a bubble or risk everything for love?