Author: Nicola Yoon
Pages: 310
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Goodreads rating: 4.09 Stars
Published: September 1st, 2015
Source: Audiobook/borrowed
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 decided I needed to read this book when I saw the previews for the movie. A girl with SCID? Who decides 'what the heck' and goes into the world when she knows it could kill her? Oh, I had to know how that turned out the moment I saw the previews. So I did what any mom with limited time on her hands would do: I borrowed the audiobook from my local library {seriously, I actually get at least half my reading in each year via audiobooks. I know, I pledged to read the written word, but that was before I had kids...}.
Maddy comes across as a very sweet and lovable girl. She was raised well {as well as her mother could, given the circumstances} and she enjoys her life {for the most part}. She's fairly accepting of her fate and her disease, and tries her best to live her very sheltered life to the fullest. That all changes when a family moves in the house next door. Maddy becomes obsessed over the daily happenings of the family, especially the boy Olly. {Side note: I can't read that named spelled like that - in my head I always say it "Oily", so its probably a good thing I listened to the audiobook with this one.} They exchange IM handles {honestly, the "how" is kinda hazy in my memory, as I was listening to that part while cooking}.
Maddy and Olly begin a unique friendship over instant messenger, and just really bond. Maddy jumps head over heels into the friendship {most likely because its the first one she's really had aside from her mother and her caregiver}, but Olly also dives deeply into this new friendship. Soon, Maddy is asking {begging} Carla to let Olly come over, even though anyone entering the house needs to have a thorough background check, health exam and be decontaminated for an hour before actually stepping foot into any part of the house Maddy would go in. Amazingly enough, Carla caves {what the what??}, and allows Olly one very brief visit {"no touching!!"}. But that's all Maddy needs to know that she needs to try to have more in life.
This book took a couple interesting turns, but was overall pretty predictable. I enjoyed Maddy's explanations and descriptions of everything in her life, and the fact that she was pretty accepting of her disease and what that meant for her life. One thing I did not expect was how much of the book was spent with Maddy still in her home, mainly because of how the movie trailer skips to her being out of her home with Olly, making it seem as if that happens fairly quickly in the book.
However, while the end was predictable in some ways, other ways kind of blew me out of the water. Maddy handles her situation with patience {even though it makes her mad and she just doesn't want to be there}. She takes it from a bit of an adult perspective and "mans up" - she sees the cards she's been dealt, and instead of folding and giving up, she takes them and plays as best as she can. *Okay, enough with the card play analogies, because I obviously suck at them and am just using it to try to explain what happened without actually giving anything away.*
This book was very enjoyable and is something I would recommend to others. Not sure how it compares to the movie, but I'll let you know when I see it in a month or two.
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