Everything Everything

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Author: Nicola Yoon
Acquired in: 2020
Nicola Yoon's debut novel is a bit relatable; the main character Madeline or Maddy has been living in her house, with no outside contact, just like how the entire world has been since the beginning of 2020. But Maddy's situation is a bit complex, rather than an impartial virus chasing people, she is trying to avoid the world to save her life.

 Maddy has only known the walls of her specially modified and sterilised house her whole life. She has been told that she suffers from SCID, a disorder which renders her immune system vulnerable to the millions of pathogens present in the air. Her whole life is akin to what we experience now: no friends of her age, attends classes online, sanitised from head to toe and reads books and plays board games to while away time.

 The next part is rather predictable; a boy moves in next door and becomes her ticket to the forbidden world. While the rest of the story flies by as if in a typical Young Adult book, it's Maddy's mother who caught my attention. Mrs Whittier has seen her husband and son die on the same day, and while she seems recovered from her grief, inwardly, she has not.

 This book has made me rethink my notion about grief. If such sorrow can make Maddy's mother so attached to her such that she even denies her daughter the joy of normal teenage life, what do other people do post-trauma? Is there not enough done for them, or do they try to hold it in till they implode? 

 Mrs Whittier does display behaviour characteristic to Munchausen Syndrome-by proxy even though she did not cause her child bodily harm, as she did everything possible to keep her child with her, even manipulating medical reports to her advantage. This is an inexperienced student's opinion. I would like to know my readers' take on the same. For those who would like to know more about this syndrome, check these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factitious_disorder_imposed_on_self and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factitious_disorder_imposed_on_another.
All the same, the book makes for a quick yet compelling read. And I must add, I liked the cover😊. 

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