Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
If you want a sweet YA romance, this book certainly delivers. Maddy is allergic to everything and if she ever goes outside, she could die. Everything that comes in her house has to be autoclaved and decontaminated, and she rarely even gets to meet her tutors face to face. She’s very close with her mother, especially since her brother and father died when she was little. It’s not a great life, but Maddy is glad to be still alive.
Then she looks out her window and sees the boy next door, Olly, a black-clad parkour aficionado who claims her heart from the first. The feeling is mutual, and soon the two are becoming so close that Maddy’s mother suspects. Maddy’s nurse plays Nurse to her Juliet and sneaks Olly in, cementing the young romance. When Maddy’s mother finds out and fires her nurse, Maddy has to make a choice between her mother and her new love.
This is classic, vintage coming-of-age stuff right here, and it’s executed very well. The chapters are enhanced with doodles, charts, and drawings of things in her life. Despite being a homeschooled shut-in, Maddy has a fairly rich life. And Olly has his own problems, different though they are from Maddy’s. The romance was believable and sweet, and I cried a couple of times, but it brought it home with a happy ending.
