Published by: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Released: September 1, 2015
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Romance
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Read on: December 7, 2015
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.
I am going to try to write my reviews a little differently. If I don’t like it, I’ll probably just go back to how I usually write them.
This book was a highly anticipated read for 2015 for me. I kept seeing it all over Bookstagram and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. It looked ridiculously cute and it was exactly what I need to get out of a slump. However, I think the hype kind of set a high bar for this one. Though I still enjoyed this book, I wasn’t blown away as so many others were. I thought it was good, but not amazing.
The Likes
- All the adorable doodles and IMs, e-mails, ramblings from Maddy, etc. These really add something special to the book and gives you a little something more. I really appreciated it. It’s honestly what made me want this book so badly to begin with. I’m a sucker for book’s cute format/design ❤
- THE BEAUTIFUL COVER!! 😀 😀 😀 ❤
- Maddy’s voice. I thought she was easy to understand and follow her line of thinking. She wasn’t whiny at all which is a breath of fresh air considering her situation. She has a rare disease that prevents her from ever leaving her house and instead of self-pity or Woe, is me, she lives her life (no matter how small it is) and finds a reason to be happy. She enjoys her books and reviews. She loves her nurse/friend Carla and her mother. She has a routine and she doesn’t complain…at least until Olly.
- Olly. He was absolutely adorable. I felt for him. My heart broke every time we got a little glimpse at his family life. But Olly didn’t let that overcome him. He is strong and loyal and protective of his family. He’s sweet, funny, a little sarcastic, and just the type of person to make Maddy live.
- Maddy and Olly’s chemistry. It was so effortless and flowed nicely. I seriously loved reading their conversations because they were adorable. Sometimes even the way they had to communicated, like through the window and miming answers, were just so cutesy.
- Carla. Carla was a great friend to Maddy and there to help her whenever she needed. She truly cared for the best for Maddy and urged Maddy to take risks and just live her life.
- The writing was easy to follow and flowed well. It didn’t feel choppy at all, which is great considering there were a bunche of doodles, graphs, etc in between chapters. If anything it just made the story flow more.
- The plot twist! I have to admit I was semi-spoiled with this and when I say semi-spoiled, I mean I knew there was a plot twist coming and I saw it a mile away. It was pretty obvious what it was going to be…But I like it all the same. I liked that it wasn’t just about Maddy, but about her mother as well.
The Dislikes
- The instalove between Olly and Maddy. Obviously this was inevitable considering Olly was going to be her first everything, but I think it happened a little too fast. I was enjoying their growing friendship with steady attraction, but then the L-bomb was dropped. Maybe I just didn’t feel their love too much because I was still getting to know Maddy, but I thought it was way too fast? I just couldn’t connect.
- Speaking of, I couldn’t connect to the characters. I liked them all just fine, but I just didn’t connect to them as much as I would have liked.
- Semi-spoiler? Can we talk about that plot twist again? It kind of bothered me how this girl who was supposedly a high risk with this super rare disease whose organs would explode when exposed to air went outside for the minute and nothing happened…why didn’t she question it? I knew right that minute for sure that what I suspected would be correct.
- I didn’t like how cold Maddy acted toward her mother at the end. I understand she was upset because of what happened, but I think she could have been a tad bit more understanding to her mother’s condition. I am not making excuses for her mom at all, but the way she just built up a wall blocking her mom out wasn’t exactly for the best either. Her mom needed help and it would take time. But that’s just my opinion.
Overall, this book was entertaining, I mean I did read it in one sitting. It was fun and very easy to read. However, I wish I had connected with the characters and story a little bit more. But those last 100 pages of the book really made up for it!
3.5
Have you read this book? What did you think?
Until next time,
the bookish khaleesi 