Review: Everything, Everything

Everything, Everything
Release Year: 2017
Length: 96 minutes
Cast: Amandla Stenberg (Maddy Whittier)
Nick Robinson (Olly Bright)
Anika Noni Rose (Dr. Whittier)
Ana de la Reguera (Carla)

   A teenage girl (Amandla Stenberg) is unable to leave her home because she has an immunodeficiency that makes her allergic to almost everything. However, her life changes for the better when she begins to communicate with the boy next door (Nick Robinson). Everything, Everything was directed by Stella Meghie, and was adapted from the YA novel of the same name by Nicola Yoon. (rottentomatoes.com)

Trailer reaction // Book review

   If you've read my trailer reaction post, you know that I've been skeptical of this movie from the get go. The trailer spoiled a lot of the movie, and after watching it, I can say it probably showed all the best bits and really it was kind of enough. As someone who read the book, and loved it, I knew exactly what would happen so I was rather watching it to see how they've translated this book that I loved into a movie I hoped to at least like.

   Unfortunately that didn't happen. I really wanted to like it, enjoy it, but in the end I unfortunately didn't.

   Everything, Everything is very much a teenage movie, another coming-of-age story starring good actors playing in nice sets with pretty dialogues and all of that. That is of course totally fine, the movie isn't trying to be more than that, but something was lacking for me in it from beginning to end. As I said I liked the actors, though maybe they weren't like the best actors in Hollywood as of right now, but they were convincing enough. The dialogues were okay, too, with a few funny bits that did make me chuckle, but also a lot of it that just came across a bit too forced for my liking and to be natural.

   The sets and places we get to see in the movie are great. Seeing the house, getting a visual representation of his bubble in which Maddy grew up, the airlock entrance and everything, that was amazing. It was a stylish high-tech house that didn't seem too over the top but like a house I'd love to live in. Then we also had the other place, that I won't spoil even though we see it in the trailer, but it's undoubtedly beautiful.

   Speaking of which, a lot of the movie is exactly that: beautiful. All the clean rooms that don't really look lived in at all, nice and clean windows, wrinkle free clothes. What Everything, Everything really lacks is this feeling of reality. It all just feels like some kind of fairytale were everything is easy and perfect, an even if something goes wrong, there are only small short complications and we swiftly move on to the next thing.

   We know that Maddy is sick, it's the first thing we find out, yet throughout the whole movie everything lacked this sense of danger. Even when she walked outside, we had her mom panicking and it still wan't one of those moments that would push you onto the edge of your seat in suspense and worry of what would happen to her now. It was just kind of...there? The metaphore with the astronaut, that Maddy could identify with him, it was another one of those pretty things, but it unfortunately got lost somewhere along the way and just felt like it was randomly thrown in there a few times without having any real meaning to things.

   All in all I really hoped that the movie would surprise me and be fun and enjoyable, a nice YA book-to-movie adaptation you could sit down and watch with friends and have a nice time. But unfortunately I found myself feeling bored in a lot of places, or just sighing because of some odd turn of events or wondering how some of it was possible exactly. I know there are a lot of people who loved the movie, and maybe it is a good one, but it simply wasn't for me even though I really had high hopes for it.

I give Everything, Everything 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Everything, Everything Trailer Reaction

Everything, Everything

In Theatres: May 19th 2017

Drama - based on Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Cast: Amandla Stenberg (Maddy Whittier)

Nick Robinson (Olly Bright)

Anika Noni Rose (Dr. Whittier)

Ana de la Reguera (Carla)

   The unlikely love story of Maddy, a smart, curious and imaginative 18-year-old who due to an illness cannot leave the protection of the hermetically sealed environment within her house, and Olly, the boy next door who won't let that stop them. (IMDb.com)

   I want to start of this trailer reaction/review post by saying that I absolutely loved Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon. It was one of my favorite books of 2015 so when I heard that it was being turned into a movie, I was excited. Then I heard that Amandla was cast as Maddie and I couldn't be happier. She fits the role amazingly.

   After waiting for over a year, here we are today with the brand new trailer for the movie. I was reluctant to watch it because, as we all know, the thing with trailers and YA book to movie adaptations is that it can go either of two ways: be a complete disaster (*cough*Divergent series*cough*) or absolutely nail-on-the-head amazing (*cough*The Fault in Our Stars*cough*). Everything, Everything falls somewhere in between those two.

   Don't get me wrong, it doesn't look bad BUT the trailer is showing way too much, like way, way too much and thus spoiling many interesting plot points that would've been much more convincing and surprising when watching the movie if we wouldn't have seen them in the first trailer.

   Disclaimer: This is very much a train of thoughts type of review since I'm re-watching the trailer as I write down my thoughts to give you my most authentic ones. Hopefully that's okay.

   Let's rewind a little and start at the beginning. I am a fan of the house and finally being able to properly visualize how it looks like and how this whole closed off system kind of thing works that is keeping Maddie away from all the bad bad things outside. It's very high tech, but not too much, so it's convincing and I like that.

   I love the opening narration that perfectly sums up Maddie's life and immediately catches your attention. Great job with that one. Then there's the shot of Maddie in her window and Olly sitting in the back of the truck, great way of telling us that he's the new kid without actually saying anything.

   Moving on, I like the on screen text messages that pop up instead of being read out loud which reminds me of The Fault in Our Stars, though this one doesn't have the fun, quirky animations which is fine. Many people don't like texts and emails being part of movies and shown on screen and all that, but i actually like it. Our lives are full of texts and such so it adds to the realism. Besides reading a couple words doesn't take away from the movie in any way.

   Then we get the scene where Olly visits Maddie and I really like it. The dialogue is funny and Maddie seems a bit shy which makes sense especially when you remember that she's never been outside and thus never really had any real life friends besides her mom and her nurse.

"You're really different than I thought you're gonna be"

"Sexier, right?"

-

"What would happen if you went outside?"

"Probably spontaneous combustion."

   Yes, please, more of these types of dialogues and I will be a happy person.

   And that is basically where I think we go downhill into SPOILERS territory. Olly asks Maddie where she would want to go if she could go outside and we see a shot of her in the ocean, since that's her answer. That in and of itself would be fine since it could be like a 'of I wish this is what I would be doing' type of sequence but it doesn't end there and I think that's a shame really.

   We have Maddie's mom firing her nurse, telling Maddie that she won't be able to see Olly again, and then to top it all off we have these shots of Maddie going outside. Again the latter would be fine if we'd end it here, leave it open to discussion and raise curiosity. But of course we do not.

   The trailer continues and shows us Maddie and Olly actually going to the ocean and that, my dearest reader, is that one step too far that definitely and truly moves into spoiler territory. As book reader I know it happens, they go there and everything, but as movie watcher that is something I wouldn't want to find out through the trailer. That's definitely something they should've left out to make that part of the movie more surprising and interesting. But they didn't.

   Let's talk about music. I really like the songs they've chosen for the trailer, they fit really well and make me curious if the movie soundtrack will be just as good. I am a sucker for good movie soundtracks so that's a good sign. Besides, having a Beyonce song just adds awesome points to the movie simply because it's Beyonce.

   Overall the trailer looks fine. I like the cast, the dialogues seem good, the cinematography feels YA and the music is good. I will definitely watch it, that's not a question, simply because I loved the book and I want to see how they managed to translate it into movie form. But looking at it from just a movie viewer perspective I think the trailer lacks a certain something that would truly grab your attention and make it stand out. Maybe it's because it's another YA book-to-movie adaptation, maybe it is because we already had The Fault in Our Stars starring kids with illnesses, in that case cancer, as main characters, or maybe it's neither of those but something completely different.

   I am looking forward to seeing more snippets and trailers, and in May the full movie. Hopefully it will be just as good as the book. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or tweet them at me, @Alice_Reeds.

Cheers!

Ask the Author: Nicola Yoon (Everything, Everything)

   Hey guys!
   For this weeks Ask the Author I'm bringing you the amazing Nicola Yoon, the author of Everything, Everything, a very unique and brilliant read that I've loved and reviewed. She took a bit of her time and gave me a few A's to my Q's.
   Here's her book and her A's:

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Published: September 1st 2015 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Number of Pages: 320 Pages (Hardcover)
Series: No

   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. (goodreads.com)

Interview with Nicola Yoon

   1 – Describe Everything, Everything in form of a haiku (or twitter pitch).
   Girl who is so allergic to the world that she can never leave her house falls madly in love with the new boy who moves in next door.

   2 – What inspired you to write a story about a girl that is literally allergic to the outside world? It sounds like such a unique idea so I’m wondering if there is a unique story behind it.
   I started writing EE when my daughter was just 4 months old. I was still a brand new mom and I worried about everything. I worried about her getting sick, accidentally eating dirt, falling down, bumping her head or getting hurt in a million different ways. The instinct to protect her and keep her safe was sometimes overwhelming. It got me thinking about a mother's need to protect her child and that led to thoughts about what if there was a child that needed constant protection not just as a baby but for her whole life. What would that situation do to the relationship between the mother and daughter? What would happen when that daughter wanted to branch out and see the world?

   3 – How hard was it to write a story so unlike any other? What was the most challenging about the story and the writing process?
   Imagining the world through the eyes of someone who had never seen any of it was the most challenging. I tried to imagine what my daughter was feeling & thinking when she saw things for the first time. One of the most challenging scenes to write was when Maddy sees the ocean for the first time. I grew up in Jamaica and I live in Southern California so I've seen the ocean thousands of times but now I had pretend that I never had. Before I wrote that scene I took my daughter to the beach and played with her all day and just watched how she reacted to the sand and the wind and the water. She was totally delighted and awed by it.

   4 – What, besides the obvious, makes Madeline stand out in the sea of female contemporary main characters?
   I like to think that Maddy is a part of a great tradition of wonderful female main characters (like Melinda from Speak, Ruby from The Boyfriend List). She has a personality and a drive. She has strong opinions and she makes mistakes. She loves, she learns, she forgives.

   5 – How and why did you decide on this particular narrative style of Everything, Everything?
   I write really early in the morning from 4 to 6 AM. One morning at 4 AM it occurred to me that Maddy would draw her world as a way to feel like she's a part of it. At the beginning of the book she's obsessed with the Hawaiian state fish — the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a — so a I drew a very terrible version of the fish in my notebook. My husband is a terrific illustrator so I woke him up at 4 AM and asked him a draw me a fish. He is just the sweetest because instead of telling me just to let him go back to sleep, he got out of bed, kissed me, made himself a coffee and drew the version of the fish that's now in the book. So the narrative style all started with that fish.

   6 - How long did it take you from first idea until publishing deal? And how many queries did it take until you found 'the one'?
   I had kind of a non-traditional publishing process. We sold the book on a partial manuscript. It took just under a year from first idea to publishing deal.

   7 – How does it feel like to know that your story is soon (September 1st) going to be out there for everyone to pick it up and read it? What did you feel when the first ARC reader reviews rolled in?
   It's amazing and terrifying at the same time! Amazing because publishing a book is my biggest and wildest dream and I can't believe it's actually happening but I'm so happy and grateful that it is. It's terrifying because I put my whole heart into the book and I really want people to like it but what if they don't?

   8 – What do you think about the cover? Is it like anything you imagined it might look like?
   I looooooooove the cover! I think it's so beautiful and I couldn't have asked for more. It was done by two women artists who own a company called Good Wives and Warriors. They're usually known for doing large scale murals and art installations. I was thrilled when they agreed to do the cover for EE.

   9 – What were the last three books you’ve read?
   Not including the three picture books I read to my daughter last night, I read: Another Day by David Levithan, The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart and Illuminae by Amie Kaufmann and Jay Kristoff.

   10 – Cats or dogs?
   Cats. Definitely.

   11 – If you were forced to participate in The Hunger Games, as female from District 12, what would be your strategy? Fight or flight?
   Fight. Definitely.

About the Author

   Nicola Yoon grew up in Jamaica (the island) and Brooklyn (part of Long Island). She currently resides in Los Angeles, CA with her husband and daughter, both of whom she loves beyond all reason. Everything, Everything is her first novel.

Review: Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Published: September 1st 2015 by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Number of Pages: 320 Pages (Hardcover)
Series: No

   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. (goodreads.com)

* I received an eARC via Random House Children's and NetGalley in exchange for a honest review *

   Everything, Everything is a remarkable story told through a beautiful voice which belongs to a unique narrator and a plot filled with twists, cute moments and those who make you stop and really think again about what you've just read.
   In Everything, Everything we follow the story of a girl called Madeline who is literally allergic to the world as she suffers of a very rare disease called SCID (Severe Combined Immunodeficiency). Because of SCID Madeline cannot leave her house, which means she's basically spend her entire life inside. Before reading this book I was aware that diseases like SCID exist and that people suffer from them but I've never been able to even as much as fathom how it must feel like to have it. Thanks to this book and reading from Madeline's perspective, I now do.
   All her life Madeline only had her mother and her nurse, Carla, to talk to in person. She could never make real friends, never have them come over (without extensive medical checkups and alike) or the possibility of going out with them. But, one day, a new family moved into the house next door and that's where the story really took off.

“It's a hard concept to hold on to--the idea that there was 

a time before us. A time before time.

In the beginning there was nothing. And then 

there was everything.”

   I adored Madeline and her narration. I really, really liked her character and would have loved to have her as my friend, if she were real that is. It was really easy to understand the decisions she made and why she made them. What impressed me the most about her was the fact that despite having such a hard life, being so restricted and limited in terms of things she can do, she never stopped being a happy person. She is friendly, positive and just a very strong character in an entirely different way then characters usually are when you call them "strong".
   And then there was Olly, the boy next door, who was intriguing and fascinating from the second on in which he appeared in the story. He is the exact opposite of Madeline. Seeing the two of them interact, become friends and then something more was super cute and fun to read about.

“You can't predict the future. It turns out that you can't predict the past either. 

Time moves in both directions - forward and backward - and what happens 

here and now changes them both.”

   All in all, Everything, Everything is a heartfelt, unique and cute story you should definitely not miss out on. This story was just so good and had so many different aspects in terms of how the story is told. The characters felt like real people, their decisions and dialogues were amazing and the plot twist at the end was just wow. I definitely didn't see it coming and wasn't expecting it at all, which is always a good thing.

I give Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon 5 out of 5 Stars.