Everything, Everything

by Nicola Yoon

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

4.25★ Audiobook⎮Everything, Everything was a quick and pretty enjoyable listen. It was similar to a few other titles in which a teenage protagonist battles some sort of illness. Luckily, that is a premise I cannot get enough of. The major distinguishing factor was the twist near the end. That’s what set it apart and that had a lot to do with the 4.25 star rating.

Without giving anything away, I’ll say that Everything, Everything took a look at two very different types of illnesses. Others have commented on being able to foresee the big twist, but it actually snuck up on me and I was very pleased. I love being blindsided by plot twists! I also enjoyed Madeline as a protagonist. She felt very alive and came off of the page exceedingly well. I do think that this title could have benefited from an extra hour or two of length. In the just under seven hours runtime, I wasn’t entirely able to form a solid connection with the story, even though all of the elements were there.

The writing was beautiful and I look forward to hearing more of Nicola Yoon’s work in the future. I appreciated the many literary references and the unique writing format, but I feel like this is a story that is best experienced in print. While listening to the audiobook, I could sense that I wasn’t getting the full effect of the author’s intent and that may have had something to do with my lack of overall enthusiasm while listening to Everything, Everything.

To summarize, Everything, Everything was enjoyable, but not especially noteworthy or memorable when compared with similar titles like The Fault in Our Stars or My Heart and Other Black Holes. Still, this made for an easy, yet thought-provoking listen.

Narration review: As mentioned above, some titles translate into audiobook format better than others and Everything, Everything is the perfect example of one that did not translate so well (in my opinion). However, Bahni Turpin and Robbie Daymond excellently narrated this title. Turpin has a distinct tone to her voice that immediately grabbed and kept my attention. I have no doubt that I will be able to quickly identify her voice instantly in future listening experiences. Her character voices were also easily separated thanks to wonderful characterization. Although less frequent, Daymond’s narration was even more enjoyable and I kept wishing for it’s reappearance in the story. Together, they provided a wonderful listening experience. ♣︎