"Everything, Everything," by Nicola Yoon

This is a book which begs the question, "Is life worth dying for?" Yoon, and by extension her main character Madeline, attempts to answer this question. Although it appears as though the answer is obvious, Everything, Everything seems to inform us, above all, that life is not so cut and dry as it seems.

The story of 18-year-old Madeline is one that is both incredibly rare and deeply relatable. Madeline is inflicted with a rare immunodeficiency condition which prevents her from ever leaving the meticulously sterile environment of her home. She accepts this fate with little resistance until Olly, a mysterious rebel with some major family drama, moves into the house next door. As they grow closer communicating through a variety of media, from emails and chat to dramatic pantomime through their bedroom windows, she becomes less and less happy with her isolated existence, leading to the book's turning point, and ultimately, climax.

As the first half of the story seems to alternate between longform storytelling from Madeline's perspective, emails and texts passed between Olly and herself, and the occasional medical- or scientific-style lists or journal entries, it's clear that Yoon is not exactly the next Jane Austen, in terms of prose. However, Austen, I think, is not what this story needs, despite its protagonist's obsession with Austen and her contemporaries. Indeed, the nature of the story makes this format almost necessary in order for the reader to reach a full understanding of the context of this story. It evokes the scattered media habits of the average teenager - the intended audience of the book - and thus seems more realistic than flowery prose or dense verbiage might have made it.

I especially enjoyed the characterization of Madeline, as she seemed to take on an exaggerated metaphor for my own sheltered upbringing. Her experience of the world forced met o examine my own perceptions - something any good novel should do, really - a side-effect of what seems to be Yoon's calling card, as it appears in reading The Sun is Also a Star, as well. Olly, serving as a rebellious counterpoint to Madeline's sheltered life, creates an interesting conflict that allowed Yoon to explore the YA romance from a unique angle.

Although the story had a few plot holes that stood out to me, these were fairly unobtrusive and largely made-up-for by the story's twist ending, which, although predictable as early as halfway through the novel, still managed to elicit a gasp and a few (loudly voiced) choice words upon its revelation.

Overall, this book propelled me consistently to its bitter end, and opened my eyes to a new perspective on life. It forces the reader to think, to consider their own responses to the situations contained therein, and decide for themselves, "Is life worth dying for?" For me? The answer is an unequivocal yes.



Overall Rating: (4.5 stars)

"Sleeping Giants," by Sylvain Neuvel

I did not expect to enjoy Sylvain Neuvel's Sleeping Giants as much as I did, especially once I got a few chapters into the story. Nonetheless, I stayed up until 6 a.m. to read this story in more or less a single sitting.

The story follows a scientist, Dr. Rose Franklin, who fell into a hole as a child and discovered a mystery that becomes the entire focus of the plot. A giant metal hand, surrounded by metal walls covered in an untranslatable alien script, kicks off a race to discover its purpose, and the identity of the mysterious civilization that must have left it there.

Although the prose was nothing much to speak of - it was essentially nonexistent, due to the nature of the text's organization into a military-esque series of interview transcripts, journal entries, and scientific logs - the story itself, and the minimal cast of characters which propelled it, was so thoroughly compelling as to make eloquent prose an unnecessary afterthought. In fact, I daresay the book would not have worked nearly so well had it been treated as a traditionally formatted novel.

Although the book lacks any sort of traditional narrator, the story seems to take place from the perspective of an anonymous puppetmaster, who interacts with each of the characters and sets all the book's events in motion, and who clearly lets on much less than he - the only identifying characteristic being gender - knows.

Although the story has a rather slow start, with nearly the entire first part serving as exposition, the action moves fairly quickly once it comes, with the novel's roughly 300 pages encompassing over four years of complex storyline. Relationships are forged, broken, and forged again. Discoveries are made and un-made, revealed and covered up. Though there were a few instances of deus ex machina, the character of Vincent and his storyline being the most obvious culprit, the majority of conflicts were handled with realism and grace.

Overall, this story was an expertly crafted and uniquely formatted foray into a sweeping story about the determination of humanity, and our place among the stars. I, for one, can't wait for the sequel.



Overall rating: (5 stars)