Tenía expectativas altas, tanto por los anuncios de la peli como por lo visto en internet, pero me he quedado flipando de lo bonito que es.
En algunas partes me recuerda a Bajo la misma estrella, por la similitud con el tema enfermedad y romance adolescente; pero en este hay aún mas historia y sobre todo la protagonista es mucho más cercana gracias a cómo está escrito el libro. ( )

Sometimes I think it’s a cardinal rule to not watch a movie before reading the book. Other times, there’s a chance where I’m probably never going to read the book. Who knows?

In this case, I watched the trailer, said “I’m watching this,” watched the movie, and promptly bought the book afterwards. No shocker here. I’ve done it a million times before (I won’t mention Les Miserables, which I saw in theatres three times before purchasing the book. It’s still sitting on my shelf, judging me for not reading it already. Oops!)

Let’s start with: I loved the movie, and I definitely cried a little bit.

Now back to the book.

According to her mother, the DOCTOR, Madeline Whittier has a very rare, very difficult to understand disease: Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, known as SCID. Yeah, it’s a disease I haven’t heard of either. Essentially, the disease is so deadly, anything and everything can cause a reaction and potentially kill Madeline; so her mother keeps her on a tight leash, locking her in the house as if Madeline was Rapunzel.

Actually, now that I’ve made that connection, I have just realized that this is basically a retelling of Rapunzel. Mother locks daughter in the house for her “protection.” Prince/boy next door saves the girl, and they live happily ever after.

Basically the nitty-gritty of this story, HA. But I’m a sucker for a cute romance.

When Olly (our “prince”) moves in next door with a very verbally and physically abusive father, a worn-down mother ready to give in, and a sister who is plain done with it all, Madeline can’t help her curiosity once she gets a glimpse of Olly. Madeline usually ignores the new neighbors because they always seem to come and go, but something about Olly makes her want to know him.

From across the yard in their rooms, they exchange emails, only to be even more fascinated with one another. Madeline relishes learning about the outside world through Olly, while Olly dies (bad pun seeing as how “everything can potentially kill Madeline”) to learn more about why Madeline’s mother has her locked away. What starts out as a strange friendship soon becomes a forbidden love story.

After much begging, Madeline’s nurse, Carla, allows Olly a visit. And our love story grows from there.

I don’t wanna spoil too much of this book, but it was a really cute, although sometimes confusing, teenage romance. Madeline was a sweetheart, and I saw a little bit of myself in her (not that I was locked away from everything by my parents, but because I read a lot and preferred my own company most of the time). But I liked Madeline and Olly. I thought they were a sweet couple who tried desperately to be together throughout the difficulty of Madeline’s “disease”and Olly’s family issues. All I wanted was for them to be together in the end.

But then there was Madeline’s mother. Meeeeehhhh. I liked and disliked her. Her mother seemed fine at first. I mean, who could blame her for being obsessively worried about her daughter who could die at any moment from any small thing? Ha. Ha. Ha. (insert eye roll here. You’ll understand if you read the book or saw the movie.) Don’t get me wrong. I definitely felt for Madeline’s mother.

(SPOILER ALERT HERE: skip ahead if you don’t wanna know this bit)

I mean, her son and husband died. Who wouldn’t be worried about their last surviving child after a deadly accident???

(END SPOILER). ( )

I can definitely see why so many people love and hate this book ( )

I found the whole idea of this book really interesting. I thought it would be interesting to see someone with such a huge disability live the life that is normal for them. I thought a lot of things going into this book but it was slightly disappointing. I still found myself interested in the book the whole way through, even though I had a few issues with it. It was a book that kept me hooked for sure plus I LOVED the audio book narrator(s) which rarely ever happens. So if you do decide to pick this one up, the audio book is worth it.

I did really like the main character Maddy. I thought she was really brave to have this sickness where she couldn't leave the house and she never got depressed or sad. I know if I don't leave the house for a whole day I can't sit still. I can only imagine how difficult it is for someone who can't ever leave.

I also really loved Olly. I loved how he was also in a tough situation and tried really hard to make the best of it. I loved how he made such a big impact on Maddy's life and was honestly just such a refreshing character. He felt really realistic to me, probably partially because he reminds me of a few people I know.

Despite all the things I'm going to mention next, I still really loved the beginning of this book and that's the only thing not pushing this rating down to 3 stars right now.

This book was on the way to getting 5 stars from me. There were things that I could look over because I was loving the direction the story was taking. After the "twist" at the end though, my rating dropped 2 full stars. It was disappointing to be honest. The rest of the book was pulling on my heart and I was really starting to love these characters. Something happens at the end that basically makes the whole book a big lie. It felt like a huge slap in the face or like the author took the plot and snapped it in half. It was almost like the author took the easy way out. Like "oh jk! This whole book wasn't what you thought it was!" which is good in some cases but not like this. I'm probably making it sound much worse than what it was but I had such high hopes for this book.

After being disappointed with how this book ended, I decided to not overlook the little things I was skipping throughout the rest of the book. You all know that this book is about a girl who is basically allergic to everything. She has to live in an air locked house and basically can't ever touch germs. That sounds fine and it was but after a while the illness felt badly researched. How come her mom could come and go (through the special air lock of course) but she could wear the same clothes the whole time? How could Maddy could essentially eat whatever she wanted? There were just little details like that that were either skimmed over or skipped completely. It could have been so much better.

Also the romance, pretty darn close to insta love. Just a warning.

I would only recommend this book to people who actually really enjoy insta-love and cheesy romance. If you can't skip over the lack of realistic details in books then probably don't read this one.

This book had a lot of potential and ended up a big disappointment. I don't know if I would even recommend this to anyone. ( )

"Life is a gift. Don't forget to live it."

This one is hard to review. I was in Georgia at the book fair and heard this author talk. I got a lot of insight into the book before reading it, so I went in with a lot of assumptions.

Wow, [a:Nicola Yoon|7353006|Nicola Yoon|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1411143980p2/7353006.jpg] blew my mind.

This is an amazing story, told through Im's, emails, notes and pictures. I especially loved her homework analysis pages. It's about growing up and finding your own way. but it's about so much more. Forgiveness, love, loss and grief. About love and whether it's worth it to fight for it or just let it go.

Amazing and breath taking. I loved this story ( )