You are the Everything by Karen Rivers
Special thanks to Thomas Allen & Son for sending a copy for review.
Summary:
Can you want something—or someone—so badly that you change your destiny? Elyse Schmidt never would have believed it, until it happened to her. When Elyse and her not-so-secret crush, Josh Harris, are the sole survivors of a plane crash, tragedy binds them together. It’s as if their love story is meant to be. Everything is perfect, or as perfect as it can be when you’ve literally fallen out of the sky and landed hard on the side of a mountain—until suddenly it isn’t. And when the pieces of Elyse’s life stop fitting together, what is left? (Goodreads).
Thoughts:
You Are The Everything introduced me to a whole new dimension of storytelling. This book is packed with emotion, perspective, and devastating trauma. In my opinion, the novel should be read without knowing all too much about the characters and their motivations. I feel as if the characters throughout were left a little unfulfilled. I am astounded by everything about this book, but especially the foreshadowing. The little clues and hints along the way make you realize how brilliantly this book was written. I absolutely loved the narrative voice in this novel! Though the novel could’ve had a bit more depth. The characters were too stereotypical and some parts of the novel fell a bit flat.
Elyse Schmidt is completely transformed after a tragic plane crash where she and her crush Josh Harris are the only survivors. The storyline skipped everything after the plane crashed, speeding to Elyse’s perfect world with Josh as her boyfriend. I didn’t understand why the author did this at first, but later realized it was to show the difference between dreams and reality. Everything after proved that Elyse wasn’t such an ordinary and innocent girl. The beginning gave clues about how obsessive she can be, but I didn’t quite notice until she got her perfect reality. She loves Josh with every inch of her heart and is also obsessed with his every action. I can’t understand why the author chose to create Josh as one of the many main characters. Josh seems to be quite dull. It’s almost as if Josh was created only for Elyse to control and use.
How the author shaped the characters also felt a little odd, but did bring some sort of needed depth. After the plane crash Elyse woke up with no memory of what happened in the past and a missing eye. At first, this shocked me, but I later realized how realistic the novel has become. The characters had to live through many harsh and tragic experiences. I feel like there aren’t enough moments that I could actually laugh at, making the novel seem a bit depressing.
There were some moments of the novel that I questioned. Elyse formed short-term memory loss. This didn’t affect the plotline but did make me question the authors writing skills. The memory loss definitely damaged the tension of the plot. It seems as if the author created the memory loss to skip some unwanted scenes, but it just created some boring moments instead. I also wonder why they move to Wyoming at such a young age. In my opinion, this is unrealistic and concerning. I would understand their decision if the novel was placed a few hundred years ago. Based off my own experiences, I know that it’s highly unlikely for a young teenager to abandon their family for some kind of destined love. They literally left their parents with only the explanation of their love of each other.
I would recommend the novel for any readers wanting to explore a different perspective of a normal teen romance. Thank you for reading my book review!
Reviewed by Elise C.