Popular Buddy Love Novels Through Time:
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
It Had to Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Safe Harbor by Danielle Steele
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer
Irresistible Forces by Brenda Jackson
Vision in White by Nora Roberts
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon (beat sheet following)
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
Everything, Everything
BY: Nicola Yoon
STC GENRE: Buddy Love
BOOK GENRE: Young adult romance
TOTAL PAGES: 306 (Delacorte Hardcover, 2015)
Author Nicola Yoon burst onto the young adult novel scene in 2015 with her stunning and beautiful debut, Everything, Everything, about a girl with “bubble boy disease” who has been confined to her house for most of her life. But when a boy moves in next door, it changes everything for both of them. The novel, which interweaves traditional narrative with graphics, charts, illustrations, emails, instant messages, and other creative devices, debuted at number one on the New York Times best-seller list and was also adapted for film in 2017 starring Amanda Stenberg and Nick Robinson.
1. Opening Image (pages 1–2)
Our hero, Madeline (“Maddy”), introduces us to her all-white room with “white shelves and glistening white bookshelves.” Her books come “from Outside, decontaminated and vacuum-sealed in plastic wrap” (page 1).
What is the reason for all of this? We will soon see. But for now, all Madeline tells us is that she has read a lot of books.
2. Setup (pages 3–20)
By page 3, we learn about Madeline’s condition: she’s essentially allergic to the world. She has severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). She can’t go outside. Ever. Her Act 1 world is literally her house and nothing else. No wonder she reads so much!
The only people Madeline ever sees are her mother (who’s a doctor) and her nurse, Carla, who tends to her during the day while her mom is at work.
In the Setup, we’re further introduced to Maddy and her unique world. Maddy is highly creative, but also very bored and lonely (things that need fixing). Her biggest want is to see the outside world. “Really there’s only one thing to wish for—a magical cure that will allow me to run free outside like a wild animal” (page 11). But because of her condition, she probably never will.
She spends her days attending school online, reading, and writing and posting “Spoiler Reviews” of books. She spends her nights with her mom, watching movies or playing board games. Basically, her life is predictable.
So what better buddy to disrupt her world and send her life spinning in a new direction than someone who is completely unpredictable?
3. Catalyst (pages 20–21)
A moving van pulls into the driveway of the house next door. From her bedroom window, Maddy watches a teenage boy, dressed in all black (a counterpart to her all-white world), jump out of the truck.
From the very moment she first sees Olly, he is in motion. Constantly moving, jumping and running “wild” through life. He is the polar opposite of Maddy, someone who is literally stuck in one place. But as is the case with all Buddy Love stories, he is exactly what she needs. Someone who can pull her out of her lonely, predictable existence and teach her how to really live.
When their eyes meet through the window, nothing will ever be the same again…for either of them.
4. Debate (pages 22–41)
Who is this boy and what (if anything) will become of this? That is the Debate question. And Maddy spends the next twenty pages obsessively spying on Olly through her bedroom window, trying to answer that question.
Fascinated with him, Maddy makes logs of his family’s comings and goings, marking Olly’s schedule as “unpredictable” (an opposing reference to her predictability, which was directly noted earlier on page 13).
In her “spying,” Maddy discovers that Olly is into Parkour, another direct opposition to her lifestyle. She also notices that Olly’s dad is a very angry person who is often abusive to Olly, his mother, and his sister.
When Olly and his sister come to the door with a bundt cake that their mother baked, Maddy’s mother has to try to politely decline it. She can’t bring anything in from the outside that might contaminate the house and make Maddy sick. The mystery of her mother’s refusal intrigues Olly, inspiring him to make contact with Maddy through their facing bedroom windows. Unable to speak to one another, Olly constructs hilarious tableaus in his window that make Maddy laugh.
The Debate comes to an end when Olly writes his email address on the window. Maddy doesn’t hesitate.
5. Break Into 2 (page 42)
Maddy emails Olly. Their relationship officially begins.
6. Theme Stated/B Story (page 68)
Maddy’s nurse, Carla, states the theme when she tells Maddy, “Everything is a risk. Not doing anything is a risk. It’s up to you” (page 68).
Maddy is extremely risk averse at the start of this novel. As well she should be, in her condition. But if she wants to really live—not just stay alive—she’ll have to find the courage to take risks that she’s never taken before, including risking her own life. There’s more to life than living is essentially the lesson Maddy will learn by the end of the novel.
Carla, who states the theme, is also the B Story character. Even though meeting Olly is what pushes Maddy outside of her comfort zone, it’s Carla who helps her every step of the way.
7. Fun and Games (pages 42–130)
The Act 2 world is Maddy’s life with Olly in it. It’s night and day different from her world without him.
A fun and witty email exchange begins, which quickly morphs into an instant message conversation. In this upward path Fun and Games, Maddy and Olly slowly get to know each other, talking about small stuff to start with (favorite books, movies, and food). But soon, as they begin to trust each other, they move to more serious topics (Maddy’s disease and Olly’s abusive father). Maddy is consistently able to make Olly smile, even during his darker moments, which proves that he’s just as in need of her as she is of him.
After Carla reveals that she knows about Maddy’s conversations with Olly, Maddy asks Carla if they can meet in person, promising to keep it a secret from her mother (who would never approve). Carla, of course, says no (it’s way too dangerous), but then changes her mind, embodying the theme in her belief that some things are worth the risk.
Olly is decontaminated in the house’s airlock system, and the two meet in the sunroom, where they are ordered not to ever touch. During their first meeting, it becomes obvious that Maddy and Olly are falling hard for each other.
But the bouncing ball narrative brings Maddy back down to earth as she realizes how dangerous this relationship is—not only to her health but also to her heart. “For the first time in a long time, I want more than I can have” (page 80). Maddy is worried about the wanting and the desire. Knowing that she can never really have Olly makes her immediately back off from the relationship.
But it’s Carla—the B Story character—who convinces her not to break things off with Olly, once again bringing up the th
eme. “Do you really want to lose the only friend you’ve ever had over a little bit of heartache?” (page 86). Maddy quickly realizes Carla is right, and she takes another risk to see Olly again, vowing to just be friends.
But the more she sees him, the more convinced Maddy becomes that she will fall in love with Olly. It’s inevitable. Olly and Maddy continue to open up to each other. Maddy tells Olly how her father and brother died: they were hit by a trucker who had fallen asleep at the wheel, shortly before Maddy was diagnosed with SCID.
Meanwhile, her mother is getting suspicious of her changed behavior. Maddy is more tired than usual and skipping their normal nightly activities (in order to IM with Olly).
Maddy feels guilty for lying to her mother. But she still continues to take bigger and bigger risks. In one of their secret meetings, Olly and Maddy touch for the first time, which immediately leads to a conversation about kissing. Maddy starts obsessing about the idea of kissing Olly. Could she really do it? The idea of her first kiss is exhilarating.
8. Midpoint (pages 130–138)
Olly and Maddy kiss for the first time in an epic false victory Midpoint. “And just like that, everything changes,” Maddy notes on page 130.
But the stakes are raised a few pages later when Olly gets into a huge fight with his dad on the sidewalk outside. When Olly’s dad punches Olly in the stomach, Maddy doesn’t think. She just reacts. She runs out the front door of her house to get to Olly, her mother screaming at her to stop.
This is a definite shift from wants to needs as Maddy takes the biggest risk she’s ever taken: going outside. Risking her life. For him.
After it’s over, her mother realizes that Olly is not a stranger to Maddy. They know each other. Maddy lies and tells her that she and Olly are just online friends.
9. Bad Guys Close In (pages 139–235)
The downward path starts instantly when Maddy’s mom finds the rubber band Olly wears around his wrist inside the house. She knows that the two have met in person. She immediately revokes Maddy’s internet privileges, and fires Carla, replacing her with a horribly strict tyrant of a nurse named Janet.
Maddy can no longer talk to Olly, and she slips into despair.
Summer ends, Olly goes back to school, and the two see each other less and less. Then Olly comes home from school one day with a girl, and even though Maddy soon learns that it’s just his lab partner, she quickly realizes that she’ll never be able to compete with any other girl.
“It doesn’t matter if she’s pretty or not. It matters that she feels the sun on her skin. She breathes unfiltered air. It matters that she lives in the same world that Olly does, and I don’t. I never will” (page 157).
After Maddy witnesses another fight between Olly and his father, she makes a decision: She books two tickets to Hawaii for her and Olly and sneaks out of the house, leaving her mother a goodbye letter that says, “Because of you I’ve survived this long and gotten a chance to know my small part of the world. But it’s not enough” (page 168).
Maddy has tasted a piece of happiness with Olly and now she can’t go back. She can’t be happy again without him. “It’s like I can’t look at the world in the old way again” (page 168).
Maddy is able to convince Olly to go with her by lying about having obtained some experimental pills to keep her from getting sick. The two jet off to Hawaii for two days of bliss. Maddy sees and swims in the ocean for the first time, and the two dine on delicious food and spend a romantic night together. And throughout everything, Maddy gets closer and closer to learning the theme. On page 208, she notes, “I’m being reassured with every breath that I’m more than just alive. I’m living.”
10. All Is Lost (pages 234–237)
But it all comes crashing to a halt when Maddy falls very sick and collapses in the hotel room. Then, in a whiff of death, Maddy’s heart stops…
11. Dark Night of the Soul (pages 238–270)
…and starts again.
Maddy’s mom arrives in Hawaii, discharges her from the hospital, and brings her home. Her bedroom has been turned into a hospital room, and Maddy’s despair is deeper than ever as she realizes she will be trapped in her house forever. “How can I live the rest of my life in this bubble now that I know all that I’m missing?” (page 242).
Over IM, Maddy breaks up with Olly and rejects the theme when she says, “I’ve learned my lesson. Love can kill you, and I’d rather be alive than out there living” (page 247).
And in a very apropos Dark Night of the Soul moment, Maddy even draws a “Map of Despair” complete with “Mountains of Misery,” a “Desert of Sorrow,” and an “Ocean of Regret” (page 249). She stops responding to Olly’s emails, and eventually his emails stop coming.
In attempt to cheer her up, Maddy’s mom hires Carla back. Maddy and her mom slowly fall back into their old routine. Maddy even starts posting her Spoiler Reviews again (return to the familiar).
Olly, his mother, and his sister finally leave his father and hastily move out of the house while he’s at work. As Olly looks up at Maddy’s window, in a mirror to the Catalyst, their eyes meet for seemingly the last time.
Maddy finally reads Olly’s emails and learns that Olly was able to convince his mother to leave his father only after he told his mother of Maddy’s bravery in Hawaii. If nothing else, her risk-taking inspired someone else.
Then, Maddy’s world shatters when she receives an email from the doctor who treated her in Hawaii, saying that she got Maddy’s blood tests back and doesn’t believe that Maddy has SCID—or has ever had SCID (Dark Night epiphany).
Her mom denies this, claiming that the doctor simply doesn’t understand this rare and complicated disease. But Maddy is not 100 percent convinced. Especially after Carla tells her, “Sometimes I think maybe your mama’s not quite right. Maybe she never recovered from what happened to your papa and brother” (page 270).
12. Break Into 3 (page 270)
Maddy takes the biggest risk of all when she vows to find out the truth about herself. She asks Carla (B Story) for help and Carla orders a blood test.
13. Finale (pages 271–305)
POINT 1: GATHERING THE TEAM. As Maddy waits for the blood test results, she decides to look through her mother’s files. She finds records of almost everything except the official SCID diagnosis. “Where is the proof of the life I have lived?” (page 273). It seems there isn’t any.
POINT 2: EXECUTING THE PLAN. She confronts her mother, who swears she has the diagnosis somewhere, but as she searches hopelessly for it, Maddy realizes that Carla is right. Her mother is not right in the head. “And that’s when I know for sure. I am not sick and I never have been.”
POINT 3: HIGH TOWER SURPRISE. Maddy quickly discovers that her mother never did recover from the death of her father and brother. And when Maddy got sick as a baby shortly after the car accident, her mother convinced herself Maddy had SCID. It was a way to literally protect her from the world—by hiding her away from it. Maddy’s “entire life was a lie” (page 279).
Maddy gets the official word from her new doctor: She does not have SCID. But after living inside for her entire life, she has a very vulnerable immune system and has to take things slow.
Her relationship with her mother is forever altered, and she’s not sure she can ever forgive her for what she did, despite B Story Carla’s suggestion that she should.
POINT 4: DIG DEEP DOWN. Maddy eventually buys a ticket to New York City to find Olly. As she flies to New York, Maddy digs deep down and proves that she has finally learned the theme when she observes on page 300, “Anything can happen at any time. Safety is not everything. There’s more to life than being alive”; and again on page 302 when she writes a Spoiler Review for The Little Prince that reads, “Love is worth everything. Everything.”
Also, in her decision to seek out Olly, she starts to understand and forgive her mother. “Love m
akes people crazy. Loss of love makes people crazy” (page 300).
POINT 5: EXECUTING THE NEW PLAN. Maddy texts Olly and tells him to go to a used bookstore in NYC where there’s a gift waiting for him. She hides in the stacks and watches him arrive. When he shows up, she notes that he’s not wearing all black anymore (a nod to how much she has changed him as well).
14. FINAL IMAGE (page 306)
A literal final “image” as we turn to the last page to find a visual representation (one of Maddy’s drawings) of the gift Maddy left for Olly—a copy of The Little Prince. Inside, she has written, “Reward if Found: Me.”
They have (re)found each other.
WHY IS THIS A BUDDY LOVE?
Everything, Everything contains all three elements of a successful Buddy Love story:
AN INCOMPLETE HERO: Maddy is bored, lonely, and unable to safely leave her house. Despite the fact that she makes the most of her existence, she is still clearly lacking something.
A COUNTERPART: From the moment he’s described, Olly is Maddy’s natural counterpart: a yang to her yin. A free spirit to her captive one.
A COMPLICATION: Maddy’s rare illness is the complication that is keeping them apart. It is the primary source of conflict between them throughout the novel.
Cat’s Eye View
For quick reference, here’s a brief overview of this novel’s beat sheet.
OPENING IMAGE: A glimpse into Madeline’s all-white bedroom, where the books are decontaminated and plastic wrapped.
SETUP: We learn that Madeline suffers from SCID (she’s allergic to everything and completely vulnerable to infectious diseases), confining her to her house. She wants to be able to leave her house but probably never will. Her life has become boring and predictable.
CATALYST: A new boy named Olly moves in next door.
DEBATE: Who is this boy and what (if anything) will become of this? Maddy studies Olly, who in turn sets up hilarious tableaus in his window.
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel Page 22