“My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.
But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.
Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.”
Contemporary is not a genre I typically reach for, and this book is the reason why. I have found a few contemporary books I’ve enjoyed. I even didn’t mind the insta-love or love triangle trope as long as it was done right. But this book was horrible. Where do I even begin….
No world building, which I get. It basically takes place all in one area, one house, except for a quick trip to Hawaii (only good part). No character building. Only character I loved was nurse Carla. The rest were boring and flat and blah.
Most people hated the twist, the lie, the fact that Madeline was never sick. Yea it was horrible that her mom lied but honestly it’s not uncommon, totally realistic. It happens. So it didn’t bother me as much as the boring characters, the lack of anything really. The ending was just stupid and I’m like what???? Ummm no! Yes there was insta-love. Although I didn’t mind that part either. It actually was done pretty well. I mean come on they were teenagers. Insta-love in common for teenagers. This book had potential to be a great story but just fell flat. There wasn’t enough. I really wanted to love the characters. I think if done right, and had more depth to it, it could have made a great story about mental illness. And one that we typically don’t see in stories, munchausen by proxy. Now her mother definitely has more than that, depression, PTSD, but I can see some munchausen in there. Not to the point of making her child sick and repeated visits to a doctor, but in trying to keep her locked up via an illness she never had.
Honestly I probably won’t watch the movie.
2/5 🌟 because it had potential. And I did like the chemistry between Madeline and Olly that we did see.
Adventures Between Pages 