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?
You Are the Everything by Karen Rivers
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Publication Date: October 30, 2018
RATING: ⭐⭐⭐½
How do you talk about a book that made you feel emotions you can’t even name, because you’ve never felt them before?
— me, Lily @ Sprinkles of Dreams, still spell-bound after finishing this book.
You know how people say that there’s a crack in everything, and that’s how the light gets in? This book found its way into my heart, and my soul, and enveloped both so seamlessly, that it didn’t need the tiniest sliver of a crack to begin with.
You Are the Everything invoked a whole new capacity of emotive value in me, as well as introduced me to a whole new dimension of storytelling. It’s a book that, in my opinion, should be read without knowing all too much about the characters, their motivations, and the story arc.
💫
Commemorative of We Are Okay by Nina LaCour, I was led, both by the synopsis, and the cover, to expect an all-too endearing book, filled with fluff, and light-hearted banter, even amidst tragic events.
Instead, I read a book that was all that, but also so much more; a story that is eerily reminiscent of the magical realism genre, somewhat mysterious, brimming with melancholy, and serenity, and all kinds of tangled up emotions that leave a bittersweet taste on your tongue.
💫
I loved the narrative voice, and the many little anecdotes and details that infused every aspect of this story with vivacity, and color, and poignancy, and made me fall in love with the few characters that it focuses on. Both the friendship, and the romantic adoration aimed at the love interest were so realistically depicted, that I was wholly entranced.
“(…) maybe that’s how it is for everyone to some degree. Maybe all of us are holding tight to what we think matters, and releasing everything else into the morass of the past, a hazy place you once visited, taking with you only a handful of glittering stones containing all that you want to have matter.”
I was left feeling spell-bound, and fascinated by everything about this book, but especially the foreshadowing, and the little clues along the way that, looking back, make you realize how brilliantly this book was crafted, and how much thought went into the plotting, and planning, and the wonderful writing.
💫
I can’t wait to read everything else Karen Rivers has written, and will write in the future.
Karen Rivers is the author of twenty-one novels for children, teens, and adults, including the highly praised The Girl in the Well Is Me, All That Was, Before We Go Extinct and A Possibility of Whales.
She lives in British Columbia, Canada. Find her online at karenrivers.com or on Twitter @karenrivers.
✨ Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway to win a copy of You Are the Everything!
October 23
The Fantastic Flying Book Club – Welcome Post
October 24
Sprinkles of Dreams – Review
Charis Rae – Review & Favorite Quotes
October 25
Mythical Books – 10 List
Oh Hey! Books – Q&A
October 26
Confessions of a YA Reader – Spotlight
October 27th
Nay’s Pink Bookshelf – Review
Merv Reads – Review
October 28th
Moonlight Rendezvous – Review
Sab Reads Books – Review
October 29th
Belle’s Archive – Review
Malanie Loves Fiction – Review & Bookstagram
Is You Are Everything on your TBR?
(It should be!!)
Have you read any of Karen Rivers’ other books?
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I WANT TO READ EVERYTHING THAT LILY LIKES AND ALSO EVERYTHING THAT IS REMINISCENT OF WE ARE OKAY
giveaway: entered
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I LOVE U + I HOPE YOU LOVE THIS BOOK!! It really reminded me so much of We Are Okay, because it’s slow, and character-driven, and heart-wrenching??
GOOD LUCK (& pssst I hope you win) ❤
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This looks fairly fascinating…my only issue is that I have a REALLY hard time with the magical realism genre…I want to like it and it seems like a genre I would enjoy…but there’s been a number of books now that follow under this genre and I can’t stand them. I think I’m just too picky…Do you find this more of a story focused or character focused novel? Or a good combo?
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It’s not magical realism, but it really reminded me of it, because it’s a bit slower, and has a dream-like quality to it (in my opinion, but it could just be my perception!). And it’s definitely more focused on the character(s).
Oh, and I’m really curious, which magical realism books did you have a hard time with? Because overall, I relate. 🙈
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Ahhh okay! And nice! I love character focused novels. And I don’t know…I find the magical realism element either goes over my head or makes the story seem…silly? I think with magical realism, there’s a SPECIFIC way of working with it that makes the story magical yet not in the complete realm of fantasy and isn’t…silly or ridiculous. I think it’s just a hard type of literature to write, or I’m just seriously SUPER picky ha-ha!! What about you?
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I think it’s a bit of both for me, but I definitely agree that it takes a lot of skill – I think the only books I really enjoyed in this genre were The Night Circus and A Million Junes. 🙂
I couldn’t connect with any of Anne-Marie McLemore’s books, sadly!
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(I completely forgot to mention The Astonishing Color of After as one of the books I enjoyed!)
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Why do you ALWAYS write the most gorgeous reviews in the world, Lily ❤ This book sounds really, really good, I'm so curious about it now! I have to ask though: with the 3 and a half rating? What were the things that bothered you? 😛
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Ahh thank you, you’re the kindest soul, Marie!! ❤❤
I gave it four stars right after finishing it, but thinking more about it, I did struggle a bit with this book, and put it away multiple times, because it was very slow, and didn’t always hold my attention.
But that’s really more because of personal taste, and I think for the right reader this could be absolutely amazing. 🙂
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Ohh okay, I get that – sometimes books don’t manage to hold our attention, but that’s really a personal feeling, too 🙂 thank you for letting me know 😀
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Definitely! I’m really curious how I’d feel about it, if I were to re-read it, though. I still get the urge to round it up to four stars every now and then. 😅
Of course, my pleasure! ☺️
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omg this book was a whole new world w narration!!!!!! Who knew second-person could work so well, I felt so educated by this???? ❤ ❤ Also, can we please talk about how Elyse is SO CUTE and I'm still curled up in a tiny ball of tears and fear of planes. I mean, GOSH, the plane crash was described so beautifully and felt so real, hysteria was so perfectly imagined???? I'M DEVASTATED I MUST NEVER BE ALLOWED TO READ THINGS LIKE THIS.
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I know right?? I’m so excited to read Karen Rivers’ other works now. 💓
sdfnjdsdf I’m so scared of planes now, and I never used to be!! AND SAME, THE COVER IS TOO MISLEADING, RIP.
(I can’t wait to read your post, Mal!!)
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This book is on my TBR and your review convince me to read it. I think I don’t remember having read many books with an element like magical realism so I’m really curios as to how this story would go. Can I ask a rec?😁
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Ahh yay, I’m so happy to hear that, Karlita! I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. ☺️
The Night Circus is amazing, and I really enjoyed The Astonishing Color of After and A Million Junes as well! 💜
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Yessss!! I already have a copy of Astonisging Color of After. Thank you so much for the recs Lily!!!😉
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I’m so excited for you to read it!! I hope you love it, Karlita, and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it. 😍
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& my pleasure!! ❤
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I have this on my TBR! Awesome review! 😀
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Ahh I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it, Jen! I hope you’ll like it. 🙂
Thank you! 💛
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[…] You Are the Everything by Karen Rivers 💌 ¦ ⭐⭐⭐½ Galatea by Madeline Miller ⭐⭐ Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini 🖌 ¦ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fence #10 (Fence, #10) by by C.S. Pacat & Johanna the Mad 🖌 ¦ ⭐⭐⭐½ Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan 💌 ¦ ⭐⭐⭐⭐ […]
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THIS LOOKS SO GOOD. I instantly added this to my TBR, because all the feelings you described, I want to feel those too.🙈Lovely review, Lily!
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(THE COVER IS MISLEADING, THOUGH, THE VIBES ARE TOO CUTE AND FLUFFY.) I was so impressed with it, I hope you’ll feel the same way about it, Olivia. 💛💛
Thank you so much! 🌻
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[…] Lily reviews You Are The Everything, which I feel like we buddy read???? c: c: […]
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This book sounds awesome! I love character-driven stories. Were you emailed with information about getting selected for the tour? I was never notified that I had been chosen and therefore missed this. I checked my regular email and my spam but found nothing.
Even though I unfortunately didn’t participate, I enjoyed reading your review! Your blog is beautiful. 🙂
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