Can you want something—or someone—so badly that it changes your destiny?
Elyse Schmidt never would have thought so, 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, as perfect as it can be when you’ve literally fallen out of the … literally fallen out of the sky and landed hard on the side of a mountain—until suddenly it isn’t.
When the pieces of Elyse’s life stop fitting together, what’s left?
You Are the Everything is a story about the fates we yearn for, the fates we choose, and the fates that are chosen for us.
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Wow! I don’t even know how to explain what I’m feeling. YOU ARE THE EVERTYHING was such an interestingly well-written and beautifully affecting story about love, loss, life, death, and everything else in between.
Having gone through losing someone recently and dealing with my own grief, this book was not an easy read. I was actually kind of afraid once I realized it wasn’t the lighthearted romance I was expecting. But, the author’s writing style and second person POV sucked me into the story. As if I was the character — going through everything, experiencing all these emotions and just feeling EVERYTHING. It was excruciating and quite overwhelmingly sometimes that I felt like I couldn’t breathe, but I had to keep going. I had to know what would happen next. I had to know that there’ll be a happy ending somewhere. I just had to know. And I did. I can’t say a lot about the plot without giving anything away, but it was very strange and surreal. The ending was just so INSANE. I mean I had my theories while I was reading, but I honestly never saw it coming. So so shockingly good it hurt.
Character wise, I really liked Elyse. She was quirky, funny, adorable and a beautiful mess. I had such an incredibly weird, but fascinating experience being in her head. I can’t say much about the other characters though. I feel like I’d spoil it for you and I just can’t do that. BUT, I will say this. I really enjoyed getting to know the supporting characters in every way.
YOU ARE THE EVERYTHING by Karen Rivers is a wonderfully written story about EVERYTHING. It was exciting and also terrifying. It was sweet, entertaining, and sometimes even funny, but also heartbreaking. Some parts were a bit slow and somewhat annoying, but that didn’t really bother me that much cause I was intrigued and really into the story. I found myself dizzily floating through a whirlwind of emotions and I LOVED IT. So, yeah, this book wasn’t without flaws, but it really got to me and had me feeling and thinking… about EVERYTHING.
If you’re looking for a quick addictive read that’s delightfully weird, amazingly unique, and emotionally engrossing, then I highly recommend you get this book right now. Definitely think it’s not going to be easily forgotten.
I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest and fair review. All feelings, thoughts and opinions are my own.
3.5 / 5 rounded down
Highly unusual, You Are The Everything by Karen Rivers is so much more than a contemporary romance, and more like a weird dreamworld.
What it’s about: Elyse Schmidt is on the way back to California from a band festival in Paris when the plane she is on crashes, and the only survivors are Elyse and her crush Josh Harris. Both of their families move to Wyoming to escape the attention from media and other people, and Elyse and Josh start a relationship bound together by what they both survived..
I don’t want to say more about the plot because the end threw me for a loop and there isn’t a good way to mention it without giving anything away. Although the book is considered a contemporary romance, it was really more about dealing with anxiety and trauma after a tragedy. The book is written entirely in second person told from the viewpoint of Elyse, and I thought she was very relatable. She is 16/17 in the book and she has major anxiety, panic attacks, and arthritis. Now just add being 1 of 2 survivors of a plane crash and isn’t that a ton of stress.
You Are The Everything is very quirky, if you can’t tell already from the second person narrative, but also heartbreaking. I didn’t actually cry while reading it, but I’m sure some people will.
Also something important to note is that Elyse always calls Josh by his full name in the book, and Josh always calls her by her full name or just Schmidt (which she doesn’t like but won’t tell him). I can see how that would bother some people and it was weird seeing “Josh Harris” all the time, but it didn’t really bug me. I was probably too busy trying to understand exactly what was happening.
Final Thought: The ending of this book is just CRAY, and I really need other people to read this and help me decipher exactly what was going on. It basically left me with that “what did I just read?” feeling that so many of us love so much. Overall it was a quick read and did make me laugh as well as hit me in the heart. I recommend checking it out if you are into something a little unusual that is not your typical YA contemporary romance novel.