Book Review: Everything, Everything

Hey guys!

So something you may not know about me is that I'm one of those people who absolutely loves a good book. If I find a book that just grips me right from the start, I will read it cover to cover in a matter of days.

So I thought it would be nice to share my thoughts on my latest read. 

The book is called Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon and is the story of a girl named Maddy who has an illness called SCID (Severe Combined Immunodeficiency). In other words, she is severely allergic to the world and she hasn't been able to leave her house in 17 years. The only close relationships she has is with her mum and nurse Carla. Throughout the book, Nicola writes about the extremes that people will go to when in love and how it can drive you to do crazy things that you might never have done before you found it. She also explores how deep a mother's love is for her child and how that can lead to potentially disastrous consequences.

When a boy named Olly moves in next door with his family, Maddy's world is turned upside down and as a character, Olly is very interesting and I just instantly warmed to him. He's cool and slick, kind hearted and funny but his life isn't as perfect as it seems. As the story goes on, you find that he needs Maddy just as much as she needs him, as she provides almost a loop-hole for him to get away from his life, even if just for the brief time they are together. Throughout the story, you learn about Olly's family and the relationship he has with his father. My first impressions of the father were that he was controlling and intimidating, but as the story develops and Olly and Maddy spend more time together, you find out that his father has been battling his own demons for years. 

After creating their relationship online, Maddy's nurse Carla finally agrees to let Olly inside the house so they can meet face-to-face for the first time. It is in this moment that Maddy's life changes forever. In the book, Maddy has to battle her feelings for the boy she has grown to like and the guilt of lying to her mother about it. While reading the story you almost feel as if you're there with Maddy, as you can really feel her emotions when she thinks about Olly or when she has to lie to her mother. But with each visit bringing them closer, Maddy's feelings for Olly become stronger and as she watches the relationship between him and his father go from bad to worse, she makes a decision that could affect her life in more than one way.

The ending to this book was nothing I was expecting! I literally COULD NOT put it down. It was a real page turner. I felt like I wanted to speed read it so I could find out what happens, but of course I didn't as otherwise I would have missed the important details.

Nicola Yoon has written this book so beautifully as it contains little snippets of education, sketches that Maddy's drawn, pictures of her medical charts, emails sent back and forth with Olly and the brilliant writing makes you feel like you're there experiencing all these new things with Maddy. When reading the emails between Maddy and Olly it took me right back to when I had my first crush, the flirting and the witty banter you would have between you and it brought a smile to my face, as I could relate to these new feelings Maddy was encountering on a personal level.

I would highly recommend this book as I loved everything about it - the storyline, the way its written and how Maddy's experiences are communicated through illustrations and not just words. The book captures love in such a beautiful way and makes it seem timeless. From cover to cover, Nicola Yoon takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions - not just love, but the occasional heart wrenching scene, excitement, sadness and there are some real on-the-edge-of-your-seat moments in there to!

I know I will defiantly be reading this book again and I'm glad I chose it for my first book review. Hopefully, if you choose to read this book, you'll find it as thrilling and extraordinary as I did!

Amsterdam Adventures - Day 2

To kick start our second day in Amsterdam, we got up really early, 7am to be precise (way too early for my liking) and headed down for breakfast at 7.30am. I can honestly say, I have never seen a breakfast spread that was so amazing in my entire life! IT WAS INCREDIBLE! There was a cereal section, a bread section, a Tea and Coffee station, a fruit section, a pancake station, where they made them specially tailored to what you want, a juice station and a section just for hot food and that means the Dutch equivalent to a good old english fry-up ♥

After breakfast, we headed back to our hotel room to get ready for the day. We got up as early as we did because after yesterdays venture to the Anne Frank House and discovering the queue was miles long we decided it would be best to get there for when it opens at 9am So off we headed to the train station. Once we got to the Anne Frank house at 9.30am, there was still a queue but nowhere near as long as the day before. While waiting, a lady came round with a brochure of the museum and this was the prime opportunity for Chelsie to read up on Anne Frank, considering she thought she was married to Henry VIII (face palm moment). We were only waiting for half an hour and luckily it wasn't too cold. 

Once inside, we made our way through the house which had a lot of steps! We weren't allowed to take any videos or photographs as this would have ruined the privacy of the museum and the story behind it. Walking through the house, was eerie in way as everyone was completely silent. The amount of respect that you could feel was unbelievable. The only sounds you could hear were the footsteps of people walking from room to room and a video playing in each room describing part of the Frank's story. The stories were told by either friends or colleagues of Otto Frank (her father) and the Frank family. The museum or house used to be the factory that Otto Frank owned and when the time came, the Frank family had to hide in an Annex above the factory and could hardly move throughout the day out of fear from being heard from a worker below them. The annex was hidden behind a bookcase and when you reach this room in the museum, you are told the bookcase is the original that was there when the Franks went into hiding in 1941. The Franks went into hiding with the Van Pels family and there was a total of eight people hiding in the Annex. When walking through the rooms, it is astonishing that so many people were hiding out in a space that was so small. 

After leaving the Anne Frank house, we decided to continue our museum tour, but on a slightly different level. It was raining and we didn't have a clue where we were going, so we resulted to the trusty phone sat nav to find our way to the Red Light Secrets Museum. On route, myself and Chelsie very nearly got hit by a van and about three bikes but hey ho, its not a city experience until you've nearly been run over! 

The museum is also known as the Museum of Prostitution, so it gives you a tour of what its like to be a prostitute in the Red Light District. It was a very odd experience for me and Chelsie because its 'the norm' in Amsterdam, whereas in the UK it is illegal. There was a room where you could see what its like to sit in a window, looking out on the street and it was hilarious!

I vlogged the day so you can go over and check out the tour of the museum by the link below. We then reached a wall of confessions. Now this was very interesting. It contained a lot of confessions (funnily enough) of people's experiences in either the Red Light District or just life in general. Some of them were terrible and some were just down right hilarious! 

There was a photobooth where you could use props, like masks and feather boas, so of course we had to have a picture!

Once we left the museum, we had a little walk around before heading back. We stumbled across a drug museum. As in literally a museum about different drugs! We couldn't believe it. Something that is very common in Amsterdam, is many cafés aren't actually coffee cafés, but weed ones! The menu is a weed menu and you can choose which type you want. There are so many options! And you will be walking along the street and just get a huge waft of weed. Its just bizarre!

We then headed back to the hotel as it was absolutely chucking it down with rain. And we didn't really fancy walking around the rest of Amsterdam in the pouring rain :/

Once back in the warmth of our hotel room, we flicked the telly on and ordered pizza. It was lush! Then we had a nap and got ready to go back out to the Red Light District. We met two of Chelsie's friends and they walked with us as it could have been a little bit dodgy walking round by ourselves, plus the fact we didn't know where we were going! They gave us a tour of the district and told us stories about what they'd heard or had done themselves. 

As we were walking along the street, they took us into a building saying its only 2 euros. So in we went, not having a clue what it was and it turned out to be a peep show! Myself and Chelsie were not expecting that! Its safe to say, we didn't stay for very long after that haha. The funny thing is, when editing the vlog, I had actually filmed the outside of the Peep show building and it had 'Live Sex Show' in electric neon letters. Apparently we missed that on the way in, I must have filmed it but not have been looking haha!

These lights represent all the windows around the Red Light District. 

This is just the girls light, not the transgender lights, which have a purple light. 

After strolling the streets of the Red Light District, we headed home and had a well deserved sleep after a busy day. The next morning it was an early start again, as our flight was at 9.30am. We headed down for the heavenly breakfast, then it was off to catch a train to the airport to take us home. Once we landed in Stansted, we had lovely little Costa Coffee while waiting for my mum to pick us up. 

 Just a couple of selfies

Overall we had an amazing time and I think we will definitely be going back at some point, but maybe when the weather is a lot warmer!

Again, we've put together a little video our second day, we hope you like it :)

Because we had such an amazing time, we have decided we want another adventure. So our next travelling adventure is... 

...we are going interrailing! And we cannot wait! 15 days of sun, cities and lots of mishaps I'm sure! 

See you soon :)