Karen Rivers has redefined what a haunting story means to me. You Are The Everything is the story of Elyse Schmidt, a sixteen year old girl whose life has been completely transformed due to a tragic plane crash where she and her crush Josh Harris are the only survivors. They’re in love, bound by the tragedy, and life couldn’t be better for Elyse. Everything is so perfect. Except it isn’t. It wasn’t. So what’s a girl to do when things stop making sense, and life is turned upside down? Told in the second person point of view, you are the character in this story…and I can only hope you’re ready for the journey that you’re about to embark on.
If you’re expecting a funny, teen romantic comedy, pick a different book. That isn’t to say that this book is not at times funny or humorous, but the overall tone is very methodically thoughtful and serious. Be prepared for some existential thoughts about life.
I can only describe my first thoughts after reading this story as shock. There’s something powerful about the second person point of view that really pulled me into this story. I was no longer myself, but Elyse Schmidt. A girl who is almost stalker-level obsessed with Josh Harris before the plane crash. Yet because of that plane crash, she and Josh Harris are now connected. The story is a little difficult to explain because in explaining it, I give a lot away. This is a journey that I encourage every reader to take, although if you are sensitive to trauma, I would approach this story very carefully.
What I can tell you about this story is that it is told in parts, three to be exact. In each of those parts, Elyse switches back and forth between the past and the present. Memories and thoughts about everything that happened “before” (the plane crash) and what it is like now. Like puzzle pieces, Elyse is trying to put everything back together, but she’s having trouble making it all fit. Since I can’t give too much of a summary without giving the story away, I’ll instead choose a quote within You Are The Everything that I felt were very befitting of the story’s theme:
Two truths. Something is a lie. But which one is the lie?
Elyse’s journey will really make you think about life, death, and the things that we would do to survive. If I had to pick a favourite character, I would have to say that it’s Kath. She’s adds a sardonically funny tone to the story that is refreshingly unexpected. Unexpected is another word that I would use to describe You Are The Everything. It has these moments that would seem so small, and yet have this rippling impact that you see as you progress through the story. I loved it.
This was my first experience with reading a story in the second person point of view and I loved it. It whittles away at you until you are the character and the character is you. It left me contemplative about my life, and it’s something that I’ve felt few books have had the power to do. You’ve experienced this great tragedy in the story as you read, and when you’re finished, you have a hard time believing that it hasn’t happened. I felt haunted. Not in a scary way, just in a…I’ve now had this non-existent experience and have a lot of feelings about the experience. It’s a very goosebump-inducing feeling.
This story receives a 10/10 for me, for how well done it was. Elyse as a character was one with quite a few flaws, but above the superficial feelings that I had at times about the personality of the character, was very well written. Although the story was also very character driven, I feel that we got to see a bit of world building as well, just not quite in the way that I would have traditionally thought as world building. I’m hopeful that readers that pick up this story will go on their own journey as Elyse, and look at life in a new perspective when they reach the end of You Are The Everything.
You Are The Everything is now available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
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?
