Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Published 2015 · 50,000 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Coming-of-Age, Romance
How hard is Everything, Everything to read?
Everything, Everything scores 22 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 20 out of 100
- Simple, clear prose with occasional medical terminology. Maddy's voice is warm and accessible, a bookworm who writes like she reads—vividly.
- Sentence structure: 22 out of 100
- Short chapters, some only a page. Mixed media format—IMs, dictionary entries, illustrations—keeps sentences brief and varied.
- Abstraction: 18 out of 100
- Maddy's reflections on freedom and risk are concrete and personal. The novel thinks through images and scenes, not philosophical argument.
- Information density: 18 out of 100
- Light, fast read. The mixed-media format creates white space and visual breathing room. Emotional beats are clear and spaced.
- Narrative indirection: 25 out of 100
- The twist reframes the entire narrative, making the reader reconsider every earlier scene. Otherwise straightforward first-person chronology.
- Symbolic density: 28 out of 100
- The sealed house is an obvious but effective symbol of emotional imprisonment. The ocean Maddy longs to see represents freedom and risk.
- Ironic distance: 15 out of 100
- Maddy is earnest and emotionally open. Yoon writes with genuine tenderness toward her protagonist's desire for life.
- Resolution withholding: 20 out of 100
- The twist resolves the medical mystery clearly. The romance reaches a satisfying conclusion. Emotional closure is complete.
- Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
- Mixed-media format with journal entries, IMs, illustrations, and dictionary definitions. Simple chronology but inventive presentation.
How Everything, Everything is regarded
Everything, Everything holds a literary regard score of 39 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.