Everything, Everything is a bestselling book about a girl who falls in love and risks everything to live free of restrictions. Here are 20 similar books that will amaze and move you!
In this hit young adult novel-turned-film, Maddy Whittier lives confined to her house with severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCIDS, an immune disorder leaving her vulnerable to illnesses.
Kept in a bubble for all of her young adult life, Maddy feels the full effect of her limitations when she communicates with her new neighbor across the street and falls in love with him. Now the two push the limits and cross boundaries against her mother’s wishes as Maddy plunges her health and heart to the edge in the name of love.
Everything, Everything is written in sweeping diary entries, text messages, vignettes, and illustrations. Perfect for reluctant teen readers, the writing and imagery in the novel demand praise from reviewers and readers alike.
The book asks readers the following questions: how far would you go to be with the one you love? At what point do we break apart from our parents to go out on our own? And, finally, is a wholly secluded life worth living at all?
About Nicola Yoon
Nicola Yoon is a Jamaica-American author with numerous awards attached to her name and several books under her pen. She is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and the first Black woman to hit the list for a Young Adult novel. Her impactful legacy is already in the works as a recipient of a Michael L. Printz Honor Book award, a high honor for books written for teens.
Everything, Everything is Nicola Yoon’s first novel, followed by The Sun Is Also a Star. Both have highly successful film adaptations starring Amandla Stenberg, Nick Robinson, Yara Shahidi, and Charles Melton. In 2021, Yoon released her third young adult romance novel, Instructions for Dancing, and has since co-authored stories for two anthologies, Blackout and Whiteout.
Her husband, David Yoon, drew the illustrations in Everything, Everything, and together they live in California with their daughter. They also helped found an imprint at Random House dedicated to romance novels for people of color called Joy Revolution.
20 Amazing Books Like Everything, Everything
Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall
In a rare young adult book exploring themes of mental health, Norah is seventeen with anxiety that keeps her from leaving the house. But when she meets Luke, a boy who doesn’t judge the mental struggles she faces, she must navigate how to reconcile her viewpoint of herself with the fond way he sees her.
In Everything, Everything, the concept of being trapped physically manifests into the plot; meanwhile, in Under Rose-Tainted Skies, Norah’s mental health similarly traps her. Both books explore the complex emotions we face and the decisions we begin making as we grow older.
Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott
Everything, Everything fans might recognize this title due to comparisons frequently made between the two novels. In Five Feet Apart, two seventeen-year-olds have cystic fibrosis, which affects breathing and digestion, and is a condition where people with cystic fibrosis must stay apart to protect each other’s health.
Despite this, Stella and Will fall in love and push the boundaries of medical professionals in an attempt to be together, all while knowing they’re putting each other’s health at risk. Like Everything, Everything, Five Feet Apart is a moving young adult romance novel about love and what we’re willing to risk to be with our significant other, even when it’s both a selfish and selfless decision.
A movie of the same name starring Cole Sprouse and Haley Lu Richardson came out in 2019. You can get this forbidden young adult romance novel here!
Postcards for a Songbird by Rebekah Crane
Wren Plumley knows what abandonment feels like from everyone around her, but then she meets her new next-door neighbor Wilder. Wren befriends the sickly boy and begins unpacking her trauma.
In a book that explores family issues and their role in one’s life, Postcards for a Songbird is likely to be enjoyed by those who like the mother-daughter relationship in Everything, Everything. You can get this character-driven book here!
Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt
Penelope Landlow’s family surrounds itself with criminal activity. Suffocated by her overprotective family and fighting an autoimmune disorder, she fights to find her voice.
Like the main character in Everything, Everything, Penelope must come into her own and break away from her family to become an independent person. The book bursts with suspense and romance, and you can find it here!
Zac and Mia by A. J. Betts
Like the next-door neighbor trope in Everything, Everything, Zac falls in love with Mia, an opinionated and strong-willed girl. The two form a friendship in a hospital that might not be possible outside of it and eventually fall in love.
For fans of the intense emotions portrayed in Everything, Everything, Zac and Mia is a book that will tug on heartstrings and connect readers with two well-developed characters who will leave a mark on readers from the first to the last page. You can get this book here!
Home and Away by Candice Montgomery
Tasia Quirk’s life is seemingly perfect: she’s in her final year of high school, has fantastic friends and a wealthy family, and her dreams for the future are coming true.
But then she uncovers a family secret that splits her world wide open.
In Home and Away, a teen girl navigates the challenges of being biracial and works to discover her identity. With a subject not often explored, readers will find this book riveting and refreshing. If you’re looking for a character to root for, this book is for you! Grab it here!
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
This massive success of a book is about two teens who fall in love despite their bodies pulling them apart.
Hazel and Augustus meet by attending a weekly cancer support group. They become friends, fall in love, and travel to Amsterdam together despite knowing their time is limited.
The Fault in Our Stars, like Everything, Everything, is written in strokes of beautiful, heart wrenching, and lyrical language. In 2014 a movie release of the same name was a success, but you can get the book that started it all here!
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is about Lara Jean and the letters she’s written to the boys she’s fallen in love with throughout her life. This sweet young adult romance novel covers sisterhood, family, loss, and how two people bond and fall in love while playing pretend.
Each book in the trilogy is adapted to film for Netflix. You can get this heart-racing first novel here!
It’s Not Like It’s a Secret by Misa Sugiura
If you’re a fan of the angst in Everything, Everything, then It’s Not Like It’s a Secret is perfect for you. Sana Kiyohara is a Japanese-American teenager who fights to come into her own identity, speak up against the wrongs she sees in her life, and fall in love with a childhood friend.
It’s Not Like It’s a Secret features a complex main character who experiences navigating difficult emotions. You can find this own voices book here, featuring a cast full of diverse characters!
The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
In Nicola Yoon’s second book, The Sun Is Also a Star, published after Everything, Everything, Natasha faces the horrifying reality that her family is about to be deported to Jamaica. At the same time, Daniel’s Korean immigrant parents push him to attend an ivy league university.
Over twelve hours, Natasha and Daniel meet, fall in love, and attempt to figure out the next steps in their complicated lives.
Nicola Yoon continues sweeping audiences away with her beautifully written romance while acknowledging and sharing the space with real-life issues often overlooked in a genre that caters to happy endings. These complex issues paired with the gorgeous romance will delight young adult fans, especially if they enjoyed Nicole Yoon’s first book, Everything, Everything.
Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
In this story about learning to love yourself, two teens–a biracial boy with prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness, and a white girl who’s overweight–fall in love. After an incident lands them in group counseling, they learn of their similarities and form a friendship.
The characters are complex, with tension from internal conflict spurred on by external judgments. You can get Holding Up the Universehere!
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
In this book that had all of TikTok talking, two teenagers, Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio meet in New York City after finding out they are living their last hours together.
An LGBTQIA award-winning novel, They Both Die at the End twists and turns while inviting readers to feel the ache of a 24-hour star-crossed journey. You can get the deeply reflective book here!
You and Me at the End of the World by Brianna Bourne
Houston is desolate, silent, and uninhabited, except for teens Hannah Ashton and Leo Sterling. In this opposites-attract young adult romance, they explore the city and their emotions to figure out what has happened to their town and the people who inhabited it while falling in love.
Like in Everything, Everything, the adventure plays a role in the romance of this novel, and through the journey, the characters discover themselves and grow. You can get this book told in two alternating perspectives here!
Places We’ve Never Been by Kasie West
Against their will, two ex-friends take a road trip together during the summer, rediscover why they were friends in the first place, and uncover the possibility of something more.
If your favorite part of Everything, Everything was the exploration and trip Maddy takes, then this road trip will make your wandering heart flutter. You can get this angsty young adult book here!
If You Could See the Sun by Ann Liang
Teens can feel invisible, but it’s not normal for them to actually turn invisible.
Alice Sun takes matters into her own hands after the announcement comes from her parents that they can no longer afford the tuition of her top boarding school, so in an attempt to monetize her newfound invisibility, she begins dealing in secrets.
The relationship between wealth and power and status and privilege are picked apart in this fast-paced novel. Between the romance, the action, and the self-conflict as Alice struggles with the morals of her actions, this complex young adult novel is intriguing. You can get the book here!
Exactly Where You Need to Be by Amelia Diane Coombs
Exactly Where You Need to Be follows two girls about to part ways for college and the road trip they take after winning tickets to a special event. Though entirely different, these two best friends share a summer they’ll never forget and make memories to last a lifetime while discovering themselves.
Like Everything, Everything, mental health topics are explored while parental expectations add to the novel’s conflict. You can get this YA romance here!
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert
Two ex-friends turned rivals want absolutely nothing to do with each other, but an outdoors competition offering free tuition throws their wants out the window and pits them up against each other. But as they work through the contest, a new friendship emerges, and they begin understanding and working together more than they ever thought possible.
This funny young adult romance strikes true in its topics, ranging from mental health issues to sexuality to forgiveness. Fans of romance and characters’ internal conflict will enjoy this treat of a book; you can get it here!
Melt With You by Jennifer Dugan
Two teen girls who used to be friends take an ice cream truck and explore the country in this summer romance!
A hook-up that ended in disaster separated Fallon and Chloe, and ever since, they’ve avoided each other for reasons the other can only interpret. But when their moms send them on a journey together with their ice cream truck business, they might be able to pick up the pieces and come back stronger than ever, this time as more than friends.
This sweet sapphic novel will warm hearts and satisfy readers who were fans of the romance in Everything, Everything. You can get this slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance here.
Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider
Two teens are quarantined in a house that acts as both parts hospital plus boarding school with a rare form of tuberculosis. On the cusp of a cure, they struggle to come to terms with their illnesses and hold onto hope.
Extraordinary Means is told from alternating points of view from Lane and Sadie as they navigate the reality of their illnesses and fall in love. Fans who enjoy the heartstring-pulling of Everything, Everything, and The Fault in Our Stars will find Extraordinary Means the perfect next book to add to their TBR. You can get this emotional young adult book here!
Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry by Joya Goffney
Lists are Quinn’s specialty, and she makes them for everything: school, crushes, fears, and even her secrets. So when her journal goes missing, and one of her lists winds up on Instagram, she’s backed into a corner. Now she must work with Carter Bennett to track down who took her journal before the rest of her lists wind up online for the entire world to see.
Courage rises from characters like Quinn in Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry and Maddy in Everything, Everything as they fall in love and find strength in themselves. You can get this delightful young adult romance book here!
Final Thoughts
Everything, Everything is a character-driven young adult novel about a girl locked in from the outside world who must find herself while navigating relationships and rocky family dynamics.
Young adult books are often about exploration, becoming one’s own, and acknowledging issues in today’s world. Nicola Yoon accomplishes all of this and more as Maddy functions in a locked-in environment for her health, discovers who she is and what she wants, and exists as a biracial young woman in the 21st century.
Despite Maddy’s confinement in parts of the novel, the world Nicola Yoon crafts allows readers to put themselves in Maddy’s shoes and immerse themselves into a small but detailed world.
Like Everything, Everything, the 20 books on this list are detailed realistic young adult fiction that takes on family dynamics, romantic relationships, and the woes of growing up. These books, with their engaging and emotionally rich scenarios and characters, are sure to excite readers; let these novels take you on an amazing journey!
FAQs
Is Everything, Everything appropriate?
According to Kirkus Reviews, Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon is appropriate for ages 12-17.
What is Maddy’s illness in Everything, Everything?
The illness keeping Maddy confined to her house in Everything, Everything is called severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). SCID involves mutations concerning infection-fighting immune cells. Due to this, people with SCIDs are susceptible to infections and harsher illnesses.
What is the lesson in Everything, Everything?
The lesson in Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon is that true love is worth risking everything for, and breaking out of one’s shell can lead to that love. Everything, Everything emphasizes love and healthy relationships, whether romantic love, friendship, or familial love.
What does the astronaut represent in Everything, Everything?
The astronaut in Everything, Everything represents Maddy herself.
Do Maddy and Olly end up together?
Without spoiling too much, Maddy and Olly end up together in Everything, Everything.
Hi! I'm Taylor, and I've always loved getting lost in a good book. Book stores and libraries are my happy spaces, and reading is my favorite form of escape from the pressures of everyday life. When I'm not reading, I'm writing my own novels, working on blog posts, and freelancing while blasting Taylor Swift's music. I have a degree in English—Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, where I studied under amazing writers, including New York Times best-selling author Wiley Cash. I've worked at my local library in the Children's and Teen departments and love sharing all things literary as a community! Happy reading! PS: Find me on Instagram @taylor_brazzill
