You Are The Everything by Karen Rivers

From 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?"

Goodreads - You Are The Everything

I am a huge fan of love stories.  The moment when two people realize they love each other is something that cannot be described... well unless it is in a book.  Then it is usually described quite well.  I was very excited to read this book because it had not only a love storyline, but a survivor storyline.  I do have to inform you that I cannot properly review this book without disclosing that there will be spoilers.  If you plan on reading this book I highly advise you to not read any further.

You Are The Everything is told by teenage band student Elyse.  She, along with the rest of their band are returning home from Paris where they performed.  Elyse is in a huge fight with her best friend, and she is luckily sitting next to her crush Josh on the flight home.  Everything is normal until it isn't.  The plane suddenly nosedives and they crash into a mountain in France.  Elyse somehow rolls out of the explosion and ends up with Josh.  They end up dating and trying to find a new normal until the end of the book comes spiraling at the reader.

This book was what I expected, but also not what I expected.  This book is told in a second person perspective and it was very unsettling for me.  I felt like I was so inside of Elyse and her emotions.  I felt like Rivers did an excellent job at writing Elyse in this book.  The character was strongly written and her thoughts were put into such a way that seemed familiar.  I love that this book portrays two survivors who are just trying to find a new normal.  It shows the PTSD and the anxiety that is present after a traumatic incident.  The book is raw and it shows the coping that Elyse does while experiencing a panic attack.  I think this book would be really relatable for people who are in the same situation as Elyse.  Someone who has experienced trauma might find this book to be comforting to know they are not alone.

I stated at the beginning of this review that there would be spoilers... so here they come.  This book starts with Elyse being on the plane and it crashing.  The middle section and large part of this book is Elyse and Josh Harris being in love on a football field and managing anxiety attacks.  The last part of this book is the twist.  The last chapter retells what ACTUALLY happened when the plane crashed.  The book ends with us finding out that Elyse and Josh DIDN'T live.  THEY DID NOT LIVE!  Now this was very unsettling for me because I had spent many late nights reading this book and wanting to finish it because it was so good.  The whole thing was a completely made up account of what MIGHT have happened if Elyse and Josh had lived.  It tells of what would have happened if Elyse had gotten all her hopes and dreams.  I was furious at this ending.  I feel like the book was this big dramatic build up about how they were so lucky and fortunate that they survived, only to find out they all died.  The entire book felt like a sham, especially the love story that was promised.  I read this book excited for the love that would blossom between two survivors.  What blossomed was nothing at all.  Their "love" was a lie, as was the entire middle section of the book.  While I'm furious at this ending and the fact that it was all this big elaborate build up to nothing, it was also a plot twist.  It was the ending that I didn't see coming.  The fact that I didn't see it coming makes the book a little more manageable, but it still upsets me that this didn't end the way I thought it should have.

While the book was good, you need to understand there really isn't a love story and there really isn't a story about survival.  This is a tale of trauma and the aftermath that can come with it if you survive said trauma.  The ending upset me and it took me a full week to digest before writing this review.  I actually ended up emailing Karen Rivers about the ending to hopefully get answers.  I wasn't disappointed.  She said,

"Well, I do think that once I've finished writing a book, what "happens" (or doesn't happen) becomes up to the reader and how they interpret the story as it is on the page, but I will say that in my mind, yes, they died in the plane crash."

I was originally going to give this book 3.5 stars, but author response makes plays a big part in my rating if I have reached out to the author.  So I have to give this 4.5 stars thanks to Karen Rivers having a timely and nice response.  I think this would be a great book for young adults.  Some adults might find it enjoyable, as long as they don't get too attached to the characters and their stories.

The Girl in the Well is Me by Karen Rivers

From Goodreads,

"Longing to be one of the popular girls in her new town, Kammie Summers has fallen into a well during a (fake) initiation into their club. Now Kammie’s trapped in the dark, counting the hours, waiting to be rescued. (The Girls have gone for help, haven’t they?)

As hours pass, Kammie’s real-life predicament mixes with memories of the best and worst moments of her life so far, including the awful reasons her family moved to this new town in the first place. And as she begins to feel hungry and thirsty and light-headed, Kammie starts to imagine she has company, including a French-speaking coyote and goats that just might be zombies.

Karen Rivers has created a unique narrator with an authentic, sympathetic, sharp, funny voice who will have readers laughing and crying and laugh-crying over the course of physically and emotionally suspenseful, utterly believable events."

Goodreads - The Girl in the Well is Me

This book is about a girl that is trying to fit in after her dad disrupts life for the family.  Kammie wants to fit in with "The Girls" at her new school, but they tell her she must go through initiation first.  She proceeds to try to fit in with these girls, and does everything they say, until she falls into a well.  They quickly abandon her and she has to hope and pray that someone will rescue her.

The idea of someone being stuck in a well made me think of the baby Jessica ordeal that happened back in the 80s.  It is a very unique setting for a book to take place.  However, there wasn't a whole lot that I really enjoyed about this book.  I did come across a quote that I really liked.  It says, "He says that it doesn't matter what you listen to, as long as it moves you inside, that it's not about being cool or doing what everyone else is doing, it's about what makes you feel.  He says that music is poetry that has a tune that you hear with your soul."  I love music and can name a wide variety of songs that hold some sort of significance in my life.  So many people just listen to music to be listening, when really there is a message in most songs.  This quote was probably the most exciting thing in the entire book.  I connected with it on a personal level because of my love for music.

This book has ridiculously long chapters.  They just kept going and going.  And Kammie just kept rambling and rambling in these chapters.  I understand that this was done so that we understood that time seemed to stretch on and on, and that she was lonely and was thinking of anything and everything she could think of.  I dislike long chapters because they don't hold my attention and they seem to stretch on for a lifetime.  This book put me to sleep because of the dragging on and rambling.  I'm afraid that my 4th graders will find this book dull and exhausting, much like I did.

This book just wasn't interesting enough for me, and it seemed to drag on.  I give this book 2 stars.  I wasn't a fan of the imaginary creatures and the ongoing dull thoughts that were going through Kammie's head.  I expect my students to say the same thing about it just going on and on.  I don't think they will find it very intriguing and interesting once they get into the book.  I will try to update once I get a review from a student.