Everything I Thought I Knew review and giveaway

11/19/2020

Hardcover : 320 pages
ISBN-10 : 1536207764
ISBN-13 : 978-1536207767
Publisher : Candlewick (October 13, 2020)
Language: : English

Praise for EVERYTHING I THOUGHT I KNEW

“Everything I Thought I Knew is a page-turning, mind-bending story of hope and healing. The reader will root for Chloe from page one as she navigates her world post–heart transplant and tries to meld her prior reality with her new one. I couldn’t put it down; it is a beautiful debut from a talented new voice in YA.” --Alexandra Ballard, author of What I Lost

The thoughtful balance of self-discovery, humor, and realistic relationships will bring in fans of John Green and Nicola Yoon. Readers looking for a good, cathartic cry will love Chloe’s journey from losing everything she thought she was, to finding the person she was meant to be. --School Library Journal

Romance and quantum physics intertwine in this frothy introduction to multiverse SF. --Kirkus Reviews

This is a satisfying soaper that combines pleasing romance with an enticing touch of the otherworldly. --Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

A teenage girl wonders if she’s inherited more than just a heart from her donor in this compulsively readable debut.

Seventeen-year-old Chloe had a plan: work hard, get good grades, and attend a top-tier college. But after she collapses during cross-country practice and is told that she needs a new heart, all her careful preparations are laid to waste.

Eight months after her transplant, everything is different. Stuck in summer school with the underachievers, all she wants to do now is grab her surfboard and hit the waves—which is strange, because she wasn’t interested in surfing before her transplant. (It doesn’t hurt that her instructor, Kai, is seriously good-looking.)

And that’s not all that’s strange. There’s also the vivid recurring nightmare about crashing a motorcycle in a tunnel and memories of people and places she doesn’t recognize.

Is there something wrong with her head now, too, or is there another explanation for what she’s experiencing?

As she searches for answers, and as her attraction to Kai intensifies, what she learns will lead her to question everything she thought she knew—about life, death, love, identity, and the true nature of reality.

My review: 4 stars This was a quick and interesting read. I felt for Chloe, both with her life-altering health scare and dealing with the aftermath: hovering parents, friends who have moved on, and feeling stuck in an in-between place while she sorts through what she wants to do with her life. I found the concept of imprinted memories from a donor organ intriguing. Certainly, a person could experience curiosity, gratitude, and even a little guilt, after inheriting a person’s organ, but experiencing their memories and maybe even their personality traits was a new twist to me. As someone who loves romance, I thought the sweet, slow building relationship between Chloe and Kai was well done, too. I highly recommend!

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Photo Content from Shannon Takaoka

Shannon Takaoka is a young adult fiction author who wrote her first book at age 12, when she blatantly ripped off C.S. Lewis with an epic fantasy inspired by THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. (Well, maybe it wasn’t that epic — do 10 pages count?) Madeline L’Engle, Charlotte Brontë, Neil Gaiman and a host of other authors inspired her lifelong love of reading, and she’s especially into all things gothic, weird and nerdy. If a story involves time travel, strange science-y stuff or alternate realities, she’s in.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Shannon now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two children and one very needy dog, who is probably leaning on her right now as she’s pecking away on her keyboard. Her debut novel, EVERYTHING I THOUGHT I KNEW, about a 17-year-old girl questioning everything about who she is and who she wants to be following a heart transplant, will be published by Candlewick Press on 10/13/2020 and Walker UK in 2021. She promises that it’s a little weird — but in a good way.