Item: Everything I Thought I Knew
Rating: 5
Author: Mary

I received this book at no cost from the publisher

Everything I Thought I Knew by Shannon Takaoka
ISBN: 1536207764
Published by Candlewick Press on October 13, 2020
Pages: 320
Goodreads

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.

Review

This is a wonderful story about living and growing after everything seems broken, including your physical heart. Once Chloe gets a new one to replace the physically broken heart, she thinks it will never work as it is supposed to and will never fall in love or have a life again. With her new heart in place, she starts to have memories of things that don’t make any sense. She is drawn to surfing and in turn, her surfing instructor Kai. While having flashbacks of an accident she can’t quite place, she wonders if her new heart is sending messages to her brain of the life it had before. While I did have to suspend a bit of belief to work this out, it made sense since I have read stories about people with new organs having their bodies physically change, so why not their minds. I really thought this was well done.

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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.

INTERVIEW

What is on your nightstand?

Right now I’m reading spooky/atmospheric books for the fall so I’ve got MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and WATCH OVER ME by Nina LaCour on my nightstand.

What author would you totally fan?

Jandy Nelson.

What makes you cringe?

I really hate scratchy bedsheets. Not because I’m a princess that needs luxury sheets or anything, I just can’t stand the sound that scratchy sheets make. I have a physical, cringe-like reaction. I also cringe when I pronounce a word wrong or forget someone’s name. I know we all do this at times, but it’s just my involuntary reaction to being a little embarrassed, I guess.