Everything That Makes You by Moriah McStay
One girl. Two stories. Meet Fiona Doyle. The thick ridges of scar tissue on her face are from an accident twelve years ago. Fiona has notebooks full of songs she’s written about her frustrations, her dreams, and about her massive crush on beautiful uber-jock Trent McKinnon. If she can’t even find the courage to look Trent straight in his beautiful blue eyes, she sure isn’t brave enough to play or sing any of her songs in public. But something’s changing in Fiona. She can’t be defined by her scars anymore.
And what if there hadn’t been an accident? Meet Fi Doyle. Fi is the top-rated female high school lacrosse player in the state, heading straight to Northwestern on a full ride. She’s got more important things to deal with than her best friend Trent McKinnon, who’s been different ever since the kiss. When her luck goes south, even lacrosse can’t define her anymore. When you’ve always been the best at something, one dumb move can screw everything up. Can Fi fight back?
Hasn’t everyone wondered what if? In this daring debut novel, Moriah McStay gives us the rare opportunity to see what might have happened if things were different. Maybe luck determines our paths. But maybe it’s who we are that determines our luck.
Publishes in US: March 17th 2015 by Katherine Tegen Books aka Harper Teen
Genre: ya contemp (magical realism)
Source: Harperteen via edelweiss
Series? no
Buy it: Amazon Barnes & Noble IndieBound
Author stalk away: ~site
I wanted to read Everything that Makes You because of course I have wondered what if, along with most everyone, and in general I like books that explore this sort of topic.
I really connected with Fionna she's the one in this one that has the scar on her face. it is interesting to see the differences in her school work in her personality even in her relationships with other people. Her friendship with Trent is there in the Fi side of things where she doesn't have her car and her whole life is basically lacrosse. whereas on the thing on the side she just has a crush on Trent and they're finally just kind of talking for the first time. even her relationship with her family is different. they are way over protective with Fionna and that includes her brother I think that he has some feelings of guilt or whatever because of the accident that caused her scars on her face.
In the FI part of everything she is having more trouble with school work and really start to have more of an identity crisis that is lacrosse all that makes her special. she also feels a lot of pressure from her mom to be more girly to study more to basically she feels like her mom just wants her to be a completely different person.
The two even though at the heart they're the same person the contrast is just so pronounced in the first part of the book.
The other thing that distinguishes the two is that Fiona really loves music. She plays the guitar and writes lyrics to it and she has a burning desire to create but she also feels very insecure and never really wants to share what she's written. she says that revealing those truths bit opening herself to others opinions and criticisms would be like going inside out she might break apart completely and I really think that that sums up kind of her outlook on life I guess. little of the quote where she said there was an outside part of her music that she couldn't hide her songs filed a dozen notebooks... guitar string calluses covered her fingertips but the inside part? it was like her music was stitched through her system like tensions or blood cells ... all of it the rhymes, the chords... performed vital functions.
A little before halfway through I started to realize just how connected the two really were. the stories have a lot of the same characters in it's interesting just tell a few decisions can change the course of her life so much. the senior year begins for the two are beginning to Feel this little pit in the bottom of my stomach is kind of telling me that their stories were going to be even more intertwined than I originally thought they would be.
While l expected the emotional impact from Fiona story I didn't really expect the emotional depth that was in there for Fi.
The story went on and everything got even more connected and intertwined and complicated and messy the more I loved it. I love seeing both the similarities and differences of Fiona and a fi because they have the same people in their life. but at the same time those people were different and she was different. the way that she looked at the world was different... it was shaped by her mom treating her differently plus her brother not feeling responsible for scars on her face or just even the boy that she had a crush on being her best friend.
Both versions of Fiona changed a lot in this one. They learned a lot about themselves and what they love as well as their identity. That its all of the people you love how you love them as well as I guess the face that you put on to the world. they both went through some hard things they were totally different hard things but it shaped him to be a really strong person and to love deeply and to feel grief deeply.
What I thought would be a simple what-if comparison of two parallel lives ended up something much deeper and much more emotional than I could have bargained for
My question to you, my lovely readers:
What would your "what if" center around?
