Everything I Thought I Knew by Shannon Takaoka

Everything I Thought I Knew

Shannon Takaoka

Candlewick Press · Hardcover · October 13, 2020

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

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Who it’s for
A YA read that braids everyday life with illness, loss, and the pull of science.
Genres
Contemporary YA Romance, YA Illness & Disease Stories, Water Sports
Published
Candlewick Press, October 13, 2020

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About this book

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.

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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.

What It Brings

A YA read that braids everyday life with illness, loss, and the pull of science.

Come here for

  • family, science, friendship, romance
  • illness-and-grief crossover in YA

Expect

  • emotional stakes without melodrama
  • a sustained, immersive narrative

Where it sits

Contemporary YA Romance71%
Water Sports40%
YA Illness & Disease Stories37%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • YA Illness & Disease Stories
  • Contemporary YA Romance
  • Water Sports
Authors
Shannon Takaoka
Publisher
Candlewick Press
Published
October 13, 2020
Format
Hardcover
Reading lane
YA Illness & Disease Stories