In order for people to visit (and they don’t besides her nurse, Carla, Madeline’s only friends are virtual), they would have to endure a thorough physical and spend an hour in a decontamination airlock.įor a teenager who has never felt sunshine on her face or her bare feet on the grass - and for whom the future holds none of that - Madeline is remarkably grounded. She has SCID, or severe combined immunodeficiency, known as “bubble baby disease.” So Madeline is a princess trapped in a castle - except her castle is a spotless, decontaminated house in Los Angeles with white walls, where she lives with her mother, a physician. These are all things that Madeline’s compromised immune system can’t handle. The world outside the home of 18-year-old Madeline Whittier, the heroine of Nicola Yoon’s gorgeous and lyrical debut novel, is filled with threats: viruses, allergens, bacteria, deadly airborne particles. Even if you knew love could kill you, what would you risk to experience it - just once? Just for a little while?
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