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Everything I Thought I Knew    by Shannon Takaoka Amazon.com order for
Everything I Thought I Knew
by Shannon Takaoka
Order:  USA  Can
Candlewick, 2020 (2020)
Hardcover, CD, e-Book
* * *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Seventeen-year-old high achiever Chloe's life suffers a sharp reset when she collapses suddenly and needs a heart transplant in Everything I Thought I Knew.

After the surgery, Chloe's graduation is delayed and she is stuck in summer school with students she normally would have nothing to do with. Her own close friends, though sympathetic, have moved on. Her parents have become over-protective and somewhat smothering. Her own personality changes.

Keeping it from her parents, Chloe starts to take surfing lessons from handsome Kai, and a strong attraction grows between them as her natural talent grows. She also has a strange repeated nightmare about dying in a motorcycle crash (where did that come from?) and odd memories. Is this some neurological side effect?

Chloe doesn't tell Kai about the heart transplant as surfing takes over her summer. She does make a new friend in summer school, Jane Kessler, whom she helps with math. Jane isn't shy about voicing her opinions, 'always looks kind of fabulous', and has a reputation as a party girl. She also turns out to be a solid friend.

Gradually, Chloe shares what's happening to her with Jane, and Jane helps her track down her heart donor - Chloe hopes for answers by finding out more, but instead finds familiarity in places she has never been before. As her relationship with Kai strengthens and then implodes, she begins to speculate about parallel universes.

Everything I Thought I Knew is a very unusual, totally absorbing read, a YA novel that blends mystical elements into a tale of teen angst and tragedy. Don't miss this one!

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