Review: Everything That Makes You

Everything That Makes You
Author: Moriah McStay
Publication Date: March 17th 2015
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 

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

In the style of Just Like Fate, Everything That Makes You is cut into two different stories, a what if scenario, only with Just Like Fate, I actually liked it and though Caroline made some rash and stupid decisions, you could understand her, sympathise with her. Fioana and  "Fi" not so much. Wasn't the whole what if scenario was a way of thinking that if Fiona didn't get her face scarred when she was younger, she would be a different person?

If Everything That Makes You meant to say, that no matter what happens to you, you were always meant to be a certain person, then it succeeded, Because she was a horrible person both ways. If you think I'm being mean now, hang around a while. Fiona is a spiteful little bitch. There we go. She's bitter, which okay, you can get, she's bitter at the world, at herself, she has low self-esteem, given all that: she's still a bitch. To her family, to her so called friends, to her boyfriend, self deprecating , selfish and completely takes things for granted. Isn't having something so horrible like this happen to you, supposed to make you have a real long look at yourself and see just how strong you are? To make yourself a better person? Even the "Fi" What If, she was still like this and because of that, even though we know which part is which, I had a hard time differentiating  the two, and considering the names are in the chapter titles, it shouldn't be that hard.

Things felt a little unbelievable when it came to the family dynamics, both versions of her mother were portrayed as a heartless bitch who just wants to fix Fiona/Fi, well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it? I know we're going to be clouded by Fiona/Fi perspective, but isn't the point of third person to get a wider perspective? We never got one. Then there's the yo-yo way Fiona/Fi go from relationships/friendships, it seemed she could only focused on one at a time because more than one brought her whiny/needy/jealous side out, and what a lovely view into her personality that was. I never even got a sense of the secondary character's personalities or even got to know them, since it was only through Fiona/Fi, and she rather likes to talk about herself. A lot.

The romance...oh god, I think this was the worst thing about Everything That Makes You, we have a hexangular romance, with both sides. Okay, some are the same love interests in both version, but it still counts, since they seem like different people, too. I didn't like any of them, obviously, I think if the tone wasn't already set for me, I may have liked at least one version . Things again, like the yo-yo way Fiona/Fi went through people, I didn't get any sense of romance because it jumped all over the place.

I don't get exactly what Everything That Makes You wanted to show, what message it wanted to present because it all felt disjointed, and with Just Like Fate, fate played into the story, whereas fate in Everything That Makes You was never a prominent topic. I mean, I get what it was trying to say, everything that makes you, you. But is that it? Because Fiona/Fi ended up on a completely different path, and while some paths did cross, none of the major paths that would make you, you, never crossed, so what was the point of having the story about the same person? It could've been done with two different characters and made more sense.

Everything That Makes You ended up being a major disappointment for me, with an unlikeable main character(s) and  no clear message it was confusing and never focused on one thing, instead we got brief stints in both of Fiona/Fi's paths, which made it feel disorganized.

Rating: 1.5/5