Review of Everything That Makes You by Moriah McStay

Title/Author: Everything That Makes You by Moriah McStay
Publisher/Date published: Katherine Tegen Books, March 17th 2015
How I got this book: received it from the publisher as an egalley
Buy this book at: The Book Depository

Goodreads summary: 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.

I'm a big what-iffer. I always wonder what would have happened if I'd decided to go in another direction, what if I hadn't gone to college in the city I did, what if I hadn't chosen to become a GP and on and on. And I can obviously understand wondering what if, if you've had a pretty bad accident as a kid that leaves you with scar tissue on half your face.

The thing is, Fiona doesn't really wonder what if. She takes things as they're given to her and I respect that, but I can't really understand this not wondering about it. But maybe that's just me. I do think that Fiona is a strong person, and an optimist. She struggles with her mom's trying to 'fix' her, which kinda annoyed me as well, cause hello, that doesn't seem like supportive parenting at all, she does sorta redeem herself in the end though. I didn't really feel like her dad had much of a voice, which felt a bit off. I did really like Fiona's friendship with Lucy, those girls are true friends and I loved how Lucy wasn't afraid to call Fiona out on her crap.

Fi, the girl who didn't have an accident when she was 5 years old, the what if girl, has a lot going for her. She has an awesome brother and best friend Trent, even though she doesn't really seem to have other friends aside from these two. Then she breaks her ankle while playing lacrosse and her world pretty much falls apart. But she meets a boy and has a second tragedy and OMG, I sorta saw it coming, but not all and it was SAD. And then she really falls apart and is left to pick up the pieces in the after. I really don't blame her for not getting it together for a long time, because wow, when something like that happens, you just can't. But I can't help but compare her to Fiona, and believe that Fiona is the stronger personality in the end.

So both have romances and they're sweet, but I think I liked Fiona's better. Also, it is kinda depressing that it seems that even if you avoid one awful thing happening to you, you can't escape it all and get dealt maybe even a worse hand, cause Fi didn't have it easy in the end either.
I do want to give a big shout out to the awesome sibling relationship in Everything That Makes You! I truly felt the love between Fiona/Fi and her brother and this is a big brownie point thing for me. And I was secretly a bit gleeful at how both their lives sort of intertwine as you're destined to meet some people it seems.

Everything That Makes You satisfies my what-if-tendencies, and the notion that sometimes the grass really isn't greener on the other side.

My rating: 3,5 stars