Engels Boekverslag - All this time by Mikki Daughtry and Rachael Lippincott

Even if I could picture it, there’s no way I can move forward now, haunted by the ghost of my girlfriend. 

Ex-girlfriend, I correct myself. And somehow that makes it worse. Like I don’t have claim to the grief inside me. Just the blame. Even thinking of Kim haunting me makes me feel like a dick. She didn’t want to be with me in life, so why would she spend her time following me now? I toss the photo of us down on my bed, realizing there’s only one other possible answer for what happened tonight.

One that actually makes sense.

Maybe I’m just going crazy.

Maybe that’s what I deserve.’

• p. 55 & 56

3 - Important figures and minor figures

Kyle Lafferty= This is the main character of the book. He is a boy who is in an emotional time. He is tough and ambitious.

Kim (Kimberly) = She is Kyle's ex-girlfriend and later in the book she is Sam's girlfriend. She is a very sweet and spontaneous person.

Marley Phelps = She is Kyle's dream woman. In Kyle's dream, Marley is really Kyle's girlfriend, but in real life the two don't even know each other. After Kyle wakes up, the two get to know each other again and become a couple again. Marley is a very sweet and dreamy girl, full of fantasies.

Sam = This is Kyle's best friend and Kimberly's boyfriend later in the book. Sam is a very good and helpful friend, helping Kyle through the rough times.

Mrs. Lafferty = She is Kyle's mother. She is a sweet, enthusiastic and caring woman.

Catherine Phelps = She is Marley's mother. She is a nurse at the hospital where Kyle is admitted. She is very strict but fair.

Dr. Benefield = This is Kyle's doctor. He only appears a few times in the book, but does have an important role in Kyle's life. He is a nice doctor who also likes to joke.

4 - The main thought 

The main idea in the book is the message that life is a fragile and precious thing.

In the book, three main characters are seriously injured or even die, although this turns out not to be the case. The book is quite complex, and you can interpret it in many ways. As a reader it is quite difficult to understand what is real and what Kyle is dreaming, this also makes it a challenge for the reader to think about the mental side of life.

It seems very intense for Kyle to have built a whole new life and then lose it all at once. You will also think about this yourself, sometimes a dream you have just seems real, and then you are disappointed or relieved that you wake up. But what if you are not awake after a few nights?

Other themes and messages in the book are sadness and friendship. Kyle and Marley are both grieving and losing. In the book, it becomes clear how intense and heavy this is, especially for a teenager. Kyle and Marley tell their stories to each other and deal with grief. 

5 - Theme, title and main character 

The title is 'All this time', the main characters are Kyle, Kimberly and Marley and the theme is both sadness and friendship. All of this is clearly related.

The friendship between Kyle and Kimberly is especially vulnerable in the beginning of the book, but later they make amends. The theme of 'loss' also plays a role between them. In Kyle's 'dream world', Kimberly has died and Kyle is deeply sad about it.

The friendship between Kyle and Marley is very strong and turns into a relationship. But when it turns out that the relationship is a dream, Kyle is also very sad about this.

It takes some thinking to understand the title. I think the bottom line is that of course Kyle was in a coma ‘all this time’ when that's more than half the book. So that's what Kyle's been dreaming about all along. So the title has more to do with the main characters than with the theme.

The theme of 'sadness' is very clear in the next piece of text, but confusion is also present. This is when Kyle wakes up from his weeks-long coma and realizes that everything he's been through isn't real.

‘The entire room spins. I grab on to the rail on my bed, my breath seizing. I shut my eyes and wait for it to subside, to come back into reality like always. I must have really hit my head, because the flash is bad. More real than any of the others. 

But when I open my eyes, the air rushes right out of me again. Because it isn’t Marley who walks through the door. 

It’s Kimberly. And this time she doesn’t fade. But I do.’

• p. 204

The next piece of text arouses the same feelings as the piece above. The moment Kyle wakes up in the hospital, and it turns out that Kimberly is no longer alive.

‘And that’s when the panic rushes back. The bloody, matted hair. The gurney. Kimberly.

‘And that’s when the panic rushes back. The bloody, matted hair. The gurney. Kimberly.

‘‘What happened - Kim - is she… ?’’

She doesn’t say anything, just focuses on something in her hands. A clipboard. A pen clicking. A note on her chart. 

• p. 26

6 - Impressive scene

The next piece of text really resonated with me. I found it very emotional and intense.

Marley has just had an accident and is also in a coma. Kyle is broken but finds a solution. Entering into Marley's mind. She's with Laura, she needs to see her one more time:

‘A light rises behind me. I feel its warmth through my shirt as it washes over Marley’s face. She stares into the light, a sob escaping her lips. Dread creeps up the back of my neck as I turn to see what Marley sees. 

There, standing right in front of that vast field of Stargazer lilies, is Laura. 

She’s backlit by some otherworldly light, standing in a glowing circle, like the sun during an eclipse. She raises her hand as if reaching for something. With a sinking feeling, I know exactly what she’s reaching for. 

Marley. 

Marley pulls herself from my arms.

‘’No. Marley, no. Don’t do this,’’ I beg, the breath leaving my lungs in a plea. ‘Please, Marley. Stay.’’

(....)

Marley looks back at me, tears flowing for her eyes, as if she can hear my heartbreaking. But then she looks to Laura, who wraps an arm around her waist.

Marley, my Marley, gives me one last smile … the follows Laura into the lilies.

• p. 315, 316 & 317

I think there is something magical about this piece of text. I'm not a big fan of fantasy books, but I found this part interesting. It really adds value to the story.

I think that anyone who has ever lost someone would also like to see that person one more time, to say something or just to see. Of course that is not possible, but in your thoughts and dreams everything is possible. So this too..

*Really happened: I cried at this part…*

7 - My opinion about the book

I found this book very good and impressive. 

The beginning was a little hard to get through because it was very monotonous and not all that positive. After that, the story became a romanticized love story between two teenagers, it almost seems a bit cliché. But then suddenly something happened that I really didn't see coming, I was in shock. From then on I had to read on and I had to know what was going to happen. And if you think that's it, then you're wrong, because then something happened that no one saw coming.

I really like these kinds of books. It's romantic, it's a bit cliché, a lot happens, there are a lot of emotions in it and in the end it all works out.

I have never seen a movie or book that has so much to do with coma, but after this book I found out that it is really very intense. Of course, you sometimes read stories that people who are in a coma can sometimes hear you, and then I think 'thankfully'. But in this book it also becomes clear that it can be very intense for the patient himself. I find such plotting, in the hospital, very interesting and educational.

The writing style is perfect! It's not too difficult and not too easy. Many things are described in several sentences, so if you do not understand a sentence, you can get the meaning from the next sentence. But sometimes I did look up a word because I didn't know the meaning.

The length of the chapters was also very nice. It wasn't too long, so I could put the book down when I was done with it. Some chapters were only a few paragraphs, which makes it very exciting.

The authors have written another book, Five Feet Apart. After having read the book ‘All This Time’, I also think it would be very nice to read this book. This book has also been made into a movie.

I give 'All This Time' an 8.6 out of 10 as a final mark.