Everything, Everything: List 3: Skin - Infected

by Nicola Yoon
Diagnosed with a rare immune disorder, Madeline is unable to experience the world outside her protective bubble. But when Olly moves in next door, she must decide whether to risk everything for love.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: List 1: The White Room-Astronaut Ice Cream, List 2: Everything's A Risk-Upside Down, List 3: Skin-Infected, List 4: TTYL-Select All, Delete, List 5: Pretending-This Life

Here is a link to our lists for Nicola Yoon's novel The Sun Is Also a Star
40 words 154 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. immortal
    not subject to death
    We change the upper layers of our skin every two weeks. If all the cells in our body did this, we’d be immortal. But some of our cells, like the ones in our brains, don’t renew. They age, and age us.
  2. threshold
    the entrance for passing through a room or building
    I linger at the threshold to the room, uncertain.
  3. taut
    pulled or drawn tight
    He stretches the rubber band taut between his thumb and index finger.
  4. tension
    the physical condition of being stretched or strained
    His shoulders release a tension I didn’t realize he’d been holding.
  5. belie
    represent falsely
    I make myself as small as possible, as if my size could belie our closeness.
  6. subconscious
    psychic activity just below the level of awareness
    The universe and my subconscious may be conspiring against me.
  7. tally
    determine the sum of
    She tallies the score and, for the first time ever, I’m actually winning.
  8. paranoid
    suffering from delusions of persecution or grandeur
    She’s been like this all night, watchful, as if I’m a puzzle to be worked out. Or maybe I’m being paranoid.
  9. stance
    standing posture
    Olly’s in fighter stance, fists clenched, feet planted wide and firm.
  10. gingerly
    in a manner marked by extreme care or delicacy
    He straightens up slowly, gingerly, like something hurts, but the pain doesn’t show on his face.
  11. vise
    a holding device attached to a workbench
    My mom’s hand is a vise on my upper arm.
  12. relinquish
    release, as from one's grip
    She relinquishes my arm and lifts my chin.
  13. overwhelm
    overcome, as with emotions or perceptual stimuli
    The enormity of what I’ve done overwhelms me and I’m trembling.
  14. feign
    make believe with the intent to deceive
    Then she leans over and I’m sure she’s going to kiss my forehead like she used to when I was a little girl, but I roll away from her, still feigning sleep.
  15. pantomime
    act out without words but with gestures and bodily movements
    I pantomime excellent health, existential angst, regret, and an enormous sense of loss, all via a single nod.
  16. existential
    relating to or dealing with the state of being
    I pantomime excellent health, existential angst, regret, and an enormous sense of loss, all via a single nod.
  17. nostalgic
    unhappy about being away and longing for familiar things
    We sometimes look through our collection nostalgically, the way other families look through old photos.
  18. despot
    a cruel and oppressive dictator
    My new nurse is an unsmiling despot with a nursing degree.
  19. biased
    favoring one person or side over another
    It’s possible that my view of her is biased.
    All I see when I look at her is how much she’s not Carla. She’s thin where Carla was stout. Her speech is not peppered with Spanish words. She has no accent at all. Compared with Carla, she’s altogether less.
  20. reinstate
    restore to the previous state or rank
    My mom has reinstated my Internet access but only during the school day.
  21. compulsive
    having obsessive habits or irresistible urges
    8:00 AM—3:00 PM — Ignores Nurse Evil. Attends classes. Does homework. Reads. Compulsively checks for IM messages. Reads some more.
  22. obnoxious
    causing disapproval or protest
    Nurse Evil and I settle into a grudging routine where I pretend she doesn’t exist and she leaves ever more obnoxious sticky notes to let me know that she does.
  23. utopia
    ideally perfect state
    He tells me that high school is no utopia, but I’m not convinced.
  24. stifle
    smother or suppress
    I stifle the urge to go back to the window and assess my competition.
  25. angst
    an acute but unspecific feeling of anxiety
    This is why she’s here? Because she thinks I’m lonely? Because she thinks I’m having some sort of teenage angst?
  26. palindrome
    a word or phrase that reads the same backward as forward
    Before him my life was a palindrome—the same forward and backward, like “A man, a plan, a canal. Panama,” or “Madam, I’m Adam.”
  27. begrudge
    allow unwillingly or reluctantly
    How am I supposed to go back to being The Girl Who Reads? Not that I begrudge my life in books. All I know about the world I’ve learned from them. But a description of a tree is not a tree, and a thousand paper kisses will never equal the feel of Olly’s lips against mine.
  28. impervious
    not admitting of passage or capable of being affected
    The second Maddy, the one from the Hawaii photograph? She’s like a god—impervious to cold, famine, disease, natural and man-made disasters. She’s impervious to heartbreak.
  29. unyielding
    resistant to physical force or pressure
    At first he’s frozen, uncertain and unyielding, but then he’s not.
  30. bravado
    a swaggering show of courage
    I’m all bravado. “I’m fine. She’s fine. I’m running away.”
  31. diffuse
    spread out; not concentrated in one place
    He wordlessly turns it on, and it casts a diffuse circle of light around us.
  32. experimental
    of the nature of or undergoing a trial
    “They’re experimental, not FDA-approved. I ordered them online. From Canada.”
  33. obstinate
    refusing to change one's mind or ways; difficult to convince
    When he looks up, it’s a less obstinate Olly staring back at me.
  34. scrutinize
    look at critically or searchingly, or in minute detail
    “Are you kidding?” he asks, scrutinizing my face for evidence that I’m kidding.
  35. levity
    a manner lacking seriousness
    He ignores my attempt at levity. “You’re serious? When did you do this? How? Why?”
  36. hurtle
    move with or as if with a rushing sound
    Olly says we’re not going very fast, but to me we’re hurtling through space.
  37. cryptic
    having a secret or hidden meaning
    Overhead signs with cryptic symbols and writing come and go before I can decipher them.
  38. mundane
    found in the ordinary course of events
    There are brightly lit signs and billboards written only in Korean. Since I can’t read the language, the signs seem like art pieces with beautiful, mysterious forms. Of course, they probably just say things as mundane as Restaurant or Pharmacy or Open 24 Hours.
  39. regret
    feel sad about the loss or absence of
    “You’re not living if you’re not regretting.”
  40. virus
    infectious agent that replicates itself within living hosts
    “Maybe I won’t get sick,” I whisper.
    “That’s right,” she says, and hope spreads through me like a virus.
Created on Thu Aug 24 14:02:23 EDT 2017 (updated Tue Sep 12 17:06:13 EDT 2017)

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