Everything You and I Could Have Been If We Weren't You and I by Albert Espinosa

My edition: Kindle edition
First published: 2010 originally, translated into English 2015
Pages: 203
Source: Penguin and NetGalley, thank you for providing me with the book in exchange for an honest review

Can you imagine a future where everyone has given up sleeping? From the creator of the television series Red Band Society and author of the international bestseller The Yellow World comes this uniquely special novel. What if I could reveal your secrets with just a glance? And what if I could feel with your heart just by looking at you? And what if –in a single moment– I could know that we were made for each other? Marcos has just lost his mother, a famous dancer who taught him everything, and he decides that his world can never be the same without her. Just as he is about to make a radical change, a phone call turns his world upside down.

Thoughts: Modern with a dystopian edge, Everything You and I Could Have Been explores the good and evil nature of mankind, with a caution to those who try to control it.

Throughout Everything You and I Could Have Been, the protagonist (Marcos) decides to stop sleeping with the help of a newly invented drug. In a debate with himself as to whether he should or he shouldn’t take the drug, Marcos reflects on his recently deceased mother, who emphasizes to him what she has discovered to be the three main elements of life: childhood, sex, and death.

Indeed, the three components of childhood, sex, and death make up the novel’s themes and quickly the concept of ‘never sleeping’ is discarded. Because of this, my liking of the novel didn’t stretch far. Everything You and I Could Have Been had a truly unique plot and the dystopian concept had a lot of promise, but the lack of coherence in the plot really disappointed me.

Another issue I found with this novel was the lack of character dimension, especially with Marcos who remained flat and unlikeable all the way until the end. Marcos’s mother plays a huge, and perhaps unwanted, part in this novel to the point where I felt I knew her more than I knew Marcos himself. There is a huge contrast made by Marcos’s mother before she dies between good versus bad, art versus science. I enjoyed reading her thoughts on the matter, however, Marcos’s mother’s openness with her son creates both interesting and bizarre flashbacks throughout the novel, some of which ultimately left me feeling quite uncomfortable.

I believe Everything You and I Could Have Been is a translated book and thus, perhaps it is better read in it’s original language (Spanish). Although the synopsis engaged me, I personally wouldn’t recommend this novel.

My rating: ★★½