The Beginning of Everything

Ezra is the protagonist of the story. He is tall, with dark curls, blue eyes, and a “slightly cleft chin” (42). College-age Ezra is the narrator. Looking back on his high school experience, he depicts his 17-year-old self as a cocky, athletic, popular high school student with good grades who is dating the most popular girl in school without much thought. He lives comfortably with his parents in a gated community in California with his loyal poodle, Cooper. His life is uneventful until the car crash, after which Ezra loses all sense of who he is. Physically, he is changed forever, needing to use a cane and limping because of his damaged knee. As he tries to accept his new reality, Ezra falls in love with a complicated girl, Cassidy, who, along with his new friend group, opens his eyes to a world of adventure and education of which he had been unaware. Ezra is intelligent, sociable, and witty, finding humor in most situations, even tragic ones. This book is Ezra’s coming-of-age story, in which tragedy and love help him discover who is really is: a kind, driven, nonjudgmental young man who is determined not to “just exist” but to live his life to the fullest (335).