My review of I Was Here

I Was Here by Gayle Forman

Release Date: January 29, 2015

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This characteristically powerful novel follows eighteen-year-old Cody Reynolds in the months following her best friend's shocking suicide.

As Cody numbly searches for answers as to why Meg took her own life, she begins a journey of self-discovery which takes her to a terrifying precipice, and forces her to question not only her relationship with the Meg she thought she knew, but her own understanding of life, love, death and forgiveness. 

I Was Here left me feeling underwhelmed. I was expecting a lot more than what this book had to offer especially from the author of such stunning and memorable books like If I Stay and Where She Went. I started reading with high expectations and the thought that this book will leave an impression on me like the previous books had. However after giving the story a good go I could just feel my engagement slipping away and feel the boredom creeping in.

The story is about a girl called Cody who loses her best friend Meg. Meg committed suicide leaving nothing but one last scheduled email and Cody can't figure out why she couldn't see the signs. Therefore she embarks on an investigation to find out what led Meg to take such extreme actions. It all sounds quite interesting and exciting, right? Well for me that wasn't the case. The main character built up the personality of her friend as "one of a kind", "unique", basically someone that you would be lucky to have known, but I didn't really feel any of this coming through. The voice of Cody felt dull and unconvincing. It led to me not being able to engage with her and her memory of Meg.

Overall, I now don't remember clearly what I was expecting from this book, but whatever this was wasn't it. I know this story won't stay in my mind for very long and I would preferably like to forget about it. Gayle Forman is a very good writer and this shows in her previous books including Just One Day and Just One Year, this story just simply was not for me. The characters were not for me. And the whole journey of the novel wasn't for me. 

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