I Was Here

Author: Gayle Forman
Pages: 270
Published by: Viking Juvenile
Published on: January 27th 2015

Cody and Meg were inseparable. Two peas in a pod. Until . . . they weren’t anymore. When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question. I Was Here is Gayle Forman at her finest, a taut, emotional, and ultimately redemptive story about redefining the meaning of family and finding a way to move forward even in the face of unspeakable loss.

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We all know Gayle Forman right? You know, author of the If I Stay and Just One Day duology? Well, coming from a person who has only read the two books from If I Stay, I Was Here was very different from her other books; I Was Here was mysterious, twisted, and just surprising in general. The plot was so interesting to read and Cody, the main character, is someone I very much enjoy reading from.

The characters in I Was Here were a pretty interesting group of people. I have to say though, there weren't many people that were super important in this book. I could probably count the number on my two hands but they were all really interesting and different in their own ways. Cody was a very different person from the group of characters. She, along with Meg's family, was pretty affected by her death. They didn't see it coming and I think that really brought out a lot of emotion from everyone who was friends with Meg. Cody is someone I would want to be as my best friend. After Meg's death, she had continued to try to figure out why Meg had killed herself and she continued doing so after people told her to let it, to not pry through Meg's personal life. I really liked that, a determined person who won't give up on someone. A thing I also noticed was how secretive Meg was. No one knew or guessed she was going to kill herself and she didn't want anyone to find out that she killed herself for a unusual reason.

The plot was also a very interesting one. The thing that I really liked about this book was how mysterious it was. Since Meg died in a really interesting way, there is nothing but mystery and information to find about her suicide. Cody goes on one of those adventures and I enjoyed the storyline because there was so much mystery. Cody would get a little more information about Meg's suicide and that would keep me reading another few chapters. Obviously, Meg's suicide wasn't all happy rainbows and fluffy unicorns. The more messed up and mysterious the situation was, the more I wanted to read. ;)

I gave this book 4 stars because I love the mysterious plot and the characters that were part of this book. There is one flaw I didn't enjoy (which will not be named!).


Let me say one thing, suicide is not a funny. The fact that these "Final Solution" people were encouraging people to commit suicide sickened me. It was so twisted because Meg had a great life and she could have had more of a great life if it hadn't been for the stupid Bradley. I'm not saying he has the full fault, but damn if I were to go around encouraging everyone who was iffy about committing suicide, too many people would be dead, right then and there. I just hate it even more because suicide is such a  horrible thing. It' so scary to think that what if Bradley's son ended up on the Final Solution message boards, what would happen if Bradley convinced his son to commit suicide?

The thing that brought my rating down was the relationship in this book. I thought the relationship between Ben and Cody was kind of unnecessary. I mean they were both caught in one very controversial situation and they are here screwing each other? Like guys, can we save it for after we face Bradley? Although, I was jumping around like a football fan the morning after they banged and Cody just left Ben at the airport. That was pretty funny. Of course, I'm glad the relationship didn't go on for long and didn't become a key point of the plot, because that would have annoyed me even more.