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A review by jaxyway
You Were Here by Cory McCarthy
5.0
LOVED. IT.
Please note: This title was provided to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review, courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher.
Let me back up -- I strongly disliked You Were Here at first. I hated the main character right off the bat what with her ridiculous death wish, and her shallow, shitty "friends". However, a New Year resolution of mine forced me to press on, and give it a chance without abandoning it around the 25% mark, and boy, am I glad I did.
I'm pretty sure I'm in love with Ryan Mikivikious (Mik) and his selective mutism (which, I should add, annoyed me greatly in the earlier chapters, and later consumed me with a hunger for this motherfucker to speak. When he did, my life felt complete.)
Also -- this was big for me -- the setting for the last quarter of the novel was my old stomping grounds: NE Ohio, specifically the abandoned Randall Park mall (which I've frequented), and the defunct amusement park, Geauga Lake, which I frequented a lot throughout my childhood, and well into adulthood. The rides they discuss, I've ridden. The nostalgia was strong with this novel.
Fans of emotional YA reads are going to gobble this one up; those that have been to Geauga Lake are going to love it.
For more on Geauga Lake, and its current state of neglect, click here (2:14 YouTube video, news broadcast from 2013)
For a drone flyover of Geauga Lake from 2014, click here (4:38 YouTube video)
Please note: This title was provided to me free of charge in exchange for an honest review, courtesy of Netgalley and the publisher.
Let me back up -- I strongly disliked You Were Here at first. I hated the main character right off the bat what with her ridiculous death wish, and her shallow, shitty "friends". However, a New Year resolution of mine forced me to press on, and give it a chance without abandoning it around the 25% mark, and boy, am I glad I did.
I'm pretty sure I'm in love with Ryan Mikivikious (Mik) and his selective mutism (which, I should add, annoyed me greatly in the earlier chapters, and later consumed me with a hunger for this motherfucker to speak. When he did, my life felt complete.)
Also -- this was big for me -- the setting for the last quarter of the novel was my old stomping grounds: NE Ohio, specifically the abandoned Randall Park mall (which I've frequented), and the defunct amusement park, Geauga Lake, which I frequented a lot throughout my childhood, and well into adulthood. The rides they discuss, I've ridden. The nostalgia was strong with this novel.
Fans of emotional YA reads are going to gobble this one up; those that have been to Geauga Lake are going to love it.
For more on Geauga Lake, and its current state of neglect, click here (2:14 YouTube video, news broadcast from 2013)
For a drone flyover of Geauga Lake from 2014, click here (4:38 YouTube video)