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A review by jackiehorne
You Were Here by Cory McCarthy
4.0
Four years after the accidental death of daredevil Jake Strangelove on the night of his high school graduation, two teens are still reeling from the trauma: Jake's sister, Jaycee, who has become a razor-tongued loner, and Jaycee's former best friend, uptight control freak Natalie. On each anniversary of her brother's death, Jaycee revisits "The Ridges," a former TB asylum now abandoned building where Jake liked to hang. Jake's former friend, mysterious selective-mute Mik, joins her. But this year, Natalie, her on-again/off-again boyfriend Zach, and Zach's friend Bishop, worried about Jaycee, follow.
The narrative gives us all five characters povs: Jaycee's in the first person; Natalie and Zach's in the third; Mik's via brief graphic novel panels; and Bishop's via the graffiti art he creates during each of the group's trips to revisit different abandoned buildings/sites which Jake had explored. Bishop's was the only one which felt underdeveloped, largely because his trauma was not about Jake, but about a girl who dumped him.
Loved how the stereotypes each of the characters seemingly embodied gradually unfold to reveal nuanced, individual people, all dealing with multiple traumas (with big and little "t"s) in very different, often incompatible ways.
The narrative gives us all five characters povs: Jaycee's in the first person; Natalie and Zach's in the third; Mik's via brief graphic novel panels; and Bishop's via the graffiti art he creates during each of the group's trips to revisit different abandoned buildings/sites which Jake had explored. Bishop's was the only one which felt underdeveloped, largely because his trauma was not about Jake, but about a girl who dumped him.
Loved how the stereotypes each of the characters seemingly embodied gradually unfold to reveal nuanced, individual people, all dealing with multiple traumas (with big and little "t"s) in very different, often incompatible ways.