ARC Review: You Were Here

Author: Cori McCarthy

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Edition: eGalley courtesy of Netgalley

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Release Date: March 1st, 2016

Rating: 4 Stars

I received a copy of You Were Here from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!

This is a contemporary novel about a girl who lost her brother a few years ago and is still coming to terms with it.  On the anniversary of his death, she always returns to his favorite haunt with his childhood friend, Mik.  This time, though, an old friend of hers, her friend's boyfriend, and another student, all end up in the same place and discover they need each other to heal from and deal with their individual problems.

The thing that drew me to this book was the fact that it was told, not just with words, but with pictures as well.  Having read Illuminae only a month ago, I was all for another book that played with the idea of multimedia storytelling.  There were a few spreads of graphic novel-esque storytelling, and a few pages of just images, but most of it was told in regular words, and that was all right.  The art was just a nice addition to the whole piece.

At the beginning of the novel I wasn't really taken by the story and was even considering giving it up.  But the main character, Jaycee, and another character, Mik, really intrigued me.  I was curious to see where their story would go, even if the other characters just didn't hit it off with me.  I am so glad I didn't give up on it, though, because after the slow start, everything was amazing!

The characters developed and were all intriguing and the plot, too, went in a direction I was not expecting.  As at the beginning, Jaycee and Mik remained the most important to me, but I did become indebted to all the character's stories by the end.  My heart was torn out, patched together, torn out again, and finally laid to rest by the end of the novel, and I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

My favorite thing, though, is that, central to the plot, was Urban Exploration (aka Urbex).  I love, love, love Urbex!  I don't do it myself (no one to do it with me) but I love to watch the videos on YouTube and I dream to do it someday when I have the time and company.  It was so great to see it on the pages of this novel, too, since I've never seen it in a story before.

Overall, I rather recommend this one.  I would give it five stars if not for the slow start, too.