{BLOG TOUR} Review: I Was Here by Gayle Forman

Title: I Was Here
Author: Gayle Forman
Publication: January 29th 2015, Simon and Schuster UK
Format: ARC
Source: Dianne of Oops I Read A Book Again! (Thanks Dianne! Special thanks to Michelle of Michelle The Escapist)
Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Book Store / Fully Booked (PH)

SYNOPSIS:

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.

Misfit Review:

I was initially scared to read this book. It was because it talks about suicide. And at that time, I was vulnerable and would find every sad book, tear worthy. With I Was Here, I cried, I wondered and I understood...somehow.

The story begins with Cody receiving an email from her best friend, Meg, who she hasn't seen in a very long time since she started college. It was a suicide note, sent to her days after her said suicide. Cody begins to question everything around her friend's death-dorm-mates, a guy she has been seeing. She has also started to wonder what has going on through Meg's head and why, out of all people, she wasn't aware of anything at all. Things start to take shape as Cody discovers secrets that Meg has been hiding from everyone. And she might need to risk her life to find out what those secrets are.

I Was Here is a mixture of drama and mystery but essentially, Cody's frustration about why it seemed like Meg didn't value her friendship with her. She wonders all throughout the book why her friend did what she did and why she had decided to not tell her what was going on with her. Cody is a likable character as I went through the pages. She's inquisitive and headstrong, however, she does end up clouding her thoughts with jealousy; of why she wasn't told and that people who only met her for such a short amount of time could know so much that she doesn't. Cody is complex but that doesn't hide the fact that she is vulnerable. 

Another character who has showed vulnerability is Ben McCallister, who is a total hottie with a bit of a douchie personality at first, but we draw out a layer of him that we do not know and end up knowing how much of a sweetheart and loyal friend he is. He has a good role in how the story progresses too. Putting a bit of a scene of getting cozy with Ben though kinda through me a tad off. I don't know if it's the theme or it just worked itself on there out. But what I do know, is that Ben, is a great support net. 

Meg's family showed courage throughout the whole process, but you can feel their pain. Reading parts with them in it, hurt me. It was as if I am seeing how my parents would react in a situation like this.

The other characters of the story serve purpose as well in Cody's search for the truth, especially Harry Kang. Oh Harry Kang, I wish there was more of you than the trusted, genius I.T. guy. Maybe in another dimension. Some of the other characters seem to have been put under a blanket after certain pieces that they could offer were extracted, like Tree, whose character I was interested in. Again, in another dimension.

What's so amazing about this new offering from Gayle Forman is the element of mystery that shrouds everyone in this veil that you need to turn over in order to unmask what's under. As a reader, you don't exactly know who to trust. A person comes in, and immediately you think they might know something more, or maybe may even be the reason for Meg's death. Right then and there, we are given the situation, we are given the conflict and we are pulled to go into this quest.

And that's where my problem goes, is when Cody (and myself) reach the part where we get the answer, and I don't know what to feel about it. Empty? Outraged? Confused? Maybe.  But what I do know from reading psychology books and having to take courses is that that's how some people go through with the truth of someone they care deeply's demise. A black hole that sucks up all emotion and leaves someone numb. I've never experienced an extremely tragic loss of a friend or someone I care about through suicide, but I do believe, I felt all of these feelings as I read the book. It somehow gave me an idea of how it will be and how it will pan out if I lose them to it, if I don't get to help. It also made me think, "WHAT ABOUT ME?" 

I don't know if I did not like how it ended or it's just the feeling I get in my gut that I feel I am left with regret, that I could never do anything about it, if I put myself in Cody's shoes. 

I'm sorry if I'm all chatty now, but Gayle Forman just gives me a lot of feelings and revisiting the thoughts of reading the book, definitely opened up some holes. She's just an amazing, inspiring writer, who weaves such heartbreaking stories and fragile characters. However this, to me, is not Gayle's best. But it does send out a wonderful, superb message of holding on to people you love and never letting them go into that darkness. It also serves as a countermeasure for anything that may happen in the future, and I know, as someone who suffers from depression, this book has given me a lot to think about and I think not along Meg's route.

I Was Here is a book that leaves its readers vulnerable and aware of the pains of losing someone and to the challenges of moving on and I think this will be a hit to book lovers everywhere!

Follow the blog tour till February 4th, with reviews from other book bloggers of Pinoy Book Tours! Thank you so much Misfit booknerds!

About The Author:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Gayle Forman is an award-winning author and journalist whose articles have appeared in such publications as Jane, Seventeen, Glamour, Elle, and The New York Times Magazine, to name just a few. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.

ARC Review: Random by Tom Leveen

Title: Random
Author: Tom Leveen
Publication: Simon and Schuster Books For Young Readers
Format: e-ARC, 221 pages
Source: Edelweiss (Thanks so much to the publisher!)
Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | Kobo

SYNOPSIS:

Who's the real victim here? This tense and gripping exploration of cyberbullying and teen suicide is perfect for fans of Before I Fall and Thirteen Reasons Why.

Late at night Tori receives a random phone call. It's a wrong number. But the caller seems to want to talk, so she stays on the line.
He asks for a single thing—one reason not to kill himself.

The request plunges her into confusion. Because if this random caller actually does what he plans, he'll be the second person connected to Tori to take his own life. And the first just might land her in jail. After her Facebook page became Exhibit A in a tragic national news story about cyberbullying, Tori can't help but suspect the caller is a fraud. But what if he’s not? Her words alone may hold the power of life or death.

With the clock ticking, Tori has little time to save a stranger—and maybe redeem herself—leading to a startling conclusion that changes everything…

Misfit Review: 

As you may have noticed, it took sometime before I got back into blogging again. Some of you might think that it was because of school, but it was actually because I was depressed. I'll talk about that in another post. But yeah, I had no motivation to read and Random was a book that I was almost finished with but was too depressed to continue reading. And I should tell you, it's not a book you should read whilst on one.

"The complete randomness of it was the whole point."

Random starts with Tori Hershberger frantic about the next day's trial. She is to be seen in court after what happened with her "friend" Kevin Cooper. She was one of those deemed guilty of Kevin's suicide and Tori is nervous that things won't go well for her. But as she tries to go to sleep, she receives a phone call from a guy named Andy saying that he dialed a random number and wants to kill himself because he has no more reason to live. It's up to Tori to negotiate with Andy into not killing himself because she doesn't want to be blamed for another death.

"Nice, he says."See, that's what I meant. There's nobody anywhere who givesa shit about anybody else. That is exactly my point. This isn't about me, Tori. It's about everybody. Everybody screwing everybody else over and--god, fuck this!"

The story was started nicely, cryptic yet loose. Andy felt like the guy I would rather not talk to because he was so aggressive and demanding. But in any way, I liked that he brought some charm into the story with his dark humor and common sense. He made the story shine. Tori on the other hand was just incredibly annoying to me, which may be what Leveen was trying to achieve with her character but also may be for the fact that she's so gullible and naive. 16 year olds. You sometimes can't blame them for not getting the whole picture. Tori, however, was determined to not let Andy die and I liked that about her though Andy did have a point that she may be doing it only for herself but I noticed a sort of attachment that she had with Andy in the couple of hours that they talked.

I really, really loved the theme of the story which is online bullying. There's this video by Ryan Higa on Youtube that I watched which talked about cyber bullying and how one should not feel anything about it. You can easily just shut it off, deactivate your social media accounts and it's okay. But if you are bullied outside of the virtual world, it does indeed take a toll on you. Kevin was being harassed online by some jocks and popular girls and Tori wanted to be part of something bigger in her senior year which lead her to tease her friend in the process of getting a nod from those people. It made me sick. But teenagers do succumb to peer pressure and Tori was a symbol of the negativity that high school has which is the awful bantering and the discrimination. The harder part of it was that Kevin was going through a difficult time because he was already diagnosed with depression.

But Kevin Cooper had had enough.

Which brings me to my point how difficult it was to read it at the time that I just wasn't okay with myself. It was okay to take in jokes but it was much harder to stomach it in when you can't seem to get that it was actually a "joke". And Tori in her denial and innocent state believes that she had done nothing wrong and that she is innocent. Andy makes it a point for her to see the bigger picture and go face facts. Again, kudos to Leveen for such an upfront yet caring character like Andy. Though there were times I felt like I wouldn't like him, I actually did. Oh yeah! Jack! Jack is the true hero of this story by the way. LOL.

I felt in the first parts like the story was dragged a bit too long with Tori and Andy on the phone, Tori pleading, etc. But then it allowed for different emotions and twists to open up. The twists are the ones to look forward to. I kind of had a OMG moment around a few pages to the end and I liked it.

I chose the simplest. "Bye, Kevin."

Tom Leveen allowed me to be frustrated and hateful of his characters but also made me realize that the struggle is real and that it is okay to hate them as long as there is a reason behind it. It's my feeling. He brought out such diverse characters, with polarizing personalities that made the story work. I honestly thought I'd hate the story mid-way but it definitely delivered. His style is not so ordinary, with Facebook posts and comments part of the story but it also plays around subtlety and hard-hitting moments that you would see in any book about suicide. His characters just made it so worth it!

Random is a book that teaches that even when we do have the freedom to say anything we like, there's always a casualty that comes with it. And it may be something you have to pay for.

About the Author:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Tom Leveen has 22 years of theatre experience as an actor and director. He was the Artistic Director and a co-founder of two companies: Chyro Arts Venue, an all-ages nonprofit visual and performing venue; and Is What It Is Theatre, a community theatre that operated for 13 seasons. Tom lives with is wife and son in the Phoenix area. PARTY was his first novel, followed by ZERO (a 2013 YALSA Best Book) and MANICPIXIEDREAMGIRL, all with Random House. His fourth novel, SICK, a YA horror, will be released in Fall 2013 from Abrams/Amulet.


Remember to check out my review archives which has all the books I've reviewed as well as some of the books you'd expect I will review very soon! This will help you check out book reviews easier. :) YAAAAY! For all the love and support, thank you Misfit Booknerds for everything!