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    I Was Here
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    I Was Here
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    I Was Here
    Audiobook7 hours

    I Was Here

    Written by Gayle Forman

    Narrated by Jorjeana Marie

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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, and some secrets of his own. 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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 27, 2015
    ISBN9780553556094
    Unavailable
    I Was Here
    Author

    Gayle Forman

    Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman has written several bestselling novels for children and adults, including Not Nothing, the Just One series, and the number one New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than forty languages and in 2014 was adapted into a major motion picture. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her family.

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    Reviews for I Was Here

    3.5/5

    219 ratings31 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Good YA, about suicide and aftermath.
    • 4/5
      This is a book about youth suicide. For that reason, I think the author felt an obligation to leave the reader on a positive note. The overall impression of the book for me, however, was that it was romance, complete with unrealistically 'happy' ending. Reality would be somewhat different, I think. Certainly I was emotionally involved in this story at times, and there were lots of aspects of Cody's response to her friend's suicide that I thought were well presented and very believable, but the ending weakened the overall impression of the book for me. I listened to this as an audiobook while I did boring stair-climbing exercise and it made the half-hour exercise time go quickly, so that's got to be a recommendation.
    • 4/5
      Really liked.
    • 4/5
      Hmmmm. Hmmmmmmmm. Hard to review this one. On the one hand, the subject matter was timely and interesting and the relationship between Cody and Ben was Gayle-Forman-swoon at its finest. But something about it didn't grab me like If I Stay or Just One Day/Year/Night. Was it Cody herself? Was it the creepily in-depth description of ways to commit suicide? Maybe a bit of both. Maybe partly also that I just didn't feel like Cody and Meg were as close as the book needed for them to have been for the plot to work.

      That said, I especially enjoyed the secondary characters. Harry, Alice, Tree (!) and especially Richard all first appeared like stereotypes but as Cody spent more time with them, we got to see their layers. I think my favourite parts were the scenes with Cody working with Harry -- throwback nostalgia to in Just One Day how Allyson and her BFF (what's his name??? Loved him) worked to track down Willem.

      So ultimately I'm glad I read this, but I don't think it's got the re-read potential of basically every other Gayle Forman book.
    • 5/5
      One day Cody receives a email from her best friend, Megan. The message is a suicide note, and by the time Cody receives the message, there is nothing she can do.

      This book tells Cody's journey to discovering forgiveness toward herself for not knowing that Meg was hurting so much, and for not being able to help her. She was her best friend, she should have known, right? It is also a story that tells Cody's journey to discovering forgiveness toward Meg, for not telling her, for not letting her help her, and most of all, for leaving her behind, alone.

      This book is an emotional roller coaster...
    • 4/5
      Good book

      Not as gut wrenching as If I Stay. This book is also about surviving loss, but differently.
    • 4/5
      This book left me feeling sad the same way that watching one of my favorite love-stories on a day I need to cry does. It's the kind of sadness that echoes up through my heart and throat, leaving me more melancholic the more I think about it. The heartbreaking portrayal of a young woman left behind by her best friends death, attempting to make some sense out of the tragedy, makes me feel as though Meg was my best friend and I am now dealing with what Cody discovers. This was a great read, but not one that will make you feel better about the world.
    • 3/5
      When Cody's best friend Meg commits suicide, Cody must face up to the fact that she didn't know Meg as well as she thought she did. Sure that there are things nobody is telling her, she sets out on a quest to discover the truth about Meg's death. Along the way she meets, and is ineluctably drawn to, Ben McAllister, Meg's last boyfriend, who may know more than he's letting on.Ugh. I'm fine with the whole quest aspect of the book, but the romance between Cody and Ben set my teeth on edge the whole way through. I found it weird and creepy, and it kind of ruined the book for me.I listened to this on audiobook, and the aspects specifically relating to the audio production (narration, sound quality, etc.) were fine -- not outstanding, but they did not detract from the story.
    • 5/5
      Loved this book and I listened to it all in one night! If you are looking for a good book on getting over a very good friends suicide than this might be for you! I would recommend this book for 8th grade- 12th if you are pondering putting this one in your classroom!
    • 5/5
      Captivating story of a girls search to understand her best friends suicide, such depth of character!
    • 4/5
      I will always be a dyed-in-the-wool lover of everything Gayle writes. While I didn't feel this story as personally or emotionally as her two series before it, it was still an amazing growth through a death and surprise that I had never truly expected. I loved the awkwardness of the main character. The love story was a little too expected and odd for me, but I loved all the formed friendships and the different images of how family is family is family.
    • 2/5
      Meg has committed suicide leaving Cody, her best friend, behind, bewildered, and burdened. I Was Here is Cody's journey to figure out why Meg did what she did. Along the way, Cody meets new people and makes a new life for herself, one where she is the sun and not the satellite.

      I gave this two stars because I didn't really care about any of the characters. I forced myself to finish it.
    • 2/5
      I just couldn't get into this story at all. I felt no connection. I believe many will feel the emotional aspects and love it, but it isn't for me.
    • 4/5
      To read the full review, CLICK ME!


      I tried to write a eulogy for that service. I did. I pulled out the disc Meg had burned of firefly songs for inspiration. The third one up was the Bishop Allen track "Fireflies." I don't know if I had ever really listened to the words before, because when I did now, they were like a smack from the grave: It says you can still forgive her. And she will forgive you back.

      Suicide is a sensitive, difficult subject to write about and only a handful of authors can pull it off successfully. Gayle Forman took suicide and showed just how badly the aftermath affects those close to the victim, and how a victim isn't always in control. Meg and Cody's friendship was strong and indestructible, and being left behind is something Cody struggles to cope with. Not only that, but the fact that her best friend had never let on how bad things had gotten for her forces Cody's hunt for answers. What really happened to her best friend?

      Full review to feature on 100% Rock!

      Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
    • 3/5
      I was warned beforehand that this new book of Forman's wasn't as good as her previous books. But it wasn't as bad as I was beginning to think it might be. It's a tough subject, depression. And especially in this case, how depression affects those around the person effected by the illness. I guess the problem I had with this book in the end was that I didn't really like Cody all that much. But other than that it was a pretty solid story and read.
    • 5/5
      The best thing about this book is how well it portrays working class people in small towns. There are lots of other great things about it, the characters, the music scene, college life, but nothing sold me like the reality of having to luck into bus times. And the kittens.

      Library copy
    • 1/5
      2/3 of this book is about suicide. In the epilogue Forman discusses the need for someone suffering from depression to seek help, but if someone is suffering from depression, they might not finish the book before seeking to end their own life.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed this book, but it didn't wow me. I liked Cody, liked the love interest, enjoyed the mystery of finding out what lead to Meg's decision to kill herself...but something just fell kind of flat. The search for All_BS ends up being kind of a let down rather than a climax, which I suppose is the point. I just didn't find myself feeling all that strongly for any of the characters. A lot of things were hinted at before being blatantly spelled out for the reader anyway, and parts just felt kind of heavy-handed.

      I didn't hate it, I just didn't love it all that much, which was disappointing as I'm such a fan of her other books.
    • 5/5
      Cody and Meg were best friends since they were young children. Meg's family were Cody's lifeline. She grew up in a fatherless household with a single mother with little maternal skills. Cody spent so much of her life with Meg and Meg's family, they treated her as one of their own and the two of them made plans to go to college together, but then Cody didn't have the money to go with Meg, and they were separated. What do you do when your other half Isn't there anymore? How can you be yourself on your own? Cody is angry inside and pulls away from Meg, not visiting, having huge gaps in keeping in touch. And then Meg is gone, really gone. But Meg wouldn't kill herself, would she? Cody feels guilt, she should have kept in touch better and she should have visited her and now she's gone and there aren't any more chances. Cody sets out on a mission, a mission to find out what had happened, what made her want to die and go through with it. With Information from her friends and then Meg's computer she finds out about Meg's involvement with a suicide support group, only it's a group to support your decision to die. Still looking for someone to blame, she digs further. I especially liked the sermon Richard's father gave about forgiveness. I think it applied to Cody as well as a lesson to the rest of us. As simple as the words may seem, forgiveness is something we all need to give, more for ourselves than for who we are forgiving. I really enjoyed being on Cody's journey with her, with that little bit of romance thrown in as Cody lets a crack break through that hard shell she had createdGreat book!!
    • 5/5
      Really 4 1/2 stars but more enjoyable than anything I've read so far in 2015.
    • 4/5
      "The day after Meg died, I received this letter."This is the opening sentence of Gayle Forman's I Was Here, and it is the premise from which the entire novel spins. The narrator, Cody, was Meg's best friend, but now Meg is dead. Meg committed suicide, and Cody never saw it coming.I Was Here is the story of Cody's search for the truth, the story of how guilt and grief can bring people together and tear them apart. Cody must figure out who she is without her best friend, and how to go on.Forman handles a difficult topic with finesse and understanding, and creates a cast of characters the reader can't help but get invested in.
    • 2/5
      Cody's best friend Meg commits suicide and Cody had NO idea that Meg was feeling desperate and depressed. The book is a bit of a mystery because Cody, while helping Meg's parents by retrieving the contents of Meg's university room, finds a few clues that lead her to try to figure out what was going on with her friend. I found the book super sad which given the content isn't surprising, but I also wouldn't recommend it for my middle school readers due to the language. Think it's one I'll be passing along to our high school.
    • 4/5
      A heartfelt story of a friend struggling to understand her lifelong best friend's suicide. Cody's journey to attempt to understand why Meg took her own life leads her deep into her best friend's world, where she meet her eclectic roommates, the boyfriend things didn't work out with, and the friends who had no idea of the dark thoughts going through Meg's head. A sad tale, but one that teaches Cody has much about herself as it does about Meg. Good reading, but be prepared for the serious subject matter.
    • 3/5
      I WAS HEREGAYLE FORMANMY RATING ⭐️⭐️⭐️▫️▫️PUBLISHERPenguin Random House Audio PUBLISHEDJanuary 27, 2015SUMMARY"I regret to inform you I have had to take my own life. This decision has been a long time in coming. It was mine alone to make…" Cody, Joe, Sue, and the Tacoma Police Department all received this email the day after Meg drank industrial strength cleaner. She did it in a hotel room in Tacoma, leaving a note and a $50 tip for the hotel staff who found her body. Meg was a 19 years old, bright, beautiful, non-conformist college student.Cody was her best friend. Or at least had been. They've known each other since kindergarten. But they hadn't talked much recently. Cody was left behind when Meg went of to college. Cody was in shock over Meg's death. Were there warning signs? How could she not know? Why didn't Meg not tell her she was hurting? Joe and Sue, Meg's parents ask Cody to go to Tacoma to clean out Meg's college dorm room. While there she meets Meg's roommates, Alice, Richard and Harry. She discovers there was a lot of things that Meg never shared. Cody also meets Ben, a guitar player in a band at one of Meg's favorite bars. She discovered Ben also knew Meg, in fact, they had had a relationship of some sort. Cody wanted to find out more. Was Megs relationship with Ben the cause of her suicide? Was it Ben's fault?When Cody gets a hold of Meg's computer she finds out so much more about Meg's death. She had to do something about it. REVIEWThis was the first Gayle Forman book I have read. The writing was good. The story was also good although slow in some parts. The story is about suicide, a difficult topic to read about, probably hard to write about as well. I really appreciate the Forman's authors note at the end of the of the book. It relayed while this was the work of fiction, it was inspired by what had happen to Susie Gonzales a 19-year-old suffering from depression. She committed suicide. I think Forman handled the topic very well. She allowed us to understand who Meg was, and the devastation of all those she left behind.Cody is the protagonist and a very interesting character. She stayed behind as Meg went off to college. She goes to the local community college and cleans houses. She has no other good friends but Meg. As the story progresses Cody finds strength and rises above her fear. She bravely, although unadvisedly, faces the issues of Megs death head on. Her goal was to find whoever was responsible, to find the reason, the cause. Her character was strong in the face adversity and grief. In addition to suicide and grief the story addresses-the meaning of friendship, the definition of family, and most importantly, the secrets that we all tend to keep in fear of being judged. These secrets cause far more damage than they protect. The audio version of this book was very well read by Jorjeana Marie.
    • 4/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: Gayle Forman impressed me with her heart-wrenching story of loss, regret, and forgiveness.Opening Sentence: The day after Meg died, I received this letter.The Review:Cody and Meg were best friends. They were as close as two people could be. But when Meg ends up dead in a hotel room, having swallowed a poison and commuted suicide, Cody did not see it coming. In I Was Here, Meg is suddenly gone from the world, and Cody is left to deal with the aftermath her passing creates. Not only does she find the boy that seems to have tipped Meg over the edge, she finds an encrypted file on her computer, something she meant to trash but didn’t work. When they discover what is in the file, things will change and truths will be revealed, but is Cody prepared?The main character in I Was Here was Cody, which is an odd girl’s name, but fit all the same. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about her. I didn’t feel close or connected to her plight and she seemed sort of empty, detached. As the story went on, it got easier to feel engaged in her emotions and her walls went down. I began to enjoy her as a character, her very realistic flaws and strengths that made her seem more relatable. The story became better for me and closer to home. I was also impressed with how well I felt I knew Meg even though I never actually met her character. (You know, since she was dead). Through flashbacks and private jokes and history, Meg’s personality became clear. I missed her as much as Cody did and we grieved together.Ben, hmm. At first I did not see him as a love interest, and I couldn’t really fathom how that would work out. He seemed too rough around the edges to end up with Cody, though apparently I was wrong. As I Was Here progressed he became warmer and easier to read, and I saw the chemistry that seemed to spark between the two. Something I am glad that Forman doesn’t do, I must say, is insta-love. When characters fall for each other at first sight, it can be cute, but it’s also annoying and unrealistic. The plot suddenly takes a drop into cheesiness. Though Cody did acknowledge Ben’s attractiveness she never even thought of betraying Meg until, well, she did. That was something else I liked, how even though Meg wasn’t around anymore, Cody stayed loyal to her. Something I will say about Cody and Ben was though they did seem to fit together, sometimes they would say things that came on super fast. I have a certain part in mind when I write this. However, though it was unexpected it was super duper cute and I smiled and squeeled a little.And now the ultimate question: do I think Gayle Forman is as good as she was made out to be? Well, Gayle Forman is an amazing writer. No one can deny that. She can slip meaning into sentences that would have otherwise been irrevalent. She can make a dead girl seem entirely alive with memories and flashbacks. She can formulate characters so real that you just want to hug them and say, yes, it will be okay. Symbols were rich in this novel, as were hidden meanings and implications. This may be one of the most well-written contemporary I’ve ever read. However, is it my favorite? No, Anna and the French Kiss is, then The Fault in Our Stars, and here is why. I felt that when the most important scenes came up, the ones you want to sink in and the ones that make you feel the most emotional, they were somewhat rushed. Maybe not rushed, perhaps quick. When the whole book has led up to this explosive finale of the romance, or the forgiveness, or the realization, then I want a big focus on it. I want a huge spotlight that makes it seem like it lasts a longer time. For me, a few of the most valuable scenes felt very brief, though they were dense with meaning.That being said, I really did enjoy this book. It was beautiful and sad and haunted me days after. It isn’t a five star because I felt like those important scenes had come short to my expectations, but don’t take that to mean it doesn’t deserve a read. I loved the characters, who were unique but relatable and had realistic problems like money. I love the cover the contrast of the yellow over that beautiful landscape scene and a girl with windblown hair. I loved Forman’s play on the aftermath of suicide, the way it breaks people. But I also loved that she showed that healing is possible. That forgiveness is. In the end, though this is an extremely sad story, I think its main message is that we can let go, we can forgive. From Allegiant: “We can heal each other.” That summed up the book pretty well in my opinion. I hadn’t previously read If I Stay or Just One Day before opening up this one, but as I’d heard such amazing things, I had high expectations. Gayle Forman, for the most part, fulfilled my expectations. I have the highest respect for her books and writing. If you get the chance, you should check out I Was Here!Notable Scene:“Meg Garcia,” I repeat. It’s had to look in his eyes now, but in the last month, I’ve become an expert at hard things. “Know her?”“Who are you?” His eyes are burning with something, a kind of fury, and they make the irises icy. They don’t seem like contacts anymore.“Or did you just screw her, and screw her over?”FTC Advisory: PenguinTeen provided me with a copy of I Was Here in a giveaway. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
    • 4/5
      This is a look at what happens when someone’s best friend commits suicide and the friend had no idea it was even a consideration.Cody Reynolds, 18, learns her long-time BFF, Meg Garcia, has committed suicide. Lately they had grown apart; Meg went off to the University of the Cascades on a scholarship. The girls had planned to go together to the University of Washington in Seattle, but Meg couldn’t turn down the full ride to the Cascades, and Cody could barely afford UW.Meg’s parents, who have always been like family to Cody, ask Cody to go to Meg’s apartment and pack up her room in the house she has been sharing. Meg agrees, and when she gets there, finds more questions than answers. Not only had Meg just gotten two kittens (which would seem to indicate she didn’t intend to kill herself), but her computer had a whole time block of missing emails, and an encrypted file on it as well.Meg sets out to investigate, and learns she didn’t know her best friend as well as she thought. Nor does she really know anyone she meets; full of anger and grief and guilt, she is quick to make snap judgments, dismissing Meg’s housemates, and assuming the guy that Meg was crushing on and rejected her was the cause of Meg’s despondency. But as Cody pursues her quest into what happened to Meg, she learns not everything is as it seems on the surface; some of it is much better, and some of it is much worse. She, and everyone who were a part of Meg’s life, have to struggle with forgiveness of themselves, and decide whether they will focus on betrayal, or benediction. Discussion: In an author’s note at the end of the book, Forman relates how the character of Meg was inspired by a suicide victim she “met” while researching an article on suicide. She talks about what studies reveal about suicide, and provides a number of resources about risk factors, warning signs, survivor groups, etc.Evaluation: There are both good and bad things about this book. The story the book tells is worth reading for a number of reasons, but Cody is hard to like. She is bitter, cynical, and self-centered; she had an I-love-you-but-I’m-jealous-of-you relationship with her BFF; and she acts totally ungrateful and ungracious toward Meg’s parents. When Cody meets someone who turns into a romantic interest, it is hard to see what this guy sees in her, and why he drops everything when she calls, in spite of her treatment of him.Nevertheless, Forman is a popular author and can bring awareness to teens of issues that are very important. I would say the good outweighs the bad.
    • 3/5
      Meg and Cody have been inseparable since kindergarten, so when Cody gets Meg’s suicide email she has no idea what to think. They were supposed to know everything about each other, so why did Cody have absolutely no idea Meg was in this much pain? When she is asked to pack up Meg’s things at her college apartment, she stumbles upon an encrypted file Meg failed to delete off her laptop. Once Cody is able to open the file, she becomes obsessed with figuring out what all the documents inside mean and what role, if any, they had in Meg’s suicide.This deals with some pretty heavy topics—depression and suicide—but ultimately this is a story about forgiveness. Cody is angry and lost after Meg’s suicide. She feels responsible and guilty because she wasn’t there for Meg during her lowest, but she also feels betrayed and doesn’t know how to forgive Meg for leaving her. She becomes obsessed with finding someone to blame because she does not believe that her beautiful, amazing, full-of-life best friend could have consciously chosen to end her own life. She discovers a lot about Meg she didn’t previously know and understands that in order to move on from this she must not only forgive Meg, but she has to forgive herself as well.Cody and Ben fell flat for me as characters and so did their romance. There are brief moments where they connect and bond and whatever, but they spend more time apart and not talking/fighting then falling in love (at least in my opinion). I just didn’t feel the chemistry that is so common in all of Forman’s other books with these two. But falling in love really isn’t the focal point of this story so I guess that’s why the romance didn’t have to be as well developed.I will read anything Gayle Forman writes because I absolutely loved If I Stay/Where She Went and Just One Day/Just One Year. All of her books are different but what stays constant is how emotionally gripping they are. I think I might have started this with my expectations set a bit too high because, although I liked the book I didn’t think it was amazing. I didn’t connect as much with these characters and this story as I have with all her other books.
    • 2/5
      Even trying to explain why I absolutely disliked this book makes me very very sad.If I Stay, Where She Went, Just One Day, Just One Year, Just One Night, I loved ALL these books by Gayle Forman. All of them. But this book? Nothing.I guess I went into this book expecting something completely heartbreaking, but beautifully written, and thought-provoking regardless. But I got exactly the opposite.We start this book with Cody, who just recently lost her best friend Meg via suicide. Cody is an empty shell. She is depressed, confused, and angry. I wanted to feel for her, I really did. I wanted to feel as heartbroken as she did. But I didn’t. I felt annoyed. Annoyed at Cody because she was so mean. Because she pushed everyone away and acted as if she was the only one who had lost Meg. As if no one’s pain could ever compare to hers.Not to mention, Cody does some completely dangerous and stupid things to "get closure". I wanted to punch her throughout the book. Cody felt absolutely no regard to her mother, or to Meg's parent's, or frankly to anyone who actually cared about her in her selfish attemps to get closure. That made me dislike Cody even more.There was much more tell than show in this book, with us never really seeing why Meg was so important. We never really feel her and Cody’s bond, so as a result everything just felt… detached. I never felt as part of the story, so I could never really form an emotional connection to it.The romance was absolutely horrible. I didn’t like it . I thought it was a romance formed for all the wrong reasons. They never quite clicked with each other, and it just seemed like a bad choice all around.The story’s only saving grace was the audiobook narration. The narrator is wonderful. I loved that she actually made Cody sound “alive”. The narrator knew how to make each character distinguishable, and her voice made the story flow much easier.Overall, this book was a miss with me. Maybe if you haven’t already read other Gayle Forman books, you’ll really enjoy this one. Or maybe not. I can’t be sure.
    • 2/5
      Something to Note: This book deals with some difficult situations so be prepared diving in. The Characters: Cody is one of the characters I thought I was really going to enjoy, but I wasn’t really that fond of her. I know going through the loss that she went through must be so difficult. I have lost someone to suicide, a family member, but not a friend and I know that would be a totally different feeling. But, the way she went about some things were just not what I expected. She seemed so upset over the passing of Meg, but then when something else came up it seems like Meg was a complete side thought. Throughout the book Cody tried to do things to figure out Meg’s death to the fullest, and I got the vibe from her that she was kind of just doing it so she could get more attention. I don’t know how to explain all of it other than I didn’t find her very genuine.Ben is the guy that Meg was very head over heels for…he is the bad boy in the story. He has a background that isn’t the best, but to me that doesn’t justify his actions. He does take a big part in finding out what happened with Meg and I think that was shown throughout the book–but not to the best. Ben could have been a part of this book a lot more than he was. I really enjoyed his character and I think he kept growing, but the author kind of just left him to the side at times.Scottie is Meg’s little brother and let me tell you–this kid is a genius. He isn’t blind to what’s going on around him even though so many people try to hide the truth. He helps Cody with discovering things and to me his is the person who made this book worth it. He isn’t in the book that much, but each page that he was put a smile on my face. Scottie is just someone who is wise for his years.The other side characters in this book were all wonderful. I honestly enjoyed them more than the main. All of Meg’s friends from where she went to college were just awesome and I enjoyed each of them very much. If they did a side story of their (the new friends) life in college without Cody – I would be all for it. My Thoughts: Going into this book I thought I was going to absolutely love it, but it fell a little short for me. This was my first Gayle Forman book so maybe my hopes were a little too high.Like I stated above the main character just didn’t do it for me. That’s honestly the main reason why I gave this book a 2.5…but, the side characters are actually what upped the rating for me. If it weren’t for them I may have actually DNF’d this book (that would have been my first time doing that, too). I love stories with hard topics-the interest me so much more for some reason. Therefore, I was so very thrilled to dive into this book.I feel like suicide, which was obviously presented in this book, wasn’t well represented. Not because it was false or the facts weren’t there I just don’t think it was talked about enough. Throughout the book I honestly forgot about what happened to Meg and when someone commits suicide, you usually don’t forget it so quickly. I felt that this book was too focused on Cody and her trying to find what exactly happened. I get that she wanted closure, but I don’t think she did it exactly for that. She was too focused on herself and not Meg and her family. One Line Wrap Up: A tough subject that was covered up by the main characters self pity, but brought to life by a young boy. Recommend to the lovers of: A contemporary novel dealing with tough issues.
    • 5/5
      This book deals with the sensitive subject of suicide and delves into the even more sensitive subject of the role of on-line chat rooms that not only encourage a person to commit this act, but also provides information as to how to do so. Cody’s best friend Meg commits suicide in a hotel room after ingesting poison. Her family and friends, especially Cody, are devastated. Cody, unable to accept the fact that it ultimately was Meg’s decision, embarks on a quest to look into all of the factors that led to this decision. Her co-detective is Ben, a musician and former one-night stand of Meg’s. It is a compelling read as to how depression, too often hidden, plays a major factor in many people’s decisions to end their lives.