You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

Cori McCarthy delivers an emotionally taut page-turner from multiple points of view – combined with stunning illustrations. 
 
Jaycee is about to accomplish what her older brother Jake couldn't: live past graduation.
Jaycee is dealing with her brother's death the only way she can – by re-creating Jake's daredevil stunts. The ones that got him killed. She's not crazy, okay? She just doesn't have a whole lot of respect for staying alive.
Jaycee doesn't expect to have help on her insane quest to remember Jake. But she's joined by a group of unlikely friends – all with their own reasons for completing the dares and their own brand of dysfunction: the uptight, ex-best friend, the heartbroken poet, the slacker with Peter Pan syndrome, and... Mik. He doesn't talk, but somehow still challenges Jayce to do the unthinkable-reveal the parts of herself that she buried with her brother.
Cori McCarthy's gripping narrative defies expectation, moving seamlessly from prose to graphic novel panels and word art poetry, perfect for fans of E. Lockhart, Jennier Niven, and Jandy Nelson. From the petrifying ruins of an insane asylum to the skeletal remains of the world's largest amusement park, You Were Here takes you on an unforgettable journey of friendship, heartbreak and inevitable change. @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

 5 STARS 

Jaycee's brother Jake was a daredevil, always taking dares and doing crazy stunts. One horrific day, right after he graduated high school... that one dare.... ended his life. You know there are a lot of people that do stunts and things that are dangerous in their lives but in this story, which is I'm sure very true all over the world, you have kids that are drunk and dare each other to do stupid things.



Jaycee walks around with her brother's clothes on, taking dares, acting out. People are afraid of her and her crazy behavior, she never really went through the grieving process.

Jaycee's old friends and some new ones come together to try to get through things as a group, to help Jaycee and to help one another. Each one of these kids have secrets and they will be revealed and they will get through them, together.

--->EXCERPT<---

"Natalie was my best friend from preschool through seventh grade," Jaycee said to Bishop.
"You wouldn't've guessed it, would you?"
Natalie poked Jaycee in the shoulder. "I was the only one who put up with how you let whatever's in your head fall out of your mouth."
"And I put up with you turning forty on your eighth birthday."
They narrowed their eyes on each other.

There is a lot of stupidity going on within this group, but I still liked them. I wanted to smack a few of them several times, but you know, that's okay, I feel that way a lot with characters in books. These characters still got to me and I fell in love with the whole story line.

The little group consists of Jaycee, Mik, Natalie, Bishop and Zach. They all go on little journey's together that Jaycee's brother had on a map she found. Also, Jaycee and Mik have a secret crush on each other that comes out in the book in a very crazy/sweet way. I loved Mik's character the most. Zach and Natalie were on and off, they have a weird thing going and Bishop is the one with a broken heart from another girl. Some of them have some mental issues that they have to deal with and no one else knows about. I felt sorry for a lot of them.

But to be honest, I would have loved to have gone to all of the places they visited.....BUT...not for all of the reasons they did, I mean no death in the family or friend or anything.

Jaycee, Jake, Mik and Natalie pretty much grew up together. The boys being around 5 years older.

--->EXCERPT<---

"Oh, we were not. Jake and him"-Natalie pointed to Mik-"were doing that. Jaycee and I were in the middle of a controlled reenactment of the discovery of King Tut's tomb-which had taken us weeks to prepare, I might add-when Jake got the brilliant idea to fill the pumpkin with gasoline and try to shoot a flaming arrow at it. So I tattled. That's right, I tattled, and we're all still alive, so you're welcome." She realized what she'd said way too late. "Well, not all of us, but..." She glanced at Jaycee and was stunned to find her beaming.
"I'd completely forgotten about the gasoline. Think about the explosion!"
"King Tut? Flaming arrows? I wish I grew up with you guys," Bishop said.

These kids have to go through some really sad revelations, share secrets they have kept and that have put some of them into therapy for a few years. They have to confess and try to forgive.

There was just something about this book that I really loved and it's already on my Amazon Wishlist. The book has graphics inside too and I want to see those in the real book! It's just too cool.

Also, at the end of the book the author talks about the places in the book, they were/are real! She says to google them and some of the places are still open to the public! I would love to see them. All of them even though some are no longer there. I'm going to list pictures of the ones she mentions.

*I would like to thank NETGALLEY and SOURCEBOOKS for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.*

↓ This was The Ridges TB Ward that was torn to the ground. The kids in the book are running around in this building, well not running per se!


↓ This was the Randall Park Mall, the kids in the book went sneaking into, and one of them got hurt.


↓ This was The Geauga Lake Amusement Park the kids sneaked into as well. You can still see The Big Dipper in the background, they climb on this in the book and some other things are found when they are there. The author worked here as a zombie, she said it was her first job :-) How cool!



↓ This is The Moonville Tunnel that you can still visit today!



↓ And last but not least, this is the Gates of Hell that you can still visit today.



You can google all of these things to read about them and I thank the author for adding this information for us.

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1533806752

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1492617040?keywords=you%20were%20here&qid=1454624637&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1