I Was Here
Gayle Forman, 2015
Penguin Young Readers
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780451471475
Summary
Cody and Meg were inseparable...until they weren’t.
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. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 5, 1970
• Raised—Los Angeles, California, USA
• Education—University of Oregon
• Awards—NAIBA Book of the Year Award; Indie Choice Honor Award; British Fantasy Award
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York
Gayle Forman is an American young adult author who began her career writing for Seventeen Magazine where most of her articles focused on young people and social concerns. Later she became a freelance journalist for publications like Details, Jane, Glamour, The Nation, Elle, and Cosmopolitan.
Writing books
In 2002, Forman and her husband Nick took a trip around the world. From her journeys, she garnered a wealth of experiences and information which later served as a basis for her first book a travelogue You Can't Get There From Here: A Year On The Fringes Of A Shrinking World.
In 2007 she published her first young adult novel Sisters in Sanity which she based on an article she had written for Seventeen.
In 2009, Forman released If I Stay, about a 17 year old girl named Mia who has been involved in a tragic car accident. The novel follows Mia's experience as she lies in a coma fully aware of what is going on around her and everything her visitors say and do. Feeling the agony of loss of those closest to her yet aware of the abounding love of those that remain, she must make the choice to hang on or let go. Forman won the 2009 NAIBA Book of the Year Awards and is a 2010 Indie Choice Honor Award winner for If I Stay. The film adaptation of, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, was released in 2014. The sequel, Where She Went, was released in 2011. Told from Adam's point of view, the novel is about Adam and Mia's relationship after the accident.
In 2013, Forman released Just One Day. The novel follows Allyson Healey, who, on the last day of a post-graduation European tour, meets a Dutch vagabond actor named Willem. In an uncharacteristic, spur-of-the moment decision, Allyson goes to Paris with Willem, which leads to "a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life." The sequel, titled Just One Year, was also released in 2013. That novel follows the same chronological path as Allyson's story, but told from the perspective of Willem. The final installment of Allyson and Willem's story, Just One Night, is a 50-page novella released in ebook format in 2014.
Forman's other notable literary awards include the British Fantasy Award (2010), an ALA/YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers (2010), South Carolina Book Award Nominee for Young Adult Book Award (2011), TAYSHAS High School Reading List (2010), Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2009), Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2010).
Gayle resides in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and two daughters. At the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Forman participated in panel discussions. She was on the panel “Young Adult Fiction: Teens and Turmoil” with Jandy Nelson, Cynthia Kadohata and moderator Sonya Sones.
Books
2005 - You Can't Get There from Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World
2007 - Sisters in Sanity
2009 - If I Stay
2011 - Where She Went
2013 - Just One Day
2013 - Just One Year
2014 - Just One Night
2015 - I Was Here
(Author bio from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/20/2015.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) [A]n introspective examination of the line between life and death... Beyond exploring Cody’s grief, this psychologically incisive book delves into her complex relationships with Tricia, her single mother; Meg’s more conventional family; and, most profoundly, the boy who stole and wounded Meg’s heart shortly before her death (ages 14–up).
Publishers Weekly
Cody struggles to figure out why Meg took her own life.... The distraught but determined teen begins to encrypt files on Meg's laptop.... As she goes further down the rabbit hole, Cody comes to the realization that she needs to forgive Meg, and, more importantly, herself (Gr 9-up). —Suanne B. Roush, formerly at Osceola High School, Seminole, FL
Library Journal
This novel’s strength lies in its depiction of main character Cody, a young woman torn by conflicts but sustained by her own sense of purpose. Another selling point is the novel’s investigation of teen suicide, which even when fictional is a perpetually troubling phenomenon.... [H]ighly psychological and will probably especially appeal to girls (ages 11 to 18.) —Laura Woodruff
VOYA
Part tautly paced mystery, part psychological study of suicide and its aftereffects.... An engrossing and provocative look at the devastating finality of suicide, survivor's guilt, the complicated nature of responsibility and even the role of the Internet in life-and-death decisions (age 14-up).
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
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