You Were Here - Cori McCarthy

Title: You Were Here
Author: Cori McCarthy
Genre: YA
Rating: 4.5
# pages: 400
Date read: January, 2016

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.


This book caused ALL THE FEELS!!! I was a bit skeptical at first, as I wasn't sure how the format would work - being told part in prose, part as a graphic novel, and part through poetry - but it totally worked, and left me feeling completely emotionally exhausted near the end.

Jaycee is still reeling, trying to come to terms with the grief, anger and horror of having seen her brother die five years ago. Her parents aren't much better, and her primary reaction is to lash out at everybody.

But this summer - the last summer between high school and college - her old friends (and one new) once again attempt to reach out to her, and for whatever reason, she allows them to. Together they try to walk in Jake's footsteps, to understand him better... and along the line, get to understand themselves better as well.

A wonderful YA/coming-of-age novel that I didn't think would work, but totally did. It was heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time, but most importantly, it was true. Cori McCarthy grasped the emotions of teenagers perfectly, and was able to portray them in a way that didn't seem cloying, but instead reminded the reader of what it was like to be 18 and only just trying to find your feet in a grown-up world.

Time and Time Again - Ben Elton

Title: Time and Time Again
Author: Ben Elton
Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 464
Date read: January 2016

It's the 1st of June 1914 and Hugh Stanton, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be.

Stanton knows that a great and terrible war is coming. A collective suicidal madness that will destroy European civilization and bring misery to millions in the century to come. He knows this because, for him, that century is already history.

Somehow he must change that history. He must prevent the war. A war that will begin with a single bullet. But can a single bullet truly corrupt an entire century?

And, if so, could another single bullet save it?


Fascinating book! Time-travel always appeals to me, and Ben Elton managed to deliver a book somewhat similar to "11/22/63" by Stephen King, but with twists and turns that were entirely its own.

It took a few chapters to get into it, but once I did I loved it and couldn't put it down! Some of the twists I had not seen coming, which always pleases me.

As often happens in time-travel novels (at least those set within our own universe), the ending at first glance seemed slightly depressing - but once I started thinking about it, it really couldn't have ended any other way.