I Was Here
Ratings23
Average rating3.6
15
Reviewed
- I am a fan of Gayle Forman's writing and most of her books.
2. This was a book for book club and it sealed the deal that I hate book clubs and I won't participate again unless it's a book I really want to read.
3. I really really dislike contemporaries and especially contemporaries such as this.
My biggest gripe with this book is that in book club these were all adults reading these books and giving thoughts and opinions on suicide as adults. This book is ya/NA and mostly YA. I came to know Gayle Forman as a YA writer. With that said, it is not far fetched to believe many of the readers will be young and impressionable. My issues with contemporaries is that they bring awareness to a certain issue or topic but instead of bringing some type of resolution or giving folks perhaps going through this a way out/hope, it instead glorifies the issue/topic and in my eyes gives individuals info on where to find what they need to go ahead and reach their objective.
As someone who has worked with youth, I want them to be hopeful, I want them to realize that there are people are out there that really do love them and care for them and want to see them win. I want the youth to be able to reach out if they are struggling. I want them to realize there is no shame in the hardships they are facing and experiencing and that they should feel like they can reach out for help.
The adults I read this with were of the mindset that people should be able to decide their own destiny and make that decision to take their lives if they should feel they need to. I guarantee you if these people were their kids they would have a totally different mindset. They don't realize that this book was not written for us. It was written for much younger folks who on a regular experience things with so much intensity that you don't realize until much much later in life that some of those things were intense but others were not so much. I'm not of the school of thought to minimize the experience of anyone, at any age. I'm of the school of thought that I should let folks feel what they feel but hold their hand, give a different perspective and hold their hand knowing they are not alone and that this will be rode out. Hopefully with a positive outcome when all is said and done.
I didn't even feel a connection with the child that took her life. I didn't understand why she took her life. It felt more out of curiosity. Like it was done just to see if it could be done.
This just all didn't sit well with me. I normally don't pick up books like these and you can take my review with a grain of salt. I won't hate on you for that.