When You Were Here

June 13, 2013 Uncategorized 0

When You Were Here

Author: Daisy Whitney
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: June 4, 2013
Pages: 272
Source: Borrowed from awesome bookish friends

About the Book: Filled with humor, raw emotion, a strong voice, and a brilliant dog named Sandy Koufax, When You Were Here explores the two most powerful forces known to man-death and love. Daisy Whitney brings her characters to life with a deft touch and resonating authenticity. 

Danny’s mother lost her five-year battle with cancer three weeks before his graduation-the one day that she was hanging on to see.

Now Danny is left alone, with only his memories, his dog, and his heart-breaking ex-girlfriend for company. He doesn’t know how to figure out what to do with her estate, what to say for his Valedictorian speech, let alone how to live or be happy anymore.

When he gets a letter from his mom’s property manager in Tokyo, where she had been going for treatment, it shows a side of his mother he never knew. So, with no other sense of direction, Danny travels to Tokyo to connect with his mother’s memory and make sense of her final months, which seemed filled with more joy than Danny ever knew. There, among the cherry blossoms, temples, and crowds, and with the help of an almost-but-definitely-not Harajuku girl, he begins to see how it may not have been ancient magic or mystical treatment that kept his mother going. Perhaps, the secret of how to live lies in how she died.


My Thoughts:  Okay. I read this book back in December and affected me more than I can say. Even now, months later, I can feel what I felt upon reading the last page. Here’s the brief line I posted on goodreads:

So amazing. Heartbreaking and hopeful and just so, so, so lovely.

And that really sums up this story for me. Everything else I have to say boils down to that.  This book will devastate you. It will break your heart in a million tiny (and some not so tiny) ways. This book will also make you smile. It will make you laugh. And most importantly, it will leave you with hope. 

We meet the main character and before we even learn his name we see how very alone he is in the world. We see how broken he is. We learn so much about him and what he is going through without knowing his name! He could be anyone. I loved this so, so much.  

Other things I loved:
*Danny’s dog, Sandy Koufax. First, he’s just an awesome dog. Second, he is named after Sandy Koufax! Yay for baseball greats!
*The travel! Danny heads to Tokyo to try and figure things out. I loved the descriptions of the people and the places. So cool.
*Danny’s relationship with his sister. 
*Kana. When you meet her you’ll see what I mean.
*Holland. This girl. I want to hug her. Danny has been in love with her forever and the dynamic between them…. killer.
*The way we get to know Danny’s mother through his memories and the people who loved her. I especially liked her friendship with Holland’s mom and the role she continues to play in Danny’s world. 
*Can I just say everything in this book!! 

Seriously, I am so, so, in love with this book. I don’t think I can properly express it. After writing this review I need to read it again. But I’ll make sure I have a whole box if kleenex handy this time.

Giveaway:
I am so in love with this book. I emailed the publisher to tell them how amazing I thought it was and they sent me a copy to giveaway! How awesome are they?!? So, fill out the rafflecopter below to enter to win a hardcover copy of When You Were Here (and a packet of kleenex. I’m just looking out for you.) US only. Must be 13 or older to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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