“I Was Here” Book Review

Gayle Forman is a skilled author who writes fictional books that feel very real. Every single book deals with incredibly deep topics, subjects, and emotions that teens and adults alike feel. Her book “I Was Here” deals with suicide and how those around the person who died deal with their absence. In the book, Meg Garcia commits suicide, leaving her best friend Cody spiraling. Her death makes no sense to Cody as Meg had never once hinted that she was depressed or even a little sad. 

Meg’s parents ask Cody to go to her dorm and collect all of her belongings, and while she is there, she realizes just how little she knew about her best friend. Cody meets many people while she is in Seattle, one of them being Ben, a boy that Meg was involved with. Their relationship was messy and did not end on a good note, so Cody assumes that Ben is a bad guy and she should not hang out with him, however, when he offers to take the kittens that Meg left behind, she softens a little. 

Cody decides to dig into Meg’s death and discovers that she was a part of an online suicide support group, a group that is pro-suicide. She goes down a rabbit hole trying to find the person who convinced Meg to do it and she eventually finds him. Cody then convinces Ben to go on a road trip with her to Las Vegas to confront the guy. They have several bumps on the trip and end up detouring to California, but eventually, they make it to Vegas. The confrontation does not go well and Cody ends up flying back home, leaving Ben to make the 24-hour drive back home by himself. 

After Cody gets home, she tells the Garcias everything she found out. They knew about the platform Meg was involved with because of the police report, but they thank Cody anyway. They also tell her that Meg had clinical depression and that she had her first episode in tenth grade. Cody believed that it was Mono because that is what Meg and the Garcias had told her. Cody realizes just how little she knew about Meg and all the little pieces of the puzzle finally click into place.

Forman’s book is a very insightful telling of a girl dealing with the loss of a friend and depression. I would rate it five out of five stars. Forman is a journalist and author who often loosely bases her stories on real-life incidents. This book was based on a girl who was a happy, bright, and loving girl to everyone she knew, but she dealt with clinical depression and ended up committing suicide. Forman interviewed all the girl’s friends and family after she passed and they all told her that the girl was a happy, sweet girl who struggled with a mental illness.

 Forman’s book serves as a gentle warning that not everyone that looks okay is okay, and sometimes those that appear the happiest are the ones hurting the most.