ARC #Review: HISTORY IS ALL YOU LEFT ME by Adam Silvera

HISTORY IS ALL YOU LEFT ME

Author: Adam Silvera
Series: N/A
Source: ARC via B&N
Publisher: Soho Teen
Publication Date: January 17, 2017
Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Summary:
When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course.

To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin’s downward spiral continues. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart.

If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.

Purchase:

Amazon | Chapters | TBD

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book and chose to review it. This in no way impacts my opinion.

I feel like this is one of those books that is hard to not like but at the same time I wasn't over the moon about it? I liked the plot, the pacing, the way the story was told via flashbacks, but I wasn't a fan of the characters at all. I'm definitely in the minority even though I definitely enjoyed it because I don't think this is one that I would recommend to everyone like I do with some other books. It does make me more interested in reading MORE HAPPY THAN NOT because I liked the writing style and the overall storytelling which I hope will translate into every book that Silvera writes.

I thought the characters were realistically written in the sense that I could understand their motives and interests, etc. but they were never that compelling to me. Sure I cried a couple times, but I am a *crier* so that doesn't surprise me. I was mostly surprised that I didn't cry more? I felt like while there was an emotional tether to the book, there wasn't one to the individual characters but rather to their situation as a whole. I'm not sure if that makes any sense, to be honest, but I feel like I enjoyed the book as a whole but not individual aspects of it.

As a whole, I really enjoyed this book, but individually I did not care for some aspects of it. I think the little dig at bisexual people, even if "explained" through Griffin's perspective, didn't really sit well for me and since that was at the beginning it impacted how I viewed the rest of the book. I also wasn't a fan of the "conflict" that Jackson and his friend had because of her reasoning behind why you can't understand just based on social media what people are going through. I am over the trope that was included in there and thought the same emphasis and explanation could have been given with different reasons. However, I did like the depiction of OCD and thought that it was interesting to see how each character handled Griffin's tendencies. I liked that this book had LGBTQ+ rep and mental illness rep that felt natural.

These were just a couple things but I felt like they really impacted my reading of the book. So while there is a good story here, I was not a fan of some of the individual characteristics of it. As well, the characters were really well developed, but didn't quite strike a cord with me. I think I was more affected by the story because I've had something similar happen rather than being able to connect with the characters and experience their pain and emotions. If you want to read this one, you will most likely enjoy it. However, I would recommend checking it out from the library before purchasing a copy for yourself.